CHURCH OF ( ) EX CHANGE Transforming one of the empty churches in the heart of Copenhagen into a School of Welfare
JAKOB HARRY HYBEL, STUD4123 URBANISM & SOCIETAL CHANGE KADK, FALL 2016
CONTENT INTRODUCTION
1
THE CONDITIONS
5
THE AMBITION
18
THE SITE
21
THE PROGRAM
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POSTSCRIPT
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APPENDICES
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LITTERATURE
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CV
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“Looking at how [refugees] are housed, we can only conclude that there is no urban strategy enabling us to absorb them within the heart of our economy, our cities and our communities.� Wouter Vanstiphout (2015)
Introduction
INTRODUCTION On Ottiliavej in the industrial part of Valby, sandwiched between old run-down factories and the local police station, lies an anonymous 1960s office building. If it wasn’t for the scaffolding and some video-surveillance signs, you probably would not think twice about what was going on inside. Turning the corner you find the barred up entrance. Once buzzed in, you climb a flight of stairs to find what was formerly an open-plan office, but has now by way of dividing walls been transformed into a series of unnecessarily wide hallways with rooms on either side. The white plaster walls do very little to reveal what might be going on on the other side. A couple of things are hinting at domesticity, though: a few Islamic patterned doormats here and there and the barely noticeable scent of what appears to be Oriental spices emanating from behind the walls. In faint gusts, the exotic scents are spilling out into the hallway, where they are immediately drowned in the building’s ever-present stuffy and moldy smell. These are the conditions that the 83 refugees, Copenhagen has received up until now, have been met with. The complete and utter anonymity of Ottilia House reflects the fact that the refugees are only supposed to stay there for a limited amount of time. Exactly for how long, though, no-one really knows.
1
Introduction
The anonymous office building on Ottiliavej in Valby houses the Ottilia House, which offers temporary housing to refugees coming to Copenhagen.
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Introduction
Outside a few of the rooms in the otherwise anonymous hallways have been individualized ever so slightly by some Islamic patterned rugs. In one case, a T-shirt has taken on the role of doormat.
3
Introduction
One of the unoccupied rooms has been converted into a provisional playroom, but aside from a few boxes of toys in the corner, it is still furnished exactly as all other rooms.
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The conditions
THE CONDITIONS Between the increasing amount of unrest and the increasing mobility of people globally, we know that the flow of migrants is not likely to stop anytime soon. Perhaps it never will. In any case, if we don’t want the next refugee crisis to take us completely by surprise, we have to stop looking at the situation as a state of exception and start accepting it as the rule. And we know from the last surge of refugees from the Balkans in the 1990s that those most successfully integrated were those most likely to return to their home country, once the conflict there had ended (Ankestyrelsen, 2014). So no matter where you stand politically on the issue of immigration, there is no reason not to do whatever is possible to ensure that those that have already arrived are becoming as well-integrated as possible. But what is the most effective way to integrate? Needless to say, this is a very complex issue with many different, often overlapping interests and aspects – from the economic to the political to the practical – and the entire discourse seems to be a perpetual tug-of-war between pragmatism and idealism. This project does not aim to settle the issue of integration. What it does aim to do is to explore it from an architectural point of view – specifically in relation to how the issue of refugee housing is currently being discussed in Copenhagen. It will be an investigation into how architecture can somehow help to accelerate the integration process and improve the refugees’ chances of becoming an active part of Danish society. Of becoming an asset instead of a burden.
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The conditions
A by now familiar sight: Refugees crossing the Danish border from Germany, walking along the Jutlandian freeway in large numbers.
