Town Plans in Place and Time - Extension planning and conservation in the 1909 Copenhagen International Competition

A wealth of innovations and urban representations have accumulated through town planning competitions. Such contests have also mediated social ethos and professional practice to respond to pressures for change of the built environment. Presenting a detailed record of the competition for the extension of the capital city of Denmark, this book explores the many different approaches to cope with the temporal character of urban change. In doing so the book throws new light on the Civic Art stream of design in Europe that echoed with the National Romantic movement in Denmark.

The first section is devoted to the 31 participants who present a fair cross section of the professional milieu in the Nordic countries, and especially examines the contribution of the German surveyors to planning. The examination of the graphic documents submitted for the competition forms the basis of the second part, which analyses how conservation, landscaping and city architectonic issues are handled by the different entries. Colour plans and drawings are reproduced and commented. Finally Hélène Vacher examines alternative values underlying conservation lobbies and activities competing for the historicity or the enhancement of the ‘old city’ emerging as the core of Great Copenhagen.

Seeking to show how town planning competitions can be investigated as a narrative of urban history, this book is aimed at those with an interest in planning history, urban geography, conservation in terms of planning, environmental, social and cultural policy, professionalisation in planning, as well as at those with a general interest in the city of Copenhagen.