Copenhagen's Adult Park Offers Rare Child-Free Green Spaces

On UNICEF's latest list of the best countries for children, Denmark came in second place. Copenhagen as a city is known for being kid-friendly, scoring high on something called the "popsicle test"--which assesses the safety of a place "according to whether an eight-year-old can walk to a shop on their own, buy a lolly and return home safely." It's a unique way to measure safety but does offer some insight into what has typically been most important for urban planners when designing public spaces in Denmark.

The downside, ​according to an article from Copenhagen based writer Michael Booth​, is that the utility of many public spaces across the Danish capital might be overly kid-friendly in a way that diminishes their value for adults:

Perhaps the adults have gone along with it because we ourselves have become so infantilised ... Copenhagen’s Opera Park offers a compelling alternative approach to urban spaces, with fewer swings and rubberised safety surfaces, and more contemplative oases – quiet corners of the city in which to read a book or flirt. Who knows? If we show our children more mature ways in which to live in the city, we might begin to raise more robust grown-ups.

The idea of prioritizing adults rather than kids when designing some of these spaces is the interesting non-obvious suggestion Booth proposes in his article. For a place like Copenhagen, and perhaps many others around the world, the broader idea is that the design of these spaces could empower more adults to connect with one another ... which should be just as much a priority as keeping kids safe, active and entertained.