The Køge Nord Station is the newest transport hub in Denmark, connecting Copenhagen-Køge-Ringsted regions. Designed by an architectural team comprising COBE and DISSING+WEITLING architecture, it was announced as an international project competition in 2014, in the European Union. More than 30 teams from various countries sent in their entries.

Inaugurated earlier this summer, the futuristic design forms a substantial and significant hub for green mobility, and is representative of unique Danish engineering and architecture. The Køge Nord (north) Station’s programme comprises a footbridge, a train station and a vision plan along with parking spaces and other transit facilities.

The station provides a new gateway to Copenhagen, a more efficient and sustainable public transport access for everyone travelling to and from Denmark’s capital. An imperative traffic hub for Greater Copenhagen, the landmark project is at the junction of high-speed regional rail line and the urban-suburban S-train line, above the Køge Bugt highway. An average of 90,000 passengers are expected to pass through this juncture daily, out of which 80,000 are expected to make use of the station.

Dan Stubbergaard, the architect and founder of COBE, says, “Together, we have designed a landmark for the development that the city of Køge is currently undergoing. The bridge is also a new architectural attraction for the area; a long, spectacular steel snake sinuously extending above the railway lines and offering the users a magnificent panoramic view of the cultural landscape. The station is our hope, and our firm conviction, that Køge Nord Station will contribute to this future vision.”

The spectacular bridge lies like a demure, metallic snake, above the streets and railway lines, offering stunning, panaromic views of the landscape. As travellers and passersby experience or wait at the footbridge, the serpentine structure delivers an inviting space filled with warmth and tactile affairs, with its rhythmic wooden slats that throng its insides. In addition to that, the interiors are finished with linear inset lighting, seating spaces and glazed openings on the façade. The smooth and cool aluminum exterior contrasts firmly with the warm interiors of the footbridge, in tune with the infrastructural expression of the place.

“People spend many hours of their life in transit. That’s why we sought to give the footbridge a quality that goes beyond the purely functional and practical. We can now enjoy an architectural beacon capable of branding the region and demonstrating the capability of Danish architects and engineers. The bridge has postcard potential, but the main point is the effect and the influence the project will have on so many people’s everyday life,” says Jesper B. Henriksen, architect and partner at DISSING+WEITLING architecture.

Copenhagen-based firm COBE is known to generate value for future users in their often-sustainable designs, while DISSING+WEITLING architecture majorly works with mobility, bridges and buildings; both are acclaimed for challenging boundaries with their projects and crafting iconic landmarks.

The Køge Nord Station fits right in an area undergoing thriving transformation, as the bridge will perform as a catalyst for development and growth in Køge and the greater Copenhagen area, for current times and for the times ahead. Contrary to typical public transport systems of cities, the futuristic design of the transport hub conveys an example of how cities must look at mobility and urban design, with its sleek and warm aesthetic, coupled with effectual purpose.

Project Details

Name: KØGE NORD STATION (Part of the Copenhagen - Køge - Ringsted railroad line)
Location: Køge, Denmark
Year of completion: 2019
Programme: Footbridge, station and park area
Architect: COBE and DISSING+WEITLING architecture
Client: Banedanmark, Køge Municipality and DSB (Danish State Railways)
Consulting engineer: COWI
Contractor: Bladt Industries