Project description for Kongens Enghave

A little bit of history and a description of our methodology:

Based on the local council of Kongens Enghave the area regeneration project of Kongens Enghave has to deal with a deprived area of Copenhagen in Denmark comprising some 15.000 residents.

The project is one of seven Danish area regeneration projects which have to show new paths for urban policy in Denmark – changing the path of urban regeneration from one dealing only with physical decline to a more holistic approach dealing with all aspects of urban life in a given area.

The budget for the project in Kongens Enghave is:

129 mill d.kr. for urban renewal projects
25 mill. d.kr for various projects (mainly physical)
12 mill d.kr. for social projects (2.3 mill kr in 1997 and 1.95 mill pr. year from 1998 to 2003)
10 mill. d.kr. for running the secretariat (2 mill. pr year)

Apart from that the project seeks alternative and external funding for activities and smaller projects as part of the main project.

The area regeneration project was started in 1997 with a series of dialogue meetings between representatives of the various organisations of Kongens Enghave from tenants organisations to sport and culture organisations. These meetings had the purpose of describing the project – and the process that the council intended the start.

The project was divided into five themes:

1) Physical problems
2) Housing
3) Culture
4) Employment
5) Social issues

There was a public meeting for each theme at the end of 97 – and at those meetings all in all 15 working groups were formed. These groups worked for 2 months – ending with a catalogue of projects. These were then prioritised and eventually ended in the plan for the area which was delivered in March 1998.

The project of Kongens Enghave is based on two things – the local council which is part of a process of decentralisation in the municipality of Copenhagen – and the active participation of the residents in the regeneration process. The local council was established in 1997 and also has as its aim to develop new ways of interacting between the public administration and the residents of an area.

It has therefore been a key point in the project that the project must give the local residents an actual responsibility for developing the project (i.e. the many suggestions for action in the area formulated in the plan for the area) and for the prioritisation of the many ideas. For of course the residents had many more ideas than the project had money.

The project works to change the way residents, politicians and professionals interact. The residents not only suggest new actions – they also take an active part in implementing them. Once a project has been approved the residents and professionals work together on the implementation of the project.

Another key issue for the area regeneration programme in Kongens Enghave has been to make sustainable solutions for the local area -–which basically means that whenever we start new projects we have to consider the long term costs and a permanent position for the project either in the administration or in a private organisation – in order to make sure that once the regeneration programme has finished there will still be an owner of that particular project. The history of programmes in Denmark is full of examples of the opposite – that is projects creating a lot of activity and dying the minute the external funding stops.

In order to prevent this the local secretariat for the area regeneration programme has been set up as part of the local administration. The steering group of the programme are all politicians of the area – representing the various departments of the local council and administration. This gives the politicians and the administration the possibility to co-ordinate the activities of the programme with other activities in the area.

The project also has a following group consisting of relevant organisations – both local and non-local. The residents have a contact group with representatives from all work-groups. These two groups have no decisive power but work as consultants to the steering group.

The local secretariat functions as the residents’ one-string access to the local council and administration – in the secretariat projects are co-ordinated, action is taken in order to make the local (and central) administration take part in the process of developing the area with the local residents. And on the other hand the secretariat take statements and opinions of the residents into the administration. Once a contact has been made between a group of residents and the administration the secretariat will try to step back leaving the further development to the residents and administration.

This however has proven to be a difficult task – it is difficult to built a new organisation with both a local political body and an administration and at the same time develop an area. Also many people working in the public sector has no tradition for thinking about development. As a consequence the project and the local council are now working on creating an education which can train people from the administration to be a part of a process like this.

In fact you could say that a programme like this is mutual training of an area and the administration about development – each in each own way. The residents might need training on understanding and acting in a political environment – they might need to learn about funding, maintenance etc. of a project – they might learn about quality – and to demand action in an area. But the politicians and the administration can also learn from the process.

The pilot project of Kongens Enghave – The Green Nerve.

The Green Nerves is the name of a street-improvement and traffic project running through the 3 major housing areas of the district of Kongens Enghave. The aim of the project is to strengthen the image of the district as a Green district and at good place to live. The Green Nerve is to be seen as the entrance to the district and to the housing areas – as the way the district presents itself to people who come to shop or to catch the local busses.

The Green Nerve runs from the northern part of Kongens Enghave – Bavnehøj. It passes the major traffic crossing in the area – Sydhavns Plads, where we have an architectural competition in order to improve the quality of the area. After Sydhavns Plads it runs through the oldest part of Kongens Enghave, Frederiksholm, crosses the major square and enters the last part – the Music Town named so because all streets have names after famous composers.

The residents working with the project try to create a unity so that the district presents itself as one area – for people living there or for people visiting. As the main public space in the future, the Green Nerve must become a place where people can meet – formally or informally – a public space for everyone. The Green Nerve will become a place where residents will want to go – and the cars which today are very dominant – will be less visible. Therefore the roads will be made narrower – in order to make room for trees, pedestrians and cyclists. The project will also make new squares and places to meet.

The project group for the Green Nerve is very much aware of the overall discussions in the area regeneration project – mainly concerning identity, image and the values of the area in the future. They see the development of the Green Nerve as a very central part in the development of the area. That is also why they have made the joint plan for the project in order to keep the general overview and the overall objectives of the project. The Green Nerve will improve the visual quality of the area and thereby help to underline the qualities of the area. Likewise the project seeks to improve the conditions for local traffic. A side effect of the project is that it can create local employment both in the construction phase but maybe more important create "green jobs" for the area to maintain the Green Nerve. The project group thereby try to make connections to the overall themes of the area regeneration project.

Identity and history

History plays an important part of the project – for instance in the choice of materials . The new surface for pedestrians will be made of bricks. This is a direct link to the birth of the area as an housing area, because the area used to be the home of one of the major tile and brick-factories who dug for clay in the harbour and made bricks that were used to build a large part of Copenhagen. The group wants to use this to underline the history of the districts, as it enriches and improves the identity of the area and the public space has yet another story to tell.

Quality

The project group has deliberately chosen to make a high quality project – although this means that we do not have all the funding. It is a deliberate choice because they think that this is what is needed to create a streetscape which can give the whole district a lift – and which matches the overall goals for the district. In the development of the project the eye of the residents and their views on quality have also changed dramatically to become more critical. This has also been an important part of the project.

The Green Nerve as a Co-operation Project.

The idea of the Green Nerve was born as a part of the area regeneration project for Kongens Enghave in a working group dealing with local traffic problems. They described the project and it was accepted that this would be a project that could in many ways be the synthesis of the ideas of the area regeneration project. A project group of some 12 local residents was made and they have been seeking assistance from technicians, students and various other specialists in the development phase. They have had public meetings where resident groups, representatives from local business and commerce, institutions and schools have had the opportunity to comment and discuss the project. The ideas have also been discussed with the owners, the police and bus company.

After this initial development phase the residents have chosen whom they wanted as the consultant for the project – an architect company with expertise on this type of project.

Together with the consultant, the municipality and the local secretariat the project group then developed the joint plan for the Green Nerve. And the future work of the project will also be made in co-operation with public authorities and consultants.

In the further development of the project the idea is also to spread the discussion into the area – trying even harder to make this a project for the whole area. The project group will be a part of the process right through to the construction phase.

Our experiences so far with the project show that the architectural standard of the project has not suffered – as it is often stated when there is a question of residents’ involvement in projects like this – our experience seems to contradict this because the residents often have very useful information, local knowledge of traffic patterns etc. which will actually improve the quality of the project.

The primary partners – the consultants and the residents have treated each other with respect and understood the necessity to listen and to use each others expertise.