A New Methodology For Analysis Of Spatial Interventions Towards Sustainability In Social Housing Regeneration – The Case Of Gyldenrisparken In Copenhagen

Abstract

Housing settlements have been regenerated in recent decades across the world, particularly those built in Europe for social purposes in the post-war period. As unique sets of problems accumulate in each case, interventions tend to address individual issues of different scales and localities. This study aims to contribute to housing research with a focus on the regenerative spatial interventions of urban design and architecture and their tangible reflection on sustainability. The research work, including related documentation reviews and interviews with critical stakeholders, examines in detail a regeneration case of social housing estate in Copenhagen – Gyldenrisparken – regarded as an international best practice. The estate was a settlement built in the 1960s, legally listed as ‘ghetto’ in the 2000s, and regenerated between 2004 and 2015 through an unprecedentedly collaborative project in Denmark. Exploring the regeneration of social housing through the concepts of liveability, place making, and sustainability, this study introduces a methodological tool which solidifies in form of a three-dimensional matrix accompanied by perspective illustrations in three scales. By this means, it registers and classifies each individual spatial intervention, discovers the relations among them and their intended goals, and builds up a new basis of knowledge for later regenerations. The tool developed bridges the theory of sustainability with the practice of regenerative design, while providing a basis of systematization and comparison for other cases aiming future implementations and decision-makers of different scales.