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The conditions
247-410 411-480 481-570 571-2.000
Despite the fact that Copenhagen has by far the best job- and education opportunities – in addition to the best public infrastructure and the most ethnically and culturally diverse population – the city has grossly neglected its responsibilities in terms of accepting refugees. On the left: Amount of refugees referred. On the right: Amount of job vacancies. Data from Danmarks Statistik (2015)
7
The conditions
0-6 % 7-8 % 9-9 % +10 %
8
The conditions
CLUSTERING OR SCATTERING? Within the Copenhagen City Council there is a widespread and persistent conviction that the clustering of refugees should be avoided at all cost. So great is the fear of ghettoization that before any integration efforts are introduced, the refugees must first be scattered evenly across the city. The recent municipal budget agreement clearly reflected this clusterfobia: the refugees currently living in Ottilia House in Valby must be moved from their temporary accommodation into the council housing sector. This should be done as soon as possible within a period of maximum six months. However, recent studies from Germany are, at least partly, deflating the municipality’s assumption that clustering per definition inhibits integration. As it turns out, the opposite is often the case: under the right circumstances, ethnic clustering can actually help the refugees. Especially those most traumatized tend to benefit from living among people to whom they can relate and with whom they can communicate (Schmal, 2016). After having endured the hazardous, often traumatizing journey to get here, followed by the painstaking asylum process once they have arrived, they badly need a calm place to settle down. But not just anywhere and definitely not in the suburban backyards of ethnic Danish families (see p10). What they need is a place, where they know they will have time to build up their new life – on their own terms. A place to build up social networks in a country otherwise foreign to them. If we allow this clustering – on the right scale and within a well-functioning urban context – the refugees might just end up being fully equipped to enter into their new host society as active, productive citizens.
9
The conditions
“This new agreement ensures that sufficient resources have been allocated to properly receive the refugees coming to Copenhagen and who should be integrated in our city.” Frank Jensen (S) Lord Mayor of Copenhagen
A so-called ‘Venligbolig’ by ONV arkitekter. The questionable assumption here is that once the refugees get to live among Danes they will automatically become Danes themselves. The ‘Venligbolig’ concept has been embraced by a growing number of municipalities, including Frederiksberg.
10
The Theconditions ambition
THE NECESSARY LINK As Danes, we are born and raised into the welfare system. And so, having been so completely indoctrinated, we often tend to assume that all people coming to our country automatically share our enthusiasm. With refugees this is seldom the case. Coming from a failed state, often a totalitarian regime, many have an ingrained skepticism towards – if not downright distrust of – all forms of organized government. Believing that these people can instantly accept what we have spent our entire lives learning to appreciate, would be both unreasonable – and ultimately, unproductive. If we expect them to agree to a new social contract, they need to be gradually introduced to the values of our welfare system. In order to do that we need a mediating entity. In Copenhagen this role is more or less exclusively filled by Trampoline House, a citizen-run community center for refugees and asylum seekers, currently housed in an old industrial building in the Northwestern part of the city. The self-funded Trampoline House was started in 2010 by a group of students and artists in collaboration with a small group of asylum seekers as an alternative to the municipality’s often inefficient integration efforts. A central concept in their work is to give the refugees and asylum seekers agency in their own lives. They are included both in running the house and in the day-today decision making. Another important area of focus is the creation of social alliances between the refugees and local residents through various social activities aimed at fostering a sense of community and ownership.
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The Theconditions ambition
“You might say that Trampoline House works precisely because it is not run by the municipality, but the refugees themselves along with socially engaged students.� Tone Olaf Nielsen, founder of Trampoline House
The heart of Trampoline House is the central multi-purpose space with small groups of couches and tables and chairs. It is important that the users feel that they can make the place their own, so they are encouraged to bring in their own furniture.
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The conditions
GRUNDTVIG 2.0: RE-IMAGINING THE FOLK HIGH SCHOOL AS A SCHOOL OF WELFARE For some years now, Roskilde and a few other municipalities have been testing an alternative integration program. After observing the general skepticism with which many refugees approached all municipal-led integration efforts, they decided to try something new: for the first six months, after the refugees have been referred from the asylum center to the municipality, they have been required to stay at a folk high school. So far, the initiative has been an overwhelming success – for everyone involved. From a municipal point of view, it took some of the pressure off, as it bought them more time to find suitable, longterm accommodation. For the refugees, they have gotten acquainted with Danish culture and language – not to mention the quintessentially Danish foreningsliv (‘association life’) – in a way they would not otherwise have. From the point of view of the folk high schools, the initiative has been a welcome response to the widespread criticism that they are increasingly becoming schools for the ethnic Danish middle class instead of a school for the enlightenment of society’s most marginalized groups, which was the basis of their foundation (see appendix C). So what if this successful reactualization of Grundtvig’s ideals was paired with the social alliance building of Trampoline House? This could result in a new institution, a place of living and learning for the refugees coming to Copenhagen. We might call it a School of Welfare. The big question, of course, would then be: where to house such an institution in a city with such a high squaremeter price?
