Copenhagen's Kiddie City is Urban Shangri-La for Little People

For kids 0 to 18, one architecture firm is taking the concept of growing up in a city to a whole new level. In collaboration with NORD Architects, PK3, and Grontmij, COBE has conceptualized Prinsessegade, a city for kids that will take over a plot of land in Copenhagen's Christianshavn, right next to the utopian square free town, Christiana. The idea for this mini city—essentially a daycare center for around 600 children and young adults—came in response to Copenhagen's rapid population growth. Projections show that by 2025 there will be 22,000 children living in Copenhagen between the ages of 0 and 18 out of 90,000 inhabitants.

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When it is complete in 2014, Prinsessegade will be the largest daycare center in Denmark. It will feature different neighborhoods for different age groups, houses, public spaces, squares, parks, even a city hall, fire station, stadium, and factory. The heart of Kids' City will be a shared, outdoor green area with outdoor activities.

According to the architects:

The size and diversity of the Kids’ City means that everybody – children and young people as well as their parents – will feel at home. There’s room for the wild kids, the quiet kids, for the kids who like to draw and paint, the roleplayers, the ones who play in the sandbox, the ones that race down the mountain in mooncars and those who like to bake cookies in the kitchen. There’s room for the ones performing a musical in the city hall, the ones tinkering with their mopeds, the ones playing street basket in the cage and the ones kissing behind the bike shed.

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Photos courtesy of COBE