Refshaleoen Copenhagen 20130420 002 (9664289959)

Refshaleøen is a former industrial site in the harbor of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

originally on a separate island but now annexed to the larger island of Amager. For more than a hundred years, it was home to the shipyard

Burmeister & Wain Burmeister & Wain was a large established Danish shipyard and leading diesel engine producer headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded by two Danes and an Englishman, its earliest roots stretch back to 1846. Over its 150-year history, it g ...

which closed in 1996.

History

In 1624, a block house was built on the original island, then much smaller, to guard the entrance to Copenhagen harbor together with St. Ann's Fortress (now Kastellet) on the coast just north of city. Reclamation increased the size of the island considerably in the 1870s when the port's waterways were made deeper.

established a shipyard on the island in 1871. At its height, the shipyard employed 8,000 people, and so appears as an icon of Danish industrial history.

Current use

Since the shipyard's bankruptcy in 1996, the area has undergone significant changes. The abandoned buildings are now home to a mixture of creative entrepreneurs, small craft, flea markets, storage facilities and cultural and recreational uses. The residents include the theater Asterions Hus, the restaurant AMASS, opened by Mathew Orlando, former head chef at

Noma Noma, NoMa, or NOMA may refer to: Places * NoMa, the area North of Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., US ** NoMa–Gallaudet U station, on Washington Metro * Noma, Florida, US * NOMA, Manchester, a redevelopment in England * Noma Distric ...

, the art gallery

YARD The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0 ...

and the creative community Skabelonloftet. Since April 2011 there are again boats at the old shipyard, as Copenhagen Yacht Services opened the first Danish yacht garage on the island - an indoor Marina for motorboats on the American model. The volunteer spaceflight organization

Copenhagen Suborbitals Copenhagen Suborbitals is an amateur, crowd-funded, and open-source human space program. Since its beginning in 2008, Copenhagen Suborbitals has flown five home-built rockets and two mock-up space capsules. Their stated goal is to have one of th ...

also operates on the former island. Since May 2018 Refshaleøen is the location of Northern Europe's largest street food market Reffen with 40 different restaurant and food startups selected every three years.

Redevelopment

Refshaleøen is today owned by the property company Ejendomsselskabet Refshaleøen A/S, owned by the four pension funds Sampension,

PKA PKA may refer to: * Professionally known as: ** Pen name ** Stage persona * p''K''a, the symbol for the acid dissociation constant at logarithmic scale * Protein kinase A, a class of cAMP-dependent enzymes * Pi Kappa Alpha, the North-American s ...

, PFA and Lønmodtagernes Dyrtidsfond. The site's surface area is approx. 500,000 m². In 2013, it entered into a collaboration with the energy company SE Big Blue and the Energy Academy on the island of

Samsø Samsø (Anglicized: "Samso" or "Samsoe") is a Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 3,724 inhabitants (2017) (January 2010:4,010) called ''Samsings'' and is 114&nb ...

, planning a climate-friendly neighbourhood.

Events

Refshaleøen is frequently used as a venue for events and festivals. Since 2010, the area has played host to the heavy metal festival Copenhell annually in June, the Final Party of the Copenhagen Distortion festival week, the electronic music festival EDM 2013, Scandinavian Reggae Festival, MAD Symposium, Refshaleøen Music Festival and Asteroiden theatre festival. On 2 September 2013,

Danmarks Radio DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enter ...

(DR) announced that the

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest. Organised by the European B ...

would take place at

B&W Hallerne B&W Hallerne (English: ''The B&W Halls'') is a former industrial complex located on the island of Refshaleøen, Copenhagen, Refshaleøen in Copenhagen, Denmark. Built in the early 1960s by Burmeister & Wain, the complex consists of two large halls ...

. The surrounding area was transformed into ''Eurovision Island'', an

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

-style complex which housed amenities and the press centre for the entirety of the contest. Barbadian singer-songwriter Rihanna performed on the island in 2016 during her Anti World Tour.

References

External links