Copenhagen Inspo: Designed for Joy
Along the Nyhavn canal
My take on why it earned Happiest City in the World 2025
Copenhagen eases into your senses quietly and intentionally, then suddenly all at once. During my recent visit, I found myself moving slower, noticing more, and wondering how an entire city manages to feel so balanced, thoughtful, and happy.
Copenhagen was named the Happiest City in the World for 2025, and after spending time wandering its neighborhoods, canals, bakeries, and museums, I started making a list of the reasons why.
Me. Happy in Copenhagen.
10. Danish design everywhere
Minimal, warm, functional, and beautifully restrained—Danish design is the quiet heartbeat of Copenhagen. From sculptural chairs displayed like art installations to modern architecture reflecting across the water, good design isn’t a luxury here. It’s a way of living.
Everything feels considered: light, scale, proportion, and material. This city shows how design shapes emotion, and it reminded me how much form influences feeling in my own work.
The Royal Danish Library’s Black Diamond. Modern edges, reflective calm on the harbor
Passing the Royal Danish Playhouse by boat.
9. A city built for bikes (and humans)
Cyclists glide through the streets with no stress, no chaos—just flow. Wide bike lanes, intuitive systems, and a culture that embraces bicycles as the default mode of transportation make the whole city feel lighter. When mobility is joyful and sustainable, people feel more at ease. Copenhagen masters that balance.
Copenhagen, by bike
One-way street, except for bicycles
8. A culinary scene that delivers on its reputation
Copenhagen is known for its food culture, and it absolutely lives up to the hype. Whether it’s a beautifully composed dish that looks like a painting or a golden, sugar-dusted pastry that’s genuinely life-changing, food here is treated as craft. Slow dining, seasonal ingredients, and creativity at every turn give the city a real sense of abundance and pleasure.
I was lucky enough to eat at Barr, sister restaurant to Noma, and at Fiskebaren. As someone who loves seafood—and doesn’t get much of it living in the desert—both meals felt like such a treat. The experience was as visually beautiful as it was delicious.
Dinner at Barr, watching the kitchen at work. Thoughtful plating, fresh bread and classic Danish rugbrød.
Fiskebaren is a modern seafood restaurant in Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District, known for impeccably fresh fish, minimalist presentation, and a relaxed yet refined atmosphere that lets the ingredients shine.
7. “Hedonistic sustainability” in action
The energy plant with a ski slope on its roof says it all. Sustainability can be fun, playful, and deeply woven into everyday life. CopenHill is the clearest example, but the philosophy runs throughout the city, designing systems that are good for the planet and enjoyable for people.
It’s optimism expressed through infrastructure.
CopenHill, Copenhagen
6. Hygge as a way of living
Hygge shows up in textures, lighting, materials, and intentional coziness, but at its core it is a mindset rooted in warmth, presence, and savoring life’s quieter moments. Copenhagen feels wrapped in Hygge through its soft interiors, intimate spaces, and overall sense of ease.
If you want to explore the concept more deeply, The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell is a wonderful and funny look into how Danes weave comfort and contentment into everyday life.
Barr’s interior says it all. Candles, natural materials, and a sense of ease.
5. Public art with a point of view
Copenhagen’s public art isn’t just decorative. It carries ideas, questions, and cultural commentary. You see it in community-rooted murals, conceptual sculptures, and pieces that invite you to slow down and reflect.
Christiania captures this most intensely—a neighborhood defined by freedom, creativity, and alternative ideals. Its murals and graffiti feel raw, expressive, and deeply tied to its identity.
A day wandering Christiania with friends.
Murals that shape the neighborhood
Then there’s the more formal protest work, like Jens Galschiøt’s Fuck Q-Park sculpture, a bold middle finger raised against a proposed underground parking garage. It’s provocative, intentional, and a reminder that public space belongs to the public.
Art here has purpose. It’s woven into daily life and charged with meaning.
