We live in a pretty amazing world. But sometimes our limited perspective can make it hard for us to appreciate our amazing world. However satellites and drones, us land-dwellers not only see beyond what lies ahead – we can now see what lies unseen from above. Recently, a series of seriously visually stunning aerial shots of the Brøndby Garden City have circulated online and has completely captivated the world. And this curiously circular city has completely captivated people from all over the world. Including us!
It looks like something that you’d see in a sci-fi film.
The first thing that came to my mind when I first saw the garden city was the word paradise. Because normally, we’d only see places like this in a science fiction movie. But this a real place in real life. All 12 perfectly symmetrical communities in the garden city exist. And it’s pretty much our dream residential environment. Brondby Garden City is serving slices of peace and privacy, and we’re more than happy to accept it.
But it also strongly reminds us of crop circles. So we’re kind of having confused feelings about this city. We all want to live in environmentally-friendly communities, but is the Brondby Garden City’s design really the way to go?
People don’t actually live in the Brøndby Garden City
This gorgeous, if not other worldly, “garden city” is located just outside Copenhagen, Denmark. Each community features allotments that resembles a pizza when seen from a bird’s eye view. And it’s not actually a place where people can stay permanently. Redditor Zerak Tul explained:
“It’s not actually a place where people live. They’re allotment gardens – i.e. a place for people who live in apartments in the city to have a little plot of land where they can do some gardening in the spring and summer months. Generally there are laws that prohibit people from living in them full time. And the houses are tiny, often meant be half shed/storage for gardening tools and just as a place to sit and have a cup of coffee in rainy weather.”
At most, a ‘house’ in these utopian communities only measures up to 50 square meters. And people may only stay here between April 1st and October 1st, and on weekends throughout the year. Pretty sweet deal, if you ask us…
Brøndby agreed to dedicate space for allotments in 1964 to make way for the garden city project. And the architect of the Brøndby Garden City didn’t decide its arrangement at a whim. The architect purposely made this garden city circular to increase social interaction among those who rent the gardens.
Yes – the gardens are rented. The land is rented, but the house is owned. And your permanent residence has to be within 20 kilometers of the plot to qualify for a house. The houses at Brøndby Garden City feature sewer systems, has running water, and electricity. Residents are free to invest improvements in their houses, like solar heating to reduce their reliance on electrical heating.
What’s it like to live in Brøndby Garden City?
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByiQI_yoI4c/
Lenni Madsen, a Security Software Engineer whose parents own a house in the garden city said:
“Imagine your average small-time community, where everyone knows everyone else, you see each other across the hedge, perhaps sharing a beer or having coffee at each other’s houses. Then compare it to a flat scenario, where you hardly know anyone in your stairwell as most people are too busy to get inside their flat, having zero reason to interact with their neighbors apart to complain about the noise.”b
Photographer Henry Do stumbled upon the area and made it world famous
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1bpdCHnEHF/
And of course, people are losing their minds over it.
What do you think about this garden city? Creepy or awesome?