Charrette 2017 brings new life to Copenhagen NV

The yearly Charette is an international design work-shop in which 70 students from all over the world, including KEA and partner institutions, teachers and international advisors, in just one week have developed innovative and green ideas in order to breathe new life into four selected areas in Copenhagen North West.

This time, the Charette has been co-operating with Vibe & Tone – a company specialised in urban development, entrepreneurship and many other things in the north-western local area, and the theme of the year was `Urban Health´.

A group of students from the international BA in Architectural Technology and Construction Management has been working with Nørrebro Station focusing on breathing new life into its grey buildings.

”Our goal is to breathe more life and soul into Nørrebro Station by installing colourful lights and street lamps so that everyone feels safer. On top of that, we have arranged an event where people can come and paint the walls of the station to make it more personal,” says Rikke Kirchoff.

She tells us that the Nørrebro assignment was particularly challenging since the area holds many different cultures and nationalities.

”It takes even more effort to unite the inhabitants of this area. But it has been a hugely interesting project in which we had to work at breakneck speed”.

Another group had been working with Grønningen. This area is quite empty and only scarcely developed. The group had developed a park with lots of activities for the inhabitants such as a play-ground, a football field and bee-hives.

”Bee-hives are a kind of green houses, which create communities. In the bee-hives, people can grow vegetables and gather round the green life,” says Costin Ignat.

The idea of the group was to create a community in the vacant area through green activities.

”Creating new activities and opportunities for an urban area is enriching. And I learned a lot from my fellow group members because I worked so intensely with them for a week,” says Alin Costin Ignat.