Copenhagen's 3 Contemporary buildings represent a city that has become one of Europe's most closely watched architectural laboratories. Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt's Mountain Dwellings redefined what residential architecture could look like: apartments stacked as cascading terraces with a parking structure underneath, the whole building functioning as an artificial hillside with rooftop gardens.
COBE Architects' Tingbjerg Library and Culture House inserts a cultural institution into a 1960s housing estate, using warm materials and human-scaled spaces to create a new social anchor. Studio Olafur Eliasson's Cirkelbroen — the Circle Bridge — composes a pedestrian crossing from overlapping circular platforms that slow walkers into a winding, contemplative path. All three share Copenhagen's defining architectural commitment: buildings that create new kinds of public life.