13
The conditions
“When the refugees return [from the folk high school], they’ve got a much better idea of what it’s like to live in Denmark. I could have arranged courses for them on what it means to be Danish, but they would never have gotten it under their skin in the same way.” Dorte Vesterborg, integration worker, Odense Municipality
Refugees referred to an increasing number of municipalities are obliged to stay at one of the municipality’s folk high school, in this case Kalø Folk High School north of Aarhus.
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The conditions
THE EMPTY CHURCHES OF COPENHAGEN: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY At one point last year, prior to the arrival of the first refugees, Copenhagen Municipality concluded an extensive mapping of all existing building mass that might be suited for permanent refugee housing. This survey included old office buildings, industrial buildings, even basements in residential housing blocks. Interestingly, though, one group of buildings were noticeably absent: the city’s 16 empty churches (see appendix D). A popular argument in the discussion about church reuse is that the city’s residents are too emotionally attached to allow for any radical transformation of the empty churches. In reality, however, Copenhageners tend to be quite pragmatic and unsentimental about the issue. In fact, a large majority agree that the empty churches should be transformed, even if it means using them for non-religious purposes (Nielsen, 2014). Naturally, the transformation of a church – loaded, as it most often is, with religious symbols and strict hierarchies of spaces – will always present a challenge. But the churches should be transformed, not despite of their many layers of culture and history – but indeed because of them. For if there is one thing that history has taught us, it is that the churches have always had the capacity of adapting to new needs (see p19-20). So why don’t we exploit this great tradition of adaptability and give new life to our redundant churches in a way that allows them to once again benefit the city and its residents? Not as an echo of the past, but as an institution very much of our time: a contemporary cathedral of cultural co-existence.
15
The conditions
“We need to relate realistically to the churches. Once the people who have been involved in them are moving somewhere else or have died, it makes absolutely no sense to keep them as churches. Especially not in Copenhagen, where the housing situation is worst of all places.� Hans Raun Iversen, Professor of Practical Theology at Center for Church Research at the University of Copenhagen
Church flight. Danes are becoming increasingly secularized and nowhere is this fact more evident than in Copenhagen, where the number of people leaving the national church has been more or less steadily increasing for years.
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The conditions
So, in summary: -- Refugees have begun to arrive in Copenhagen and are currently housed temporarily in an old office building far from the city center. -- After a period of maximum six months the refugees must have been moved into permanent council housing apartments. Whether this is manageable remains to be seen, but it will unquestionably put further pressure on an already overburdened council housing sector. -- Studies have shown that, for the first period after they have arrived in a new country, it can be an advantage for the refugees, especially those most vulnerable, to live close to people with the same culture and traditions as themselves. -- Refugees are hesitant to take part in their mandatory three-year integration program, that the municipalities are required to offer. In Roskilde they have tried sending the refugees for a six months stay at a folk high school. This has made them much more receptive to Danish language, culture and traditions. -- Copenhagen municipality has been mapping out empty buildings within the city that might be suitable to house refugees. The city’s 16 empty churches was not included in the survey.
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The ambition
THE AMBITION This project proposes a new institution in Copenhagen, a School of Welfare, that will serve as a mediating link between the refugees and the Danish society. As a symbolic gesture, it will be placed – not in the isolated outskirts of the city – but in one of the Copenhagen’s largest, most centrally located churches, which is currently standing empty. This School of Welfare – which both ideologically and spatially will be modeled after the Grundtvigian folk high school – will be a place where refugees can live for a period of three years after having arrived in Copenhagen. During their stay they will gradually be introduced to the core values of the Danish welfare state in a tangible, engaging way. It should be a place of cultural transition for the refugees. A place where they will be given time to gradually adapt to their new host society. But it should also work the other way around: by making the refugees visible in the city, the host society will get the chance to gradually adapt to its guests as well. In this way, the project aims to relate both to the ongoing discussion about church reuse but also a more general discussion about integration in the city.
