Architecture, Design and Conservation Danish Portal for Artistic and Scientific Research Aarhus School of Architecture // Design School Kolding // Royal Danish Academy Urban Youth & Outdoor Space in Gellerup Nielsen, Tom; Terkelsen, Katrine Duus ; Schneidermann, Nanna ; Pedersen, Leo ; Hoehne, Stefan ; Thelle, Mikkel ; Bürk, Thomas ; Nielsen, Morten Publication date: 2015 Link to publication Citation for pulished version (APA): Nielsen, T., Terkelsen, K. D., Schneidermann, N., Pedersen, L., Hoehne, S., Thelle, M., Bürk, T., & Nielsen, M. (2015). Urban Youth & Outdoor Space in Gellerup: URO LAB REPORT #1. Aarhus Universitet. 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Oct. 2021 Urban Youth & Outdoor Space in Gellerup URO LAB 1 REPORT #1 0 3 INTRODUCTION : 4 Urban orders and the 1st URO LAB 6 Gellerup and Urban Youth 9 Methodolological considerations Organizing and preparing 12 the 1st URO LAB The 1st URO LAB CONTENT 15 Summary of findings from 20 the URO LAB The three 24 ‘URO Concerns’ Urban Orders 31 reconsidered Perspectives from participants 37 of the 1st URO LAB 41 The Next Steps 43 Appendix 1 : List of Participants Appendix 2 : The participants reflections on the 50 transdisciplinary methodology Appendix 3 : An engineer’s experience of the 1st URO 54 Lab: Introducing a new process model for the URO Labs 2 cover photo by : Silvio Zangarini 3 cover photo by : Silvio Zangarini photo found on compfight flickr search egine, under creative commmons license Urban Orders (URO) tion, flexible physical plan- is a transdisciplinary re- ning schemes and a truly search network based at transdisciplinary dialogue. Aarhus University, Den- Still, while a praxis-orient- mark, which focuses on ed understanding of such the relationship between urban orders is vital for de- the appropriation of urban veloping viable and inclu- spaces and new forms sive cities, it rarely - if ever - of urban citizenship. Tak- orients urban planning and ing ‘urban order’ to signify city management today. a dynamic regularity in With URO, it is our ambition the relationship between to change this agenda. social life in the city and its physical environment, The core activities of URO which has emerged with- center around four ‘URO out overall coordination, Laboratories’ (UROLabs) to control or use of force, occur from 2015-17 in four the aim of URO is to de- collaborator cities: Aarhus, velop new transdisciplinary Berlin, Johannesburg and methods for harnessing the New Orleans. potentials of existing urban Organised by local steer- orders as a basis for creat- ing groups, each UROLab ing viable and democratic will explore empirical global cities. cases of urban orderings. Based on insights from With URO, we argue that these four case-studies, global cities today contain our aim is to harness the multiple and overlapping potentials of the different forms of urban orderings, ’urban orders’ for develop- which, if properly exam- ing a new transdisciplinary ined, might serve as a approach to global urban basis for making sustain- development focusing Urban Orders and the 1st URO LAB Urban Orders on civic participation and INTRODUCTION able urban development based on civic participa- flexible physical planning. 4 The 1st UROLab was held in Aarhus 28-29 May 2015 and involved academics and practitioners from all collaborator cities except Johannesburg. The theme for the 1st UROLab was ‘Gellerup, youth and out- door spaces’. Focusing on the ongoing upgrading of the Gellerup Park on the western outskirts of Aarhus (the largest urban upgrad- ing project in Denmark), the aim of the 1st UROLab was for the participants to collectively discuss the contested status of the area’s urban youth in rela- tion to the use of outdoor spaces and, on this basis, consider new ways of har- nessing the Gellerup Park’s potentials for developing a more integrative urban environment. This report describes the 1st URO Lab from its in- ception and planning to the actual realization. It outlines main findings and suggests ways of refin- ing our understanding of urban orders. 5 Gellerup & urban youth 6 Built between 1968-1972, the The youth’s use of the outdoor Gellerup Park on the western spaces between the area’s outskirts of Aarhus, Denmark, high-rise blocks is considered was imagined as an ideal as particularly problematic city and home to the grow- or even criminal by a wide ing middle-class in Aarhus; majority of stakeholders, such a modern environment for as the Aarhus Municipality, the modern citizens. During the Gellerup Park Housing Coop- following decades, it became erative, the local police, some increasingly clear that the civil society associations and ideals associated with the some of the residents them- Gellerup Park were not eas- selves. ily realized. Today, the Danish Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs defines the area Numerous initiatives have as ‘particularly vulnerable’ attempted to “get the prob- (ghetto area). 