Case Studies   The Danish Neighbourhood Regeneration Programme. Kvarterløft in Copenhagen

3.The story of Kongens Enghave

Kongens Enghave is situated in the south-western part of Copenhagen – slightly off centre – as an island surrounded, not by water – but by motorways and railways. It was originally built as a good working-class neighbourhood – good housing, lots of green space, relatively close to the city – all in all a good place to bring up children. The neighbourhood was created in the first part of last century – from 1913 to 1950's. The houses have a relatively high standard, but they are small – 70% are two room flats (compared to 50% in Copenhagen). The tenure also varies from the rest of the Copenhagen area – with more than 50% of the houses owned by housing associations, which is also considerably higher than the average.

For a long time all was well in the neighbourhood – it was a very popular place to live. But by the end of the 60's something happened that triggered the decline of Kongens Enghave. The demand for larger houses was growing in Denmark – and those houses could not be found in Kongens Enghave. As a result a large part of the population gradually changed – going from family household to single households. And the economic and infrastructure development was not in favour of the neighbourhood. All through the 60s and 70s traffic in Copenhagen grew rapidly - and the new roads leading traffic into Copenhagen also separated Kongens Enghave from the rest of the city. The southern part of the harbour lost its economic importance and the local industry disappeared.

As a result Kongens Enghave ended as the poorest neighbourhood of Copenhagen in the mid 90's. It has a population of 15.500, the lowest average household income in Denmark, the lowest average life expectancy and a high concentration of people with social problems. Because of the many small flats, a lot of people with problems are placed in the neighbourhood partly as a result of the allocation-policy of Copenhagen, partly as a result of the bad image of the neighbourhood.

But that is just one part of the story of Kongens Enghave. The positive story is that the neighbourhood had a high social tolerance, with strong traditions for creating local organisations and a very strong local identity. And today the businesses are returning to Kongens Enghave – it has become the fastest growing business neighbourhood in Denmark. But it is new types of companies that settle here – Nokia, Ericsson and other large telecommunication companies and other high-tech industries. They create many jobs – but not for the local residents, since their demand is for highly skilled labour – engineers, academics etc – groups you do not find in Kongens Enghave.

Because of this mix of positive and negative aspects the neighbourhood was picked to be one of 7 Kvarterløft projects in Denmark in 1997. Before Kvarterløft there had been smaller attempts at regeneration in the neighbourhood – mainly concentrated on the social housing parts. But the Kvarterløft project is the first attempt at a full scale regeneration programme for the entire neighbourhood.

In one respect Kongens Enghave differs from other regeneration areas. From 1997 to 2001 the neighbourhood was the place for a decentralisation experiment in the Municipality of Copenhagen with the creation of a local council and administration. The purpose of this was to try and break the large municipality into smaller political and administrational units while at the same time having the large municipality as the co-ordinating authority. This meant that the neighbourhood of Kongens Enghave had its own elected council and its own administration – which of course had an effect on the Kvarterløft project in the neighbourhood. It was an integrated part of this Local Council. The local councils ended their lives after a referendum in 2000 against their continuation and the neighbourhood, like the rest of the city, is now ruled by the municipal government.

2.1.1 The city is complex and diverse     3.1 Stakeholders