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THE PEOPLE’S CHURCH, A BRIEF HISTORY
A PLACE OF REFUGE
A DEMOCRATIZED SPACE
1300s-1536 Up until the time of the reformation, the churches were widely considered to be a place of refuge. A place where anyone could seek and be granted ‘church asylum’. This notion of the church as a sanctuary was closely related to Catholicism and so, with the Reformation this praxis was pretty much de facto rejected.
1890s- When N.F.S. Grundtvig started his people’s enlightenment movement in the late 1800s, he coined the Danish term Folkekirken (‘The People’s Church’). He did this in order to express the new role of the church, as he saw it, as belonging not to a few but to everyone. Grundtvig saw a potential for the church to become a platform to democratize knowledge and to communicate Danish core values.
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A POLITICIZED SPACE, PT. 1 1990s In 1992, a group of 72 stateless Palestinians occupied Blågårds Church on Nørrebro after having been denied asylum in Denmark. After 154 days in the church and vocal protests from more than 600 of the country’s priests all 72 refugees were granted permitted residence in Denmark.
A POLITICIZED SPACE, PT. 2 2000s In 2009, a group of illegalized Iraqi refugees occupied Brorson Church on Nørrebro in Copenhagen after having been denied asylum. Despite achieving a lot of media coverage as well as attention from both the public and politicians, they were evicted after a brief period of occupation and subsequently deported.
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A COMMUNITY SPACE 2010s- Church transformations is a relatively new tendency in Denmark. Especially compared to the UK or the Netherlands, for instance, where they have been a familiar sight since the 1980s. However, a few noteworthy transformation projects are underway in Copenhagen. Among them is Absalon Church on Vesterbro, which is now a contemporary community center (the founder describes it as a ‘folk’s house’) doubling as a popular café/bar/restaurant.
The site
THE SITE St. Andrew Church was built from 1898 to 1901 and financed by donations from the local parish as well as funds supplied by the municipality. For this reason, the church – which is one of the 16 churches in Copenhagen that was declared redundant in 2012 – today belongs to the parishioners and it is the church council of Vor Frue Parish that is currently renting it out. The church is chosen as a site for the following reasons: a) Centrality and recognizability b) Convertibility c) Size and composition d) Adjacency to campus area e) Adjacency to health services f) Access to public transport networks
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The site
St. Andrew Church, Gothersgade 148, 1123 Copenhagen C. Built 1901 by architect Martin Borch, 2.270 m2, one of two churches in the parish (Vor Frue), not listed.
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The site
a) Centrality and recognizability The church is a highly recognizable building in the central part of Copenhagen, prominently located on the corner of Gothersgade and Østre Farimagsgade, very close to Nørreport station. Its tall spire, towering over all the surrounding buildings, makes the church a distinct center of orientation. b) Convertibility The church has a very unique appearance compared to its context. With its late Romanesque-style exterior – the granite plinth, the red brick walls, the narrow, arched stained glass windows – the church looks more like the village churches of Zealand than with any of its immediate neighbors. Furthermore, the church is not listed and there is currently no local plan for the area. c) Size and composition With its spacious nave and several smaller, adjoining rooms, the gross floor area of the church is 2.270 m2. This makes St. Andrew by far the largest of the 16 churches that have been declared redundant in Copenhagen up until now. d) Adjacency to campus The church is situated on the southern corner of the old Municipal Hospital that now houses the campus of Copenhagen University’s Department of Social Sciences. Incidentally, because of this – in addition to the above mentioned – the church has previously been considered by the municipality as a possible site for student housing. e) Adjacency to health services Aside from the institutes of public health science and psychology, the old Municipal Hospital also houses the center of general medicine, as well as private research and general medicine clinics. f) Access to public transport network The church is a mere few minutes walk from the major public transport hub Nørreport Station and several bus lines are running past the site, among which the popular 14 and 5A.
