Case Studies   The Danish Neighbourhood Regeneration Programme. Kvarterløft in Copenhagen

1.The Kvarterløft programme

A history of urban regeneration

In Denmark, large and co-ordinated measures towards urban regeneration started with the Sanitation Act of 1939. This act made possible the demolition of derelict buildings by expropriation, and was mostly used for demolition of larger slums in very bad conditions, which where afterwards replaced with new and modern housing estates. Part of this process was also the demolition and removal of small businesses. Generally speaking this led to the removal of former inhabitants to other housing areas.

http://www.kvarterloeft.kk.dk/

From 1959 it became possible to use the law for modernising existing buildings, and over time modernisation became the most important part of urban renewal, mostly through renovation of constructions, insulation, and installation of toilets and bathrooms in buildings from the 1860-90’ies. These buildings were sound constructions but lacking maintenance and modern facilities. The amount of public money spent on renovations grew significantly, so that from the mid 80’ies to the late 90’ies a considerable yearly amount was spent on renovations, topping in 1993 with 3.4 billion DKK (~ 456 million EURO). Half of the amount was spent in the municipality of Copenhagen, 20% in the 4 largest municipalities, and the rest in other towns.

The urban renewal act of 1982 put responsibilities for urban renewal mainly on the municipalities, where renewal would be planned in coordination with the general town planning and other municipal policies. More stress was put on the democratic processes in the renewal areas and on the social issues connected to renewal, e.g. re-housing of residents.

These efforts did little by little diminish the problems of unhealthy housing, and interest was directed towards areas with social rather than technical problems. Since 1996, a new, experimental programme, Kvarterløft, was launched, connected to the urban renewal act, but with a holistic, area based view (Kvarterløft literally means, "Lift the neighbourhood").

Executive Summary    1.1 The Kvarterløft programme