White lines snake across a jet-black surface between a Moroccan fountain, Chinese palm trees and a giant Japanese octopus slide - this is Den Sorte Plads (The Black Market), the middle section of Superkilen, the celebrated public park that cuts 750 metres through Outer Norrebro in Copenhagen. Bounded by Mimersgade, Midgardsgade and Slejpnersgade, the black square was conceived as the neighbourhood's "urban living room": the classic meeting square of the three-part park, furnished with barbecue grills, benches and chess tables under the palms. Superkilen opened on 22 June 2012, designed by the artist group Superflex with Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and German landscape architects Topotek1 for the City of Copenhagen and Realdania. Its famous premise was "extreme public participation": residents of one of Denmark's most diverse districts - some 60 nationalities - nominated street furniture and objects from their home countries, and around a hundred items from almost as many nations were imported or reproduced: a Kazakh bus stop, a Thai boxing ring, swings from Baghdad, neon signs, even soil from Palestine, spread across the Red Square, the Black Market and the Green Park. The result collected global design awards and steady streams of architecture tourists, while also drawing local debate about noise, upkeep and whether a "museum of objects" doubles well as an everyday park. Either way the black square has become one of Copenhagen's most photographed urban spaces - the dynamic line pattern was designed to be seen from above and turns skateboarders, cyclists and pedestrians into part of the artwork. Norrebro station and the Mjolnerparken quarter border the park, and Distortion and other festivals regularly wash through. The catalogue of imported objects reads like a world fair: alongside the fountain, palms and octopus stand a Kazakh bus shelter, Brazilian benches, circular swings from Baghdad, a Qatari dentist's sign, the Spanish Osborne bull and a Jamaican sound system, each labelled with origin. Project teams travelled to Palestine, Spain, Thailand, Texas and Jamaica to fetch nominated pieces, and the local governance board made the final selection - participation pushed further than in any comparable Danish urban project of its time.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Mimersgade, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2200

Opening Date: 22/06/2012

Outdoor Area