Profile: Norrebro

Like its twin Vesterbro, Nørrebro is one of the brokvarter, a dense neighborhood largely built up during the late-19th century in the height of the industrial revolution. Also like Vesterbro, Nørrebro was targeted by the city in the mid and late 20th century due to crime, derelict and degraded buildings, and the flight of the middle-class. Nørrebro was the city’s first urban renewal district and as such was the recipient of a major investment in slum-clearance and redevelopment in the 1970’s and 80’s.

These programs sought to demolish older tenement buildings, especially courtyard buildings which tended to be of poorer quality and lacked direct access to the street. They were replaced with lower density blocks of flats owned by social housing associations. These buildings tend to be much longer than those they replaced meaning they could dominate entire block-faces, and had unadorned facades, mechanized construction materials and methods, and an overall distant, institutional character. They also had far fewer units than in the razed tenements, exacerbating a growing housing shortage.

This process of demolition and redevelopment saw a backlash in the 1980’s, both by typical neighborhood residents and a group of disaffected youth who, in the absence of affordable housing, took to squatting in many of the condemned buildings. Attempts by the city to evict the squatters lead to a series of clashes between these youth, who came to be known as the BZ, and the city throughout the 80’s, 90’s and aughts over urban renewal programs, including several large scale riots and street clashes with police. Later urban renewal programs abandoned this approach in favor of investments in existing building stock, in addition to investments in public areas and community organizations.

Nørrebro today remains a gritty neighborhood. Many buildings are covered in graffiti and a large Muslim immigrant population has made the district its home. At the same time, gentrification in the sections of the neighborhood closest to downtown has already displaced some of the low-income population. The neighborhood is a mix of restored late 19th century buildings and 70's-80's social housing blocks, with a few heavy traffic arteries crossing through.

The neighborhood around Superkilen park epitomizes the district, with the award-winning park, a large community center with a wealth of inventive programs, and a public library all within a block of each other. The park lies at the junction of two major bike routes, a bus route, and is two blocks south of an elevated S-train light rail line. The park incorporates objects and outdoor furniture from many different countries, in an attempt to reflect and embrace the national diversity of the people that make use of the park. It is a bit cluttered and disorganized, like the district itself, and it well-loved by local residents and tourists alike.

The population in the 4.1 km2  of Nørrebro is 79,700 making it the most populated district in the city, with a density of 19,440 per km2 (50,350 per sq mi), which lies somewhere between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York City. The old sections of the neighborhood has an urban form that it difficult to describe objectively. It feels geometric. I think it is right in the sweet spot between the buildings dominating and the open spaces dominating. There is enclosure. It feels as though the open spaces have been subtracted from the mass, rather than that the buildings have been added to a void. I haven't done any 3-D modelling for this project but these buildings make me want to. I don't know if there is any other way to capture it.