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Botanical Garden Café ‘Kommunen’ Center of General Medicine Chr. Hansen Auditorium Institute Library for Social Science
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11 Queen Louise’s Bridge 12 School of Global Health 13 Torvehallerne 14 University canteen 15 University park
The site
The towering spire of St. Andrew Church, view from Ă˜stre Farimagsgade looking north-east.
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The site
Interior view of Saint Andrew’s spacious, rib-vaulted church nave.
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The site
St. Andrew Church. Ground floor plan
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St. Andrew Church. Longitudinal secti
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The site
St. Andrew Church. Cross-section
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The site
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The site
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The program
THE PROGRAM The project will consist of 1) a transformation of the existing church, and 2) an extension to the church. The two strategies will each house different parts of the program, but will be joined together by an overall spatial organization inspired by the layout of a typical Grundtvigian folk high school. THE TRANSFORMATION: A SPACE FOR LEARNING The church with its adjacent buildings, will be transformed in order to accommodate spaces for teaching, working and social activities, both in-between residents but with non-residents. Generally, this part of the program will be outward-facing, as its primary purpose will be to function as a multi-cultural meeting place that will capitalize on the already well-functioning urban context, within which the site is positioned. The program will be subdivided in three overall categories: a) private teaching facilities primarily aimed at the residents, b) public facilities open to all, but primarily aimed at attracting non-residents and c) public/private facilities that will be open to the public, but maintained by the residents. A key theme in the transformation will be how to relate the new program to the existing structure of the church and its ingrained symbolism.
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The program
10 m
SUGGESTED TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM: Private teaching facilities (e.g. administration, class rooms, kitchen/ dining area): 800 m2 Public ‘attractors’ (e.g. community spaces, library, food court, café, vegetable garden): 1.000 m2 Public/private facilities (e.g. play rooms, office space, laundry room, workshops): 900 m2
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The program
THE EXTENSION: A SPACE FOR LIVING The area between the church and the campus – currently only used for parking, storage and as a waste deposit (see p31-32) – clearly appears like the church’s backside. And it is only further emphasized by the fact that it is only accessible through a gate from the corner of Nansensgade and Bartholinsgade. New housing units will be added here as an extension to the existing church volume in order to create a new perimeter towards the university campus. This part of the program will be primarily inward-facing and will be aimed at creating a sense of privacy, while at the same time opening up to the lush, green park by the university canteen in the old Municipal Hospital’s half-open, south-facing courtyard (see p25-26). Flexibility and graduation of privacy will be areas of particular focus. A reference here will be the Syrian courtyard house, in which the extended family structure has called for the possibility of semi-independent subunits functioning independently, but still maintaining a connection to the shared spaces (see p50). The extension will attach itself to the existing characteristically skewed composition of building volumes. The angularity and juxtaposition of elements that define the existing church complex will be key motives in the design of the added elements.
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The program
10 m
SUGGESTED EXTENSION PROGRAM: Private dwellings (including common areas): 1.600 m2 SUGGESTED PROGRAM, TOTAL: 4.300 m2
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Postscript
POSTSCRIPT Adnan is a Syrian carpenter. He has been living at the School of Welfare for two years now. He is sitting in the café, waiting for Søren, who is a bricklayer with his own small business on Nørrebro. They have been talking about starting a class on entrepreneurialism and workmanship at the school. The café where they are meeting is a part of the large multi-functional community space, which on Tuesdays and Fridays, like today, is being turned into a food court. Amira, a young Iraqi girl, is arranging her homegrown vegetables. Next to her, Ranim, a middle-aged Syrian women, is setting up her stand with homemade Syrian delicacies. Katrine, a student at the neighbouring Center for Health and Society, is helping them set up, while teaching them to write short texts in Danish. Adnan knows Katrine, she is teaching him Danish on Wednesdays. She also helps out in the café in the weekends and in the library on weekdays. It is early morning still but the open multi-space is already