Refshaleøen, Copenhagen

Refshaleøen, originally an island in its own right but now annexed to the larger island of Amager, is a former industrial site in the harbor of Copenhagen, Denmark. For more than a hundred years, it was home to the shipyard Burmeister & Wain which closed in 1996.

In 1624, a block house was built on the original island, then much smaller, to guard the entrance to Copenhagen harbor together with St. Ann's Fortress (now Kastellet) on the coast just north of city.Reclamation increased the size of the island considerably in the 1870s when the port's waterways were made deeper. Burmeister & Wain established a shipyard on the island in 1871. At its height, the shipyard employed 8,000 people, and so appears as an icon of Danish industrial history.

Since the shipyard's bankruptcy in 1996, the area has undergone significant changes. The abandoned buildings are now home to a mixture of creative entrepreneurs, small craft, flea markets, storage facilities and cultural and recreational uses.

The residents include the theater Asterions Hus, the restaurant AMASS, opened by Mathew Orlando, former head chef at Noma, the art gallery YARD and the creative community Skabelonloftet.

Since April 2011 there are again boats at the old shipyard, as Copenhagen Yacht Services opened the first Danish yacht garage on the island - an indoor Marina for motorboats on the American model.

The private spaceflight company Copenhagen Suborbitals also operates on the former island.

Refshaleøen is today owned by the property company Ejendomsselskabet Refshaleøen A/S, owned by the four pension funds Sampension, PKA, PFA og Lønmodtagernes Dyrtidsfond. The site's surface area is approx. 500,000 m². In 2013, it entered into a collaboration with the energy company SE Big Blue and the Energy Academy on the island of Samsø, planning a climate-friendly neighbourhood.

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Wikipedia