Karen Bay Lindkvist

Contract Instructor

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Karen Bay Lindkvist has worked within the field of urbanism and architecture for more than ten years in Copenhagen, Beijing and Ottawa. With a Bachelor and Master’s degree from Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark, Karen has a human-centered approach to urban planning and urban growth. Karen’s work and teaching focus on the life between buildings and infrastructure and is to a large degree shaped by the Danish approach and Jan Gehl’s philosophy towards urban planning. Alongside large scale urban planning strategies Karen has worked with nature-based coastal protection, sustainable urban development with implementation of sponge city strategies in the city of Copenhagen and revitalisation of heritage hutong streets in Bejing, China.

In Copenhagen she worked with densification strategies in suburban areas where transit nodes and public transportation can accommodate a new kind of dense urbanization with focus on walkability, livability and creating a mix-use city center instead of urban sprawl. Karen is currently researching urban growth in Northern capitals with a case study of Copenhagen, Helsinki and Ottawa. The three capitals have more or less the same population and comparable growth ambitions but with three distinctly different strategies and political structures.