bustling with life. The many activities almost reminds him of the old bazaar of his hometown. Sometimes he almost forgets that it used to be a church. An old grey-haired man is curiously circulating the food stalls, carefully observing the preparations. Adnan smiles to himself as he overhears the man confide in his wife that he never thought he would appreciate what he insistently refers to as ‘ethnic food’, but the hummus that they have here is delicious. After his meeting with Søren, Adnan decides to drop by to visit his friend Sayid in one of the workshops. Ahmed is enthusiastically hammering away on an old rusty bike that he is fixing up. Sayid is originally an auto-mechanic, he never thought he’d be repairing anything else than cars, definitely not bikes. But you have to give people what they want, as he says. On his way out, Adnan teasingly asks his friend when he’s going to learn to ride a bike himself. There’s a class every Monday. Sayid smiles overbearingly and shrugs. In the afternoon, he gets to work on a large dining table that he is building as a surprise gift for his next door neighbours Sami and Rashi. They have just been told that their family reunification
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Postscript
application has been approved and so, he figured, they will soon need a bigger table. On Saturday he has promised to help them build an additional bedroom. As he drops off the table later that evening, Sami and Rashi are thrilled and invite him in for evening tea. The family of four, soon to be five, live in one of the medium sized, but very well-utilized apartments. Their oldest son, Halil, is dying to tell him about what he learned in his class on Dalgas and the cooperative movement. Adnan listens thoughtfully. Maybe that was something he could use in his class as well? He has to tell Søren the next time they meet. Adnan thanks for the tea and walks the few steps to his front door. He is living in one of the smaller apartments but he loves how it is arranged. From his small balcony he sits for a while observing the small kids playing in his small courtyard. Then he pulls a book out of his bag that he found in the library. He usually picks books in Arabic, but Søren recommended him this one and he thought he might give it a chance. It’s a copy of ‘En flygtning krydser sit spor’ by Aksel Sandemose.
SUGGESTED DELIVERABLES: 1:2.000 site plan 1:200 plan, section 1:50 section and/or elevation details Axonometric drawing(s) 1:500 site model 1:200/1:100 model 1:50/1:20 section model In addition, spatial visualizations and diagrams to the extent required.
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Appendices
APPENDIX A: THE ASYLUM PROCESS IN DENMARK
When a refugee decides to seek asylum in Denmark, the first step is to report to the police. The asylum seeker is here interviewed about his travel route and his/her identity is determined. The Immigration Service then decides whether the case should be processed in Denmark. If the case is to be processed here, the applicant is interviewed about the events in his or her home country and the reasons for their seeking asylum. During the initial interviews the asylum seeker stays at the reception center Sandholm. Afterwards, the applicant is referred to a residence center for the processing period. If asylum is denied, the case is transferred to the Refugee Board, which acts as a court. The applicant gets a lawyer assigned to their case. The Refugee Board’s decision is final. If the Refugee Board is refusing asylum, the applicant must leave voluntarily. If the person refuses, he or she must stay at a departure center under very strict rules. Ultimately, the police may escort the person out of the country. If asylum is granted, the person is referred to a municipal that must take care of housing, language tuition and economic support. It is in this last phase that this project takes its point of departure.
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Appendices
DUBLIN PROCEDURE Another EU country might be responsible for handling the case
REGISTRATION Identity check > interview with the police
PHASE 1
1 WEEK Form filling 2-6 MONTHS Interview with Immigration Service
NORMAL PROCEDURE 1 MONTH
MANIFESTLY UNFOUNDED Danish Refugee Council can veto, then the case goes to normal procedure
Immigration Service rejects asylum
Immigration Service grants asylum
PHASE 2
2-3 MONTHS
APPEAL Automatically, the case goes to Flygtningenævnet (Refugee Board) - the state provides a lawyer free of charge
REJECTION The refugee must leave Denmark
ASYLUM GRANTED 3 years integration program in
HUMANITARIAN CASE can be an option, processed by Ministry of Immigration
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a municipality
PHASE 3
Appendices
APPENDIX B.1: IMAGES FROM OTTILIA HOUSE
The barred-up entrance of Ottilia House, framed by scaffolding, videosurveillance signs and a couple of sagging potted plants.
A sparsely furnished 18 m2 room for a couple without children. If or when the need should presents itself, these rooms might be shared by two unrelated singles.
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Appendices
A 38 m2 three-bed family room. As the residents are not allowed to make subdivisions, small children are being sent to the hallway to play.
