Every design for Sundbyerne

Sundby stretches along Amagerbrogade on the island of Amager, the old main road dividing it into Sundbyvester on one side and Sundbyøster on the other – which is why it so often goes by its plural name, Sundbyerne. It belongs to Copenhagen, but it began as two villages, rows of farmsteads with their fields to the south and their pastures to the north.

Its streets read like an atlas. As the fields gave way to housing, the new streets were named first after Nordic and German places, then after places all over Europe, and later after other continents, while many of them still follow the old field boundaries. Sailors, craftsmen and workers settled along the main road, workshops moved out from Christianshavn in search of room, and for a few short years Sundby was a parish municipality of its own before joining Copenhagen. Apartment blocks line Amagerbrogade and Holmbladsgade, with villa streets and allotment gardens further south.

If you grew up here, the map is a list of your own places: the shops on Amagerbrogade, a garden plot in the south, summer days at Amager Strandpark and a walk out to Kastrup Fort.