88% of its resi- lematic parts of the youth off dents are identified as having the streets” and control the immigrant backgrounds, 13 % problematic behaviour of of youths between the ages of youths in Gellerup’s outdoor 15 and 24 have faced crimi- areas, while also encouraging nal charges, and 53 % of the children and young people residents are younger than to participate in public life 25 years of age (compared in positive and constructive with 35 % among the general ways, e.g. through community population in Aarhus munici- clean-up initiatives and or- pality). Since 2010, the area’s ganized sports activities. population has decreased by 10% and a recent qualitative study has shown that former residents cite ”disturbances and high crime rates” as key reasons for leaving the area. 7 Among the many stakeholders involved in or affected by the Gellerup project, numerous and often inconsistent ideals exist about what constitutes appropriate living and behav- iour in Gellerup and, accord- ing to several of these actors, the urban youths in Gellerup are not fully living up to these ideals. 8 Methodological Considerations 9 A central aim of URO and resident groups requiring their therefore also of the UROLabs participation in project activi- is to explore and develop ties regarding their presence transdisciplinary research and use of public spaces in methods: It is through transdis- Gellerup. Hence, rather than ciplinary action research that focusing on the actual use of it becomes possible to move outdoor spaces in Gellerup as across and beyond discipli- a basis for formulating a set of nary boundaries to create conceptual ideas about this new forms of knowledge and particular form of urban research methods and, by so ordering, we realized that we doing, engage collaboratively needed to involve key stake- and productively with activ- holders living in or working ists and the ’non-academic with urban youth in the area world’. and thereby focus on local processes of cooperation. As we began to gather in- formation about the central For the 1st UROLab, we de- case – the relationship be- cided to use methods for tween outdoor spaces and cooperation and conversa- urban youth in the Gellerup tional processes developed Park - we realized that project by InterChange, a company collaboration was absolutely that facilitates collaborative central for understanding the processes as an ’art of hosting’ dynamics of the case and (interchange.dk). The close potentially identify new forms collaboration between the of urban orders. Project col- organisers of the 1st UROLab laboration is, in other words, and InterChange allowed us a unique form of urban order: to become much more at- During the complex processes tentive to the importance of realizing the Gellerup of dialogical processes and Project, the urban youth are collaborative techniques increasingly confronted by ac- when attempting to develop tivists, state officials and local transdisciplinary approaches 10 regarding urban development. The realization of the 1st UROLab furthermore raised a number of key questions regarding different types and degrees of involvement, knowledge dissemination, power relations and scientific methods that the Danish URO core group is currently dis- cussing with our international research collaborators and local activist partners. It is, we believe, through these collab- orations that the UROLabs will become a dynamic platform for exploring new opportuni- ties for democratic assembly and civic participation in transdisciplinary dialogue and research. 11 Organizing and preparing the 1st UROLab 12 In collaboration with Inter- Two URO team members change, we selected four were responsible for compiling main objectives for the 1st materials and setting up the UROLab: We wanted to de- case file that was to be used velop a methodological by participants as basis for col- framework for future UROLabs, lective discussions during the a methodology for transdisci- UROLab. Based on literature plinary urban research, project searches and interviews with tools for urban management local stakeholders, particular based on self-organisation issues were identified that and civic participation, and, seemed particular relevant finally, we wanted to consider regarding the relationship the kinds of urban orders that between urban youth and might be identified by focus- outdoor spaces in Gellerup. ing on youth and outdoor Based on the overall idea of spaces in Gellerup.