Public Air Copenhagen

Actar, Energy and sustainability, Essay, Frans Drewniak, Imminent Urban Commons, Middle Density, Philippe Rahm, Territory and mobility, Urban Paradigms

Acoustics, Air, Air quality, Architecture&climate, Architecture&environment, Bicycle, Climate, Climate control, Contamination, Copenhagen, Denmark, Environment, Essay, Future Commoning Cities, Gas emissions, Imminent Commons, Moving, Pollution, Public conditions, Seoul Biennale 2017, Sustainability, Transportation

Supported by The Danish Arts Foundation & Dreyers Fond.

The “Public Air” project for the City of Copenhagen aims to rethink the formal and technological heritage of the twentieth century in favor of new physiological criteria, to mitigate the air and noise pollution brought on by automobiles and industrial processes. To this end, cycling has recently become very popular in Copenhagen, despite the city’s vehicle-centric design and materials. Consequently, cyclists in Copenhagen share the roads with cars, a result of twentieth-century urban planning. Further, the physical exertion necessary for riding a bike causes bicyclists to breathe deeper, inhaling the air pollution given off by automobiles. Because it is both socially and politically impossible to ban the use of cars in the city, the City of Copenhagen has recently proposed a “Green Bike Network” to be developed in the near future.