A series of viewpoints clad in charred-timber shingles have been perched throughout the largest nature park in Copenhagen by Danish studios LYTT Architecture and ADEPT.
Located along a stretch of coastline east of the capital city, the 35-square-kilometre Amager Nature Park contains a mix of wetlands, marshes and areas of forest.
LYTT Architecture and ADEPT have introduced a winding wooden boardwalk throughout the park that is dotted with viewpoints and elevated above ground to minimise disruption to the landscape.
“The design elements draw upon existing landscape qualities by adding a layer of experiences in a new framework for more diverse and inviting nature activities,” said LYTT Architecture project lead Catrine Hancke.
“One of the main design goals is to ensure that experience and protection supplement each other, so that the untouched nature remains intact when existing and new users engage themselves in the visitor experience,” she told Dezeen.
The studios were commissioned by Copenhagen Municipality and the Danish Nature Agency to “re-think the park’s identity”, with LYTT Architecture acting as lead consultant and landscape architect and ADEPT as the architect of a new series of viewpoint buildings.
The boardwalk provides an accessible route across the park, connecting a series of viewpoints that have each been designed to respond to the varied landscape conditions.
Along the water’s edge, triangular gazebo-like shelters are accompanied by small piers and a terraced deck, providing areas for bathers and boats.
In the central wetland area, a birdwatching tower rises 16 metres above the ground to survey the landscape, while to the east another pavilion marks the transition from Amager Nature Park to the nearby city.
All of these viewpoints feature steeply angled roofs and are clad entirely with black shingles made of charred timber, chosen to reference the natural surroundings while also standing out to visitors.
“We wanted the visitor points to stand out but also clearly experienced as in balance with its surroundings, subtle yet with a strong identity,” added ADEPT architect Camilla Klingenberg.
“The individual building designs are founded in the same architectural vocabulary with visible wooden structures, distinctive and tall roof shapes and dark-burnt shingles that clearly mark a place in the landscape without disturbing the experience of it,” she told Dezeen.
Other viewpoints recently featured on Dezeen include a hyperboloid observation tower in a Swedish nature reserve by White Arkitekter and a treetop walkway accessible to “all nature lovers” in Norway by EFFEKT.
The photography is by Morten Aagaard Krogh.
