1.1 Geographical context

Yellow Town

CPH Village

C reating with light Figures in the margin denotes areas from fig. 1.9 Once you travel through the tunnel and reach Otto Busses Vej inside The Railway City, another perceptual problem is being raised, as the tunnel path branches to make alternate paths - towards the main districts and buildings - that are poorly signalized and not intuitive to follow. Unlike the other entrance described above, the pedestrians are those popularly associated with this square –we have observed different patterns of behavior and transition exerted by people (fx. walking their dogs, sitting on a bench nearby and chatting, delivering food on bikes, running, walking together, etc.).

Districs

The Yellow Town appeared, visually, as the core of the image of the city, due to its yellow-brick buildings that appear as you approach the square and Otto Busses Vej. Another interesting district can be found further south on Otto Busses Vej, around 5 minutes away from the Yellow Town: the lively CPH Village student dorm. Built in a way that keeps the visual connection to the surrounding area, the dorm space is of substantial size and, although still under development, can be considered a landmark as well.

SUMMARY: Our urban analysis opened up for a new vision for The Railway City to become a highly imageable city (legible and visible), that would invite not only its dwellers, but also other people to explore it. Although interchangeable, the urban elements analyzed here showed that they operate together in a context, and it would be interesting to study the characteristics of various pairings, like path-node. As such, greater attention could be given to the tunnel, as a transitional path between The Railway City and the neighborhoods around.

1.5 Social analysis

On our long walks around the city, we not only observed these stationary physical parts of the city and its urban layers, but also paid attention to its moving elements along the way, in particular the people and their activities. Jan Gehl displays a great sociological imagination when it comes to studying the built environment, which we found relevant for this point in the process. Drawing inspiration from his book on “Life between Buildings” (2011), we investigated the types of movement that people were displaying around the City, as well as the way they were spending their time within the City (fig.1.10). According to Gehl, people and human activities attract other people; they move about with others and they seek to place themselves near others (p.23). Our observations showed that most social gatherings were realized in the vicinity of the CPH Village dorm, as well as in the old railway station (Baanegarden), because of the number of local stores and amenities of high interest for the students, locals and people passing by. A high number of people has been observed in the Yellow Town as well, primarily dwellers on a walk with their dogs or commuting from one household to another. Outside of the City, on Enghavevej side, the number of people stationing or temporarily gathering was observed to be rather low, as the path on Enghavevej doesn’t support this behavior. The tunnel, although a physical link between the communities outside and inside of the City, appeared as a disengaging tool between the two, working as a purely functional device of taking people from one place to another.

Fig. 1.10: Illustration of people’s activities and the respective place they were conducted in (not statistical, just for visual representation purposes)

dwellers of Yellow Town

workers in Railway City students from CPH Village

visitors cyclist

school children

After conducting the above-mentioned unobtrusive observations inside and outside of The Railway City, we selected three user groups to conduct ethnographic research on and conclude our social analysis. Two ethnographic interviews have first been conducted: one with an elderly woman who lives in the Yellow Town and the second one with a group of three young adults that work in the office of the CPH Village dorm.

“... but this is a very special area. Because there are no other places in Denmark where the workers live, where they work. Well, the priests, but for workers, there’s no other places. So, this is very unique.” (Kirsten, elderly woman)

“I just feel like the experience, just standing here or going this way (pointing towards Fisketorvet) is very different than the other side of the school over there, with the yellow houses. It feels safe and much more attractive than the other road.” (Magnus, 29)

The first interviewee, an elderly woman that lives in the Yellow Town together with her husband, talked about the local history and how close their community is. The second sample group were young office runners at CPH Village, who described The Railway City as something Fig. 1.11: Classification of users according to the activities and movement noticed under unobtrusive observation CPH Village participant insights: Magnus (29), Ida (26), Julie (26)

confusing wayfinding “You go in and it is like you don’t know what’s in here, in this area going into the tunnel and then it opens up.”

“The first time that I went in the tunnel it was during the summer during the day. So, I couldn’t see any of the lights and I was definitely confused about where is it. You can’t really notice it because it’s only the crossing you see.”

“I’ve seen some funny graffiti down there (…). Three times in one week someone painted something like, “Corona doesn’t exist”. Then it was painted over like the next day and then it came back like 3 times.”

“I actually think it’s pretty cool. And also, like a leftover of Copenhagen history, because we used to have a lot of those tunnels. It is a little bit romantic to be in one of these because there are not many left.”

confusing wayfinding

visual interest)

visual interest Yellow Town participant insights: Kirsten, elderly woman

colour “It’s grey in all kinds of different gray colours (…) There’s only gray in gray. It’s depressing. It’s really depressing. During the wintertime, you only see gray, gray, gray, gray, and it’s popping up here and there and everywhere. (…) You don’t have any colours to look at”

“And there was a restaurant at Fisketorvet which was called The view. There is no view. And that’s why they should have kept it low (…) I don’t understand why all the buildings have to be like matchboxes”

“we are proud of our skyline. (…) We just want to keep it down here and have a free air and be able to look at sky and have the sundown”

“I was laughing once, because it was kind of cute. The whole way of the tunnel, there was lipstick kisses.”

visibility

openness

storytelling

Fig. 1.12: quotes from etnographical interviews