As the coolest kid on the Scandi block, Copenhagen has it ail: good looks, smarts and influence that far exceeds its size. Where else can you dive straight into a once-polluted inner-city harbour, ski down an eco-friendly power plant or cycle across a ‘Circle Bridge’ designed by art-world superstar Olafur Eliasson? While not short on cobbled streets and fairy-tale palaces, Denmark's capital is a metropolis of the future – a clean, green marvel of electric-powered ferries and cutting-edge architecture as striking as it is sustainable.
This year is a big one for Copenhagen. In January, it kicked off its three-year term as the UNESCO-UIA ‘World Capital of Architecture’. To celebrate, the city is serving up a bumper programme of special events, including talks, tours and exhibitions, many of them hosted, an interactive survey of Danish architecture from Viking times to the present. It's a fitting addition to a city that has given the world architectural design deities such as Modernist Arne Jacobsen and of-the-moment star Bjarke Ingels. The works of both are featured on the free DAC app, which offers themed self-guided tours of Copenhagen's most fascinating buildings. Among these are Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint's ecclesiastical masterpiece Grundtvigs church, Schmidt Hammer Lassen's showstopping ‘Black Diamond’ Royal Library extension and 3XN's shimmering, whirlpool-inspired Den Blå Planet aquarium.
