Contempoary place making – a tool in creating livable and lasting urban spaces.

Boble Plads is certainly worth visiting more than once. Located in the former industrial area of Carlsberg Brewery, the new bubbly square makes a vibrant gathering place - a visible node in the area - designated for play, fun and social interaction. The square is named after the characteristic bubbling roof of the old Carlsberg warehouse named Boblehallen, located right by the newly released square. Boblehallen is currently going through a mayor renovation in order to fit its future role as a public sports facilities centre. Within the next five years the reconstruction of the “Sport Fabric” is completed – and in meantime – the contemporary Boble Plads is constructed due to blurring the transformation of the site and to fulfill our needs for moving, having fun, and socializing in the urban space.

The construction of Boble Plads is wrought thorough in collaboration between the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sport facilities, Realdania, The Municipality of Copenhagen, and Carlsberg. The project is contemporary and is planned specifically in order to mediate the large-scale transformation of the pending new Carlsberg site named “Our City”. The eye-catching square is planned in order for people to use the designated area before the actual new Carlsberg site is completed. This way of using contemporary architectural structures as tools in the place making process is defiantly new. However, only time will tell whether this way of implementing (un)planned contemporary spaces as tools in the process of making and securing socially justified, livable and divers urban places from the very beginning is manageable and sustainable or not.

In retrospect the medieval square was the very center of the city structurally, mentally, and socially. It was a gathering place, a market place, a place for festivities, discussions and dialog between the citizens. On one hand, one could argue that Boble Plads stands in opposition to the medieval socially constructed square. On the other hand, one could also argue that Boble Plads is a reaction against the formal and well-planned plaza of the aristocratic capital, which we recognize in all over Copenhagen for instance. Yet the Boble Plads is neither like Rådhuspladsen, Kongens Nytorv nor like the medieval square. As a matter of fact Boble Plads might be something completely else in between the formally planned plaza and the socially facilitated square. Boble Plads exists in the moment, through movement and the interface of its users.