Designs on Play
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Helle Nebelong
The Children's Millennium Garden
In the European Culture Year the biggest ever garden
exhibition in Denmark took place, with 17 newly planted theme gardens
being made in Valbyparken as I mentioned before.

My role was to do the master plan for the 17 theme
gardens in 1996. In 1999 I had got the idea to ask children to design
a millennium garden. This was possible because my area of responsibility
is developing and trying new ways of consulting the citizens. The
City of Copenhagen therefore asked the state schools in the local
area to take part in a competition about a new theme garden in Valbyparken.
The schools were asked:
Do children have a relationship to or interest
in garden culture?
Can
they, who will design the future, design a garden of the future,
and thus celebrate the millennium?
We now know the answer is "Yes". Although
the new millennium is characterised by a fast technological development,
children do have a relationship to garden culture. Fortunately!
We
had 7 suggestions, but the winner was a year 3 class from Valby
School. They designed a garden, which is split into 2 different
areas. One part of the garden is full of shadows and has a jungle-type
character. The other is a garden full of light and flowers. There
is a heart-shaped path and small nooks with love-seats. Here you
can meet your loved-one and be romantic. The two halves of the garden
are separated by a lake, but the two worlds are connected by a bridge
over the water. The bridge, and all the life-strengthening thoughts,
which lie behind this suggested garden, symbolises a fine crossing
to the next millennium.
We translated the model into architectural drawings
and the construction work got under way. At the beginning the children
couldn't recognise their garden design, they were surprised to see,
that so much work had to be done, before the garden was finished.
We
were true to the children's ideas. They wanted a mushroom table
and mushroom chairs. So I found the concrete mushrooms in a private
garden, which I had read about 15 years earlier!
The only wish, we couldn't fulfil, was their idea
of a sculpture of Minni and Mickey Mouse. The Walt Disney Company
wouldn't allow it. So the children made their own couple, which
I think fits the garden much better.
The garden was opened in the summer 2000, where
we invited all the children and their families and the public in
general to a big party. The Major from The Building and Construction
Committee, and a famous singer joined the opening ceremony with
the children.
The
result was fulfilling. Everyone was very happy and had a good time.
The children are very proud of having made their own garden and
they visit the garden with their teacher every year to help tend
the garden. I had a terrific and super positive process with the
creative young ones.
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