All family rooms contain a sparsely equipped tea kitchen with a fridge, a kettle and a cupboard. Yet many prefer this over the oversized common kitchen.
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Appendices
APPENDIX B.2: SPATIAL LAYOUT OF OTTILIA HOUSE
Ottilia House. First floor plan
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Appendices
Ottilia House. Second floor plan
5m
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Appendices
APPENDIX B.3: INTERVIEW, OTTILIA HOUSE
Extracts from interview with integration worker at Ottilia House, 08-09-16: “[...]Whoever designed this place, there’s a lot they didn’t consider. They should have hired someone that knows something about how people are living. Everything is built as if it was an office landscape for people that just work here during the day and go home in the evening. [...] Residents are in charge of all cleaning. It can be very difficult, getting that to work properly. [...] The kitchen is a particular challenge. The people that use it have to clean it themselves, which means that the few people do use it have to clean it constantly. And when it is also used as a children’s playroom and passage, then it gets challenging. But it takes time to build up a culture of collaboration, and if I have to say something generalizing from my own experience, it seems that a lot of these people – I think because they have lived in an authoritarian regime – they haven’t been raised in the same system as us, where there is a clear correlation between responsibilities and influence. [...] We’re not separating between genders, even though that was the original thought. It was just one of those automatic assumptions but there’s no need. [...] This room is 38 m2 and fits three to four people, which means it can be a couple with small children or a couple with an older child. They can put things on the walls but they are not allowed to put up dividing walls. [...]
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When they arrive they receive the room with just a few basic amenities: a fridge, a cupboard and an electric kettle. However, because it is an old office building, you can’t really use the kettle in most of the sockets. Noone really thought about that. I can’t even remember which can be used and which can’t – imagine explaining that to 83 refugees! [...] When they move out, they have to leave all the furniture here, but they do get to keep the linen. It’s just one of those things that we have accepted. Also, they are not paying any rent for the first month of their stay here, because often there is delay on their allowance. I mean, these are just things you need to be pragmatic about. That’s the only way that this can work. [...] This room is 18 m2, it’s for a couple with no children, but right now a few single people live in rooms like this, too. Normally a single room is smaller, 12 m2. But we’re not at full capacity yet, so we’re not exploiting all the square meters. We’ll most likely have a full house before around new year. The place has been built for 150 people, but in reality it fits way less. Again, it’s not built by people that know anything about how people live. [...] We have a certain amount of rooms, but it doesn’t mean that they can necessarily fit all types of households. In order for us to fully exploit all of our square meters, we have to have a certain combination of households. So that means that two people that aren’t related could end up sharing a 18 m2 room. But we are doing everything we can to avoid it. We know it will only cause conflicts…”
Appendices
Flyer to be pinned up in Ottilia House in Valby and Trampoline House in Copenhagen NW and other relevant institutions encouraging refugees to share some experiences from their life in Copenhagen.
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Appendices
APPENDIX C: THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOL
The folk high school movement started to take form in the mid-1800s as a reaction to the established education system, which was considered hopelessly conservative and elitist. The founder N.F.S. Grundtvig wanted to educate the common people – namely the peasantry – through personal development; a concept Grundtvig referred to as ‘the living word’. The key idea behind this concept was that the teaching should not be text-based as a majority of the peasants were illiterate. Instead, the teachings should present them with the things they needed to know to become active citizens – in an engaging, identifiable way. This inclusive ideology also translated into the physical layout of the school buildings. Everything was designed in a way that was familiar, yet at the same time slightly different from that to which they were accustomed. The teaching buildings would be organized around a central courtyard space, much like a typical Danish farm built around a square. From the central courtyard, a series of spaces with graduated degrees of privacy would filter outwards towards the semi-private rooms, often shared between two-three people. Interestingly, there are several parallels between the spatial organization of the folk high school and that of the Syrian courtyard house, which is also centered around a common space and has flexible rooms to accommodate extended family (see p49-50).
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Rødding folk high school in Jutland was one of the first of its kind.
