BLOX / Danish Architecture Center
10 Bryghusgade, Copenhagen, København K, 1473, Denmark
When Rem Koolhaas and OMA designed BLOX, they described it as "an inhabited infrastructure knot" — which is exactly the kind of thing architects say when they know a building is going to be controversial.
Copenhagen Opera House
10 Ekvipagemestervej, Copenhagen, København K, 1438, Denmark
The Copenhagen Opera House was a gift — but the kind of gift that comes with strings attached, a controlling donor, and enough drama to fill several operas.
Designmuseum Danmark
68 Bredgade, Copenhagen, København K, 1260, Denmark
The museum that tells the story of Danish design is housed in a building that is itself one of the finest examples of Danish architecture.
Freetown Christiania
Copenhagen, København K, Denmark
In 1971, a group of squatters broke into an abandoned military barracks on Christianshavn and declared it a free town.
Kødbyen
Flæsketorvet, Copenhagen, København V, 1711, Denmark
Copenhagen's Meatpacking District is one of the few gentrification stories in Europe where the butchers are still around.
Kongens Nytorv & Charlottenborg
1 Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, København K, 1050, Denmark
Kongens Nytorv — the King's New Square — was carved out of the eastern edge of old Copenhagen in 1670 by Christian V as the grandest public space in the city.
National Museum of Denmark
10 Ny Vestergade, Copenhagen, København K, 1471, Denmark
Denmark's largest museum of cultural history is housed in the Prince's Palace, a Rococo masterpiece designed by Nicolai Eigtved and built between 1743 and 1744 as the residence of Crown Prince Frederik, later King Frederik V.
Paper Island (Papirøen)
Trangravsvej 14, 1436 København K
Paper Island — Papirøen in Danish — earned its name from decades as the storage site for Copenhagen's major newspapers.
Reffen Street Food
Refshalevej 167A, 1432 København K
For over a century, Refshaleøen was home to the Burmeister & Wain shipyard, one of the largest in Europe, churning out everything from cargo vessels to diesel engines.
Strøget
Strøget, 1100 København K
On November 17, 1962, Copenhagen did something that was considered borderline insane at the time: it closed one of its busiest city-centre streets to cars.
Superkilen
Nørrebrogade 210, 2200 København N
Before 2012, Nørrebro was Copenhagen's most troubled neighbourhood — ethnically diverse, economically disadvantaged, and scarred by gang violence and the 2006 riots triggered by controversial newspaper cartoons.
Tivoli Gardens
Vesterbrogade 3, 1630 København V
Georg Carstensen talked King Christian VIII into granting him a charter for an amusement park in 1843 with a line that belongs in a political textbook: "When the people are amusing themselves, they do not think about politics.
Torvehallerne
Frederiksborggade 21, 1360 København K
For decades, the site next to Nørreport Station was just an ugly vacant lot — a gap in the urban fabric where market halls had stood until their demolition in 1958.
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