The urban park of Superkilen in Copenhagen is not a place designed by or specifically for teenage girls. What it is though is a space designed by arts collective Superflex to be inclusive. And so, perhaps unsurprisingly, it ends up offering a lot of what teenage girls want.
It has playful places and huge swings and shelters with seating scattered in different places across the whole area.
What’s more, the entire space feels safe and peopled. The park has been put together from a long strip of land, with a bike track and path running through the middle of it like a spine.
And so there aren’t any dark corners or dodgy feeling spots. Everywhere has pedestrians and cyclists – so many cyclists because this is Denmark and they have got their urban transport sorted – passing through.
The lighting has also been really well thought out; it’s more than just practical but part of the attraction.
There’s something for everyone – a skateboard space, where the local youth club runs a pop up serving hot chocolate twice a week, play areas and games tables for older people - as well as free to use barbeques.
This may sound like a slightly idiosyncratic mix of stuff, but it's meant to be this way. Superkilen is in an area called Nørrebro, which has in the past been home to a wide range of immigrant communities but is now becoming gentrified. Only with many more bicycles than this would involve in the UK.
So Superkilen is designed to celebrate refugees and immigration. Almost every feature of the park has been taken from a different country. The giant swings are from Kabul, the shelters from Russia and Armenia, while the slides come from India.
There’s a full list of where everything came from if you’re interested. Britain, you will be pleased to hear is represented by a belisha beacon and an inordinate number of litter bins.
But some things were adapted from the original, including what is perhaps the highlight of the park for teenage girls, which are based on a prototype from Baghdad, improvised by international forces after the war. And it’s perfect. Social seating, meet swings.
