Every design for Greve Strand

On a summer afternoon at Olsbæk Strand, the sand is busy with families from the streets just inland, and the masts of the marinas dot Køge Bugt further along. Greve Strand is the coastal town that grew out of fields and holiday cottages on the bay south-west of Copenhagen, when people in the late 1960s and the 1970s left the city for good. Farmland became streets of detached houses and terraces, and districts such as Hundige, Mosede Strand and Karlslunde took shape between the motorway and the sea.

There is a feeling here of a place built for everyday life: paths for walking and cycling that let children get to school, the station or the shops with hardly a car in sight, green spaces and sports pitches tucked in between the homes, and the S-train stations at Hundige, Greve and Karlslunde right next to the shopping centres. Mosede Fort and Strandparken, the long beach park along the bay, give the weekends their rhythm, and Greve Kulturhus Portalen hosts jazz and rock concerts.

If you grew up here, the map is a record of your first freedom: the bike paths, the beach and the train into the city.