Rabalder Parken

On July 2, 2011, a cloudburst inundated Copenhagen with 150 millimeters of rain in less than three hours, flooding cellars, streets, and key roads. The torrential downpour caused 6 billion Danish kroner (USD$1.04 billion) in damages, and the Danish city of Roskilde was similarly in peril.

Rabalder Parken is a heavy-duty drainage system that simulatenously serves as a recreational oasis for skateboarders and other lovers of leisure. The entire complex, which includes an impressive skatepark, parkour equipment, fitness area, as well as hang-out spots furnished with grills, trampolines AND a performance stage, is fully integrated into the existing water canal system that stretches through a series of hills and brings the rain water to the adjacent lake. In fact, the skatepark IS the pool that can hold the equivalent of 10 Olympic sized swimming pools of rainwater in times of flooding.

Since the area is prone to severe flooding only a handful of times a year, the designers behind Rabalder Parken thought it would be a shame to dominate the landscape with a drainage system. Similarly, not providing a draining system would have been catastrophic, since the area is slowly burgeoning into a vibrant residential and commercial neighborhood.

People need to learn to co-exist with nature’s whims. And architects need to build with both people and nature in mind. Rabalder Parken is an inspiring example of the two agendas becoming perfectly aligned. It sends the message that we do not need to compromise on our requirements from public spaces in order to accommodate climate change. We can in fact fuse them to produce creative and fun solutions.