48
Appendices
THE DANISH FOLK HIGH SCHOOL
4
3
3
4
4
4
2
2
4
1
2
2
3
4 3
3
Semi-private space
1
Courtyard
Semi-public space
2
Teaching facilities
Shared space
3
Common facilities
4
Private rooms
49
Appendices
THE SYRIAN COURTYARD HOUSE
3
2
4
1
2
3
3
Private space
1
Courtyard
Semi-private space
2
Social space (‘iwan’)
Shared space
3
Private room
4
Guest room
50
Appendices
APPENDIX D: THE DIMINISHED ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN COPENHAGEN
30.000
25.000
20.000
15.000
10.000
5.000 2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Church flight. Number of Copenhagen residents leaving the people’s church. Data from Danmarks Statistik.
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As many of the city’s parishes are shrinking, so too is the cultural and societal significance of many of its churches. As a consequence of this, 16 of the city’s 136 churches were declared redundant in 2012. Five of these have already been sold (in red) and are in the process of being transformed.
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APPENDIX E: ASSOCIATIONS INVOLVED WITH INTEGRATION AND BUILDING SOCIAL ALLIANCES A key part of any successful integration process is the creation of social alliances. The list of civic groups and associations, currently working towards improving the integration of refugees in Copenhagen is long and diverse: You have activist groups like the grassroots organization Venligboerne, or the citizen-run community center for refugees Trampoline House. You have non-profit associations like celebrity-chef Claus Meyer’s charitable foundation Melting Pot that teaches socially marginalized groups about food and entrepreneurship, or the urban garden project Grøn Kirke (Green Church) that promotes integration through gardening. But you also have more informal organizations like the Iranian book club on Nørrebro, offering Iranians living in Denmark a library of banned Iranian literature. What these different groups have in common is that they are either decentralized or they are forced to operate outside of the city.
53
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IRANIAN BOOK CLUB
54
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LITERATURE BOOKS: Gravgaard, A. (2001) Storbyens virkeliggjorte længsler - Kirkerne i København og på Frederiksberg 1860-1940. Foreningen til Gamle Bygningers Bevaring. Nielsen, H. B. (2014). Ny brug af danske kirkebygninger. Kirkefondet. Provoost, M. & Vanstiphout, W. (2015). City of Comings and Goings. In: Hendriks, M. et al. (Editor) Landscape Architecture and Urban Design in the Netherlands Yearbook 2015. Blauwdruk. Schmal, P. C. et al. (2016). Making Heimat – Germany, Arrival Country. Hatje Cantz.
REPORTS: Ankestyrelsen (2014). Bosniske krigsflygtninge fra medio 90’erne: Fakta om integration, 2014. Kultur og Fritidsforvaltningen, Københavns Kommune (2015). Bilag 1: Københavns Ejendommes redegørelse for mulige boliger til flygtninge. Kommunernes Landsforening (2015) Kommunale veje til god integration – et inspirationskatalog om gode kommunale integrationsindsatser.
ARTICLES: http://politiken.dk/debat/kroniken/premium/ECE3041546/vil-du-haveen-flygtning-i-din-baghave-lav-en-venligbolig/ (accessed 01-09-16). http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/kirke-tro/2014-11-12/ k%C3%B8benhavnsk-kirke-skal-lejes-ud (accessed 01-09-16). https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/2014-06-27/kirkehistorisk-lukketkirke-laves-om-til-boliger (accessed 01-09-16).
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CV
STUDIES:
2014-2016
Royal Danish Academy of Art, School of Architecture Urbanism & Societal Change
2011-2014
Royal Danish Academy of Art, School of Architecture Department 10
2008-2009
Royal Danish Academy of Art, School of Architecture Department 7
2008
VERA - Scool of Art and Design
2006-2007
University of Copenhagen German
2002-2005
Frederiksborg High School
OCCUPATION:
2016-
Sun & Cam Student assistant
2015-
HYP arkitekter IVS Co-owner and founding partner
2015-2016
PARK Student assistant
2015
EFFEKT Intern
2014
PARK Intern
2012-2016
Danish Architecture Center Writer and co-editor arcspace.com
2010-2012
Danish Business Authority, Danish EXPO Association Student assistant
56
URBANISM & SOCIETAL CHANGE KADK, FALL 2016