exploring the craft city 21 in 25 fantastic industries

SEe WWW.25FANTASTISKE.DK From backyard workshops to purpose-built industrial estate. Before World War II, more than half of ’s industrial workers worked in cramped conditions in small makeshift workshops and sheds in the centre of urban areas. An engineer might, for example, oversee 20 employees in the backyard shed behind a block of flats. But in the post-war period, Danish slums in towns and cities were cleared, providing industrial workers with better conditions. The Craft City in Valby was the first of its kind in Denmark: a purpose-built complex of workshop units formed as a single-storey plant to house small-scale industry. Though many of the original businesses have been forced to shut up shop, these small industrial units have since attracted a creative community of artists and designers. fold here 21 // the craft city in Valby

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værkstedvej

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gl. køge landevej The Craftsman’s town Værkstedsvej 8-54 2500 Valby

folehaven

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The Craft city Urban renewal 02 Construction of the Craft city: Phases 2 & 3 The Craft City was established in Valby in three phases bet- By the year 1900, lack of space in inner-city Subsequent phases retained the saw-tooth roofs, and in the ween 1953 and 1962. This carefully planned complex of work- had cramped the growth of small-scale industries which now case of Phase 2 buildings, conformed to the same high stan- shop units stands in stark contrast to the dingy backyards and moved out in droves to the city outskirts or to more outlying dard, while the reinforced concrete walls of Phase 2 buildings basements to which the industries were formerly confined. The areas that were being incorporated in the City of Copenhagen were not thick enough and had to be rebuilt. In spite of the complex was designed by the architect Ole Vinter in 1951, on such as Valby and Sundbyvester and Sundbyøster. variable construction quality, the Craft City is a good example the initiative of The National Association for Danish Enterprise, of the type of small, rational small-scale industrial building which since the 1930s had lobbied for purpose-built work- Urban planning constructed for enterprises displaced by the urban renewal shops for craftsmen and small-scale industry along English The Craft City shows how the planning norms of the 1950s- of inner-city Copenhagen and its immediate outskirts. Visitors and Swedish lines. Under the Marshall Plan, the US supported 60s were not only applied to residential districts but also to are free to explore the area and soak up the atmosphere sur- European post-war recovery including the reconstruction of small-scale industry. The ideal was to locate the large one- rounding what was once a tight-knit enclave of resettled­ Denmark. The Craft City in Valby was partly financed by storey industrial shed-buildings on designated industrial craftsmen displaced by redevelopment of the city centre. Marshall Aid and new, more advantageous credit facilities. The areas, separated from the rest of the built environment by National Association for Danish Enterprise later went on to pro- a belt of trees and bushes as smog and noise proofing. mote the establishment of similar purpose-built industrial units by distributing a pamphlet on „Terraced-house workshops on a 01 Construction of the Craftcity: Phase 1 cooperative basis – a route to rationalising small-scale indu- stries“. From the outset, the Craft City was a model for how The south side of Værkstedsvej was the first stage and con- rational workshops for small-scale industry could and should sists of three single-storey brick units with saw-tooth roofs be laid out and constructed. And similar sites and workshop with space for a total of 24 workshops. The units are all RELATED SITES: units soon proliferated as the majority of municipalities estab- white-washed concrete skeleton structures, filled in with red lished designated industrial areas. brickwork. Each gable end contains four identical bar-less Museum of Copenhagen windows and an entrance door at the side. These units, in the 59 oldest section, feature double reinforced ferro-concrete walls 1620 Copenhagen V with self-supporting roofs. There are also basement sections www.copenhagen.dk along with various small shared annex buildings and garages.