Copenhagen – Urbanplanen
Urbanplanen is one of Copenhagen’s and Denmark’s largest cohesive social housing residential areas with approximately 6.000 residents and approximately 3.200 rentals. The total size of the area is 470 Hectares of which 50 are public green spaces including a park and several staffed playgrounds and community-run urban gardens. The public green spaces are used actively by local residents as well as citizens in the surrounding neighbourhood and therefore provide a site of integration and potential for social cohesion. Additionally, the staffed playgrounds have an active partnership with the other staffed playgrounds in Copenhagen and frequently exchange plant materials between the sites. Planned and informal in-between spaces on site are therefore seen as positive meeting places and diverse swaths of local residents are actively involved in caring for these spaces. Yet little is known about the local attachment to and feelings about the site’s urban nature.
In Urbanplanen we will explore the existing multi-form partnerships and innovative approaches to mosaic governance of in-between spaces led by local residents, partners from the municipality, local SMEs and artists.
Safety and the overall reputation of the area represent some of the main challenges facing local residents, the municipality, and the many on-site partners in ensuring a high quality of life for residents. Through our working packages we will address these challenges in support of the delivery of short-and long-term benefits of in-between-spaces for human wellness and livelihoods in Urbanplanen.
Malmö- Lorensborg and Bellevuegården
Lorensborg and Bellevuegården are located in the southwestern part of Malmö relative closely to the city centre. Lorensborg has a population of about 5000 inhabitants. The area was started to be built up at the end of 1950ies in connection with the stadium area. Lorensborg is characterised by high-rise buildings, other apartment blocks and spacious green space in between. Bellevuegården, situated to the south of Lorensborg, has a population of about 4500 people. Here high-rise buildings and apartment blocks were built in the 1970’s. The name of the area originates from the farm that was located here before. The farm house still exists and is used as a school today.
Within the VIVA-plan project we focus on social and ecological values of in-between spaces and their overlap, issues regarding environmental justice and place attachment. Methods applied will be amongst others work with focus groups, interviews and photo elicitation.
The work is carried out in cooperation with Malmö municipality and housing associations.
Södertalje – Ronna
Södertalje is an industrial city of about 93.202 inhabitants with a growing business community with an estimated 600 companies being established every year and plans to develop Södertälje Science Park in the coming years. It is also a culturally mixed municipality with about 80 languages spoken and an estimated 39 percent of Södertälje’s inhabitants having foreign backgrounds, and this proportion increases by 1.5 percent per year.
The work we plan to undertake in Södertalje seeks to study current formal and informal partnerships which have formed and that are active and engage in the use, management, and coordination of in-between spaces in the Ronna district. We are especially interested in initiatives that bring together local residents, planners, the municipality, local SMEs and artists and aim to develop an in-depth understanding of the barriers and opportunities that are currently present in Ronna for the pursuit of innovative approaches to mosaic governance. Social inclusion, integration, and well-being are topics we will focus during this first period. As part to the VIVA-Plan working packages, we will focus on the challenges in support of the delivery of short-and long-term benefits of in-between-spaces for human wellness and livelihoods in Ronna district, Södertalje.
