A University of Copenhagen campus in the heart of the Danish capital could be transformed into a new mixed neighbourhood with homes, cafés, restaurants, shops and workplaces. The plan concerns Kommunehospitalet, the former municipal hospital between the Lakes and the Botanical Garden that today houses much of the university’s Faculty of Social Sciences.
Copenhagen Municipality’s Finance Committee (Økonomiudvalget) has backed a new local plan for the area and recommended sending it to the Copenhagen City Council (Borgerrepræsentationen). If the council agrees, the proposal will enter an eight-week public consultation before returning to politicians for final approval, expected by the end of 2026.
The University of Copenhagen campus is the old Kommunehospital
For University of Copenhagen students, the historic yellow-brick complex on Øster Farimagsgade is better known as the Center for Health and Society (Center for Sundhed og Samfund, CSS).
It is not a separate site next to the old hospital. CSS is Kommunehospitalet itself. When the municipal hospital closed, the University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet) took over its buildings and gradually concentrated most of its social science programmes there.
Today, the complex is one of the main parts of City Campus and the home of the Faculty of Social Sciences (Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet), including most of its departments. Parts of public health are also based there.
That is expected to change. The university decided in 2022 that the Faculty of Social Sciences would move to Søndre Campus, on Amager. In February 2026, the university confirmed that the relocation remains part of a broader reorganisation of its property portfolio aimed at reducing building costs.
There is still no fixed date for the complete departure from Kommunehospitalet. Copenhagen Municipality says the university, currently the site’s main user, is expected to leave within the coming years.
From university campus to a more open part of Copenhagen
The expected departure has forced a question that has been approaching for years: what should happen to a large historic complex in central Copenhagen once the university leaves?
Property company Jeudan, which owns the site, wants to turn it into a more mixed part of the city under a project called Farimagshaverne.
The proposed local plan would allow the existing buildings to be used for a much broader range of purposes, including offices, shops, hotels, workshops, cafés and restaurants. Education and institutional activities could also remain.
Housing would form another part of the redevelopment. However, most of Kommunehospitalet’s buildings are protected, making extensive conversion into apartments difficult.
The plan therefore allows three new residential buildings covering around 3,700 square metres, with a maximum height of four storeys. In total, around 11,175 square metres of the site could eventually be used for housing, partly in existing buildings.
Between 10 and 50 per cent of the residential area would have to be reserved for youth housing.
The gardens are as important as the buildings
Kommunehospitalet opened in 1863 and was designed by Danish architect Christian Hansen. Its yellow brick buildings, red horizontal bands, arched windows and copper dome still make the former hospital one of the most recognisable architectural complexes in this part of Copenhagen.
The gardens between the buildings were also part of the original hospital concept. Light, air and green spaces were considered important for patients, creating a campus-like layout long before the university arrived.
The new plan is therefore not only about finding new uses for the buildings. It also aims to make an area that today functions largely as an enclosed institutional complex more accessible and connected to the surrounding city.
The proposal protects 80 existing trees and requires 135 new ones to be planted, at least 60 per cent of them native species. New cafés, restaurants, shops and outdoor activities could bring more people into spaces that are currently used mainly by students, university staff and other institutions.
Heritage authorities are sceptical about new buildings
That transformation also creates the main conflict around the project.
The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces (Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen) and the Museum of Copenhagen (Københavns Museum) both consider Kommunehospitalet a particularly valuable architectural, historical and environmental ensemble.
They have accepted that the protected buildings will need new functions after the university leaves, but have called for changes to respect their original architecture and the historic gardens.
The Agency for Culture and Palaces has expressed scepticism about new construction, while the Museum of Copenhagen has argued that new additions should generally be avoided where they could affect the gardens and the historical relationship between the buildings.
Copenhagen’s planning administration has defended the proposal, saying the planned new buildings have been adapted to the scale and architectural character of the old hospital.
Line Barfod, Mayor for Climate, Environment and Technical Affairs (klima-, miljø- og teknikborgmester), also supported the plan. She said the project seeks to open the area more towards Copenhagen while respecting its gardens and architectural history.
The Finance Committee ultimately recommended the proposal to the City Council by 11 votes to none, with one abstention.
If the plan survives the next stages of the political process, the change will be significant. A place that for years has been known primarily as CSS and one of the University of Copenhagen’s central campuses could gradually become an ordinary part of the city again, while keeping much of the architecture that has defined the site since its days as a hospital.
