Much has been said about Superkilen, but what it is exactly is hard to define. The kilometer-long expanse of color-blocked pinks, reds, and oranges in Copenhagen’s ethnically diverse Nørrebro neighborhood is part playground, part outdoor exhibition, part social experiment.

The collaborative creation of architect it-boy Bjarke Ingels, urban landscape architects Topotek 1, and artist collective Superflex features more than 100 pieces of “urban furniture” — neon signage from Russia, manhole covers from Israel, trashcans from around the world — to represent the 60-or-so nationalities of the neighborhood’s residents, as well as myriad examples of urban modernity: bicycle paths, pedestrian trails, and the most avant-garde of playground equipment. It opened last fall to showers of praise for its lofty goals of bringing together one of Denmark’s most diverse neighborhoods, starting with its children.  

Superkilen is a prime example of the notion that the design of our environment can have a dramatic impact on our daily lives, particularly in the way our children socialize and learn. Across the globe, there seems to be an uptick in toy and playground designs seamlessly embedded with problem-solving and decision-making exercises. This international phenomenon, driven by the Superkilen team and other innovators like them — the creators of schools in Finland flooded with natural light; 3-D printed, personalized toys in Barcelona; “Imagination Playgrounds” in D.C.; and engineering starter kits in New York — may be a survival tactic in our increasingly globalized, competitive world.

In our fourth installment in a 7-part series on Innovators in Design, we’re putting the spotlight on the people who are reinventing the way we raise our children. 

To see the innovators who are redesigning the way we raise our children, click the slideshow.