Browsing this web site you accept techinical and statistical cookies. In the Danish Government's Urban Committee entered into an agreement with the city of Copenhagen and other organisations to carry out a new form of urban renewal designated as 'Neighbourhood Revitalisation' - in Danish known as 'Kvarterloeft'. Background to the project In the urban renewal undertaken in Copenhagen up until that time, the focus had been on physical measures, which, from the 's to the 's especially, typically consisted of large-scale demolition of dilapidated and densely built-up estates, and to a certain extent also new construction projects.
From the 's onwards, there was a shift in favour of preservational urban renewal, such as that seen in Vesterbro - a densely populated and community-oriented district that was built just outside the old medieval ramparts circa , and which by the 's was characterised by slums, speculation and mounting social problems. Copenhagen's current housing policy seeks to provide housing that can compete with the modern housing development projects currently underway in the suburbs.
The capital's housing stock consists predominantly of old properties containing many small flats, which makes it difficult both to retain and attract families with children and people on average incomes. Consequently, as part of the programme for Vesterbro, the strategy is to remove party walls to extend the size of individual flats.
Although both central and local government have invested huge sums in this district, urban renewal has been met with resentment and opposition. One of the principal objections has been that the efforts to counter the complex problems of a district have been tackled by purely physical methods of urban renewal. There has also been great concern that the social problems in a district were being solved merely by exporting the problems to other parts of the city. For this reason, among others, a desire has emerged to revise the methods of urban renewal to incorporate a more holistic approach with greater emphasis on the direct participation of citizens.
Neighbourhood revitalisation In the Government's Urban Committee and the city of Copenhagen entered into an agreement on the implementation of three neighbourhood revitalisation projects in three of the capital's most vulnerable neighbourhoods, each of which, with its own distinctive urban paradigm, has been characterised by higher unemployment than the rest of the city - and, indeed, the country as a whole -, mounting social problems, and a dire need for improvements to living conditions, the standard of accommodation and the reputation of the neighbourhoods.