Jens Galschiøt’s Fuck Q-Park sculpture
4. Abundant green space
Grassy parks, wild meadows, and shady walking paths make nature accessible and central to daily life in Copenhagen. People picnic, nap, read, gather, or simply exist in these pockets of calm. What struck me most is how eagerly people embrace the outdoors, especially in a place where sunlight isn’t guaranteed.
The wild meadows instantly stood out to me, especially coming from Phoenix. Those tall, softly colored fields felt like such a refreshing contrast to home.
And the weather is truly an experience. In one week, I lived through all four seasons, each shift making the green spaces feel even more alive.
Nature isn’t an accessory here. It’s part of the everyday, not an afterthought.
3. Art museums that feel like sanctuaries
Copenhagen has an impressive range of museums, from classical sculpture and historic collections to contemporary art, design, and architecture, with plenty in between. There are over 100 museums across the city. Even in the two I visited, the spaces felt welcoming and unforced, designed in a way that encourages you to slow down and spend time.
Glyptoteket Museum
Glyptoteket was a highlight for me. Its winter garden and expansive galleries create a calm, spacious atmosphere, and the Gauguin exhibition I saw felt especially meaningful. Seeing works I hadn’t encountered before, rich with color, emotion, and story, made the experience even more special.
I didn’t make it to Designmuseum Danmark due to group logistics, which just means I need a return trip.
2. Public spaces that bring people together
Boardwalks buzzing with swimmers, sunbathers stretched along the canals, friends sharing coffee and conversation. People do not just pass through Copenhagen’s public spaces, they settle into them. The city designs environments that invite belonging, and people respond by filling them with life.
We loved eating and lingering at Broens Street Food, right by the water, where locals and visitors gather around long communal tables. Smørrebrød, the classic Danish open faced sandwich, is a staple here and shows up in endless variations, layered with fresh seafood, meats, and simple, thoughtful toppings. Alongside it were tacos, burgers, pastries, and plenty of other options that made it easy to stay awhile. It felt casual, social, and very Copenhagen.
Broens Street Food
Reffen took that same energy and scaled it up. Set in a former industrial area across the harbor, it is one of the largest street food markets in Northern Europe, with dozens of vendors, global flavors, creative cocktails, and lots of room to sit, wander, and linger. Wow, so many options, and just as many reasons to hang out.
Reffen, Copenhagen. Food stalls, open air, and an easygoing creative energy.
Closer to our hotel was Torvehallerne, a glass covered market filled with local vendors, bakeries, coffee counters, and specialty shops. We popped in almost daily for easy provisions, morning or night, and loved how local it felt. Together, these places made it clear that in Copenhagen, food is not just about eating, it is about slowing down and spending time together.
Across the city, public spaces feel intentionally designed for people, not just movement. That sense of care is what turns a place into a community.
Torvehallerne
1. Work–life balance that actually exists
This isn’t the performative version we often talk about in the U.S. Copenhagen genuinely lives it, and I felt that almost immediately. One of our favorite ways to slow down and connect was a visit to CopenHot, a floating harbor spa with wood-fired hot tubs, saunas, and cold plunges set right on the water. For us Phoenicians, soaking outdoors in the cold felt especially novel, moving between heat and chill as boats passed by.
It was the perfect way to end the day after exploring the city by boat. The weather had turned cold, with overcast skies and wind. Brrrr. A hot soak was perfection.
The Copenhagen Crew
Why Copenhagen feels so happy
Happiness here isn’t accidental. It’s designed, nurtured, and woven into the culture—from architecture and mobility to food, nature, and human connection.
As someone whose work is shaped by place and observation, I left inspired by Copenhagen’s people-first culture, where quality of life is treated as something worth designing for.
I can’t wait to see how this visit influences my work in 2026 and beyond.
Travel Notes in Clay
Each place leaves its mark—stirring new gestures, and reshaping how I translate experience into form.
“I was instantly attracted to the Wave vessel. The combination of organic form and sensual surface is magical. It inspires me every day.”