Christiania’s new planning paradigm
The introduction of a new planning paradigm following the 2011 agreement on the legalisation of Christiania mandated that new construction requires a building permit as in the rest of Denmark. This project investigates how legal requirements for building permits impact the built environment as a framework for democratic participation, using Christiania and the 2011 legalization agreement as a case study.
The project builds on an anthropological and spatial feasibility study supported by the Danish Arts Foundation. The study highlights a shift from construction as personal offshoots, closely related to place and neighborhood (presentation), to a professionalized process resulting in ready-made product (representation). This shift in the planning paradigm presents a unique opportunity to examine how these regulations affect daily life, community dynamics, and the design of the built environment in Christiania, as well as in Denmark and other modern welfare societies.
Key Themes and Concepts
- The shift from self-organized, informal construction to regulated, standardized building processes affects the relationship between the built environment and democratic participation.
- New regulations introduce abstract mediation, distancing residents from direct involvement in creating their surroundings.
- The concept of prefiguration, where future societal transformations are enacted in the present, is challenged by the normalization and institutionalization of construction.
- The study examines spatial justice, questioning whether new planning regulations enhance or limit accessibility and collective governance within the community.
Keywords
Normalization, Abstract Mediation, Presence/Absence, Prefiguration, Vague Space, Participatory Democracy, Collective Governance/Commoning, Alternative Urbanism, Spatial Justice, Built Environment, Social Practices, Lived Experiences, Material Expression, Countercultural Heritage, Planning Paradigms.
Draft results of the research project:
Core houses and offshoots – State of the art and first questions – link here
Inhabiting Space (on Earth) – link here
