Architecture firm CF Møller have won a design competition to transform an area of wetland in the Danish city of Randers into a public nature park, as part of a climate adaptation project.

Randers, like many towns in Denmark, is threatened by the effects of climate change, with its low-lying position in relation to the Gudenå, Denmark’s longest river, putting it at risk from flooding.

To counter this, the municipality has announced a multi-phase climate resiliency project, called 'the City to the Water’.

In the first phase the Storkeengen wetland, or Stork Meadow, will be converted by CF Møller’s landscape team, with a network of streams leading rainwater from roofs, car parks and roads in Randers’ Vorup suburb into large purification basins in the nature park.

The captured water will be filtered and led into the river and a newly-created dyke.

The scheme, developed in collaboration with engineers Orbicon, is described by the design team as an “architectural multi-tool” that “creates cloudburst and storm flood protection, strengthens urban nature and brings the town of even closer to the Gudenå River”.

Subtle public pathways and amenities will be created so visitors can observe the park’s flora and fauna, enjoy sunsets at the waterside and go canoeing on the river.

“The project is a perfect example of our holistic approach, whereby we combine climate protection with urban and nature development,” said Lasse Vilstrup Palm, associate partner and head of CF Møller Landscape.

Work on the project will start in Q3 2018 and is scheduled for completion in 2021.

It is not the first development in Denmark to combine climate resiliency strategies with the need for more public space. Landscape architects SLA are currently adding sunken pools and water-purifying plants to one of Copenhagen’s most popular parks to ease the risk and impact of flooding.

The same firm is also developing a national park near the city of Roskilde into a 1,500 ha cultural landscape called The New Hedeland, which has been designed to bring leisure and culture into the outdoors and create “a hotbed of voluntary work and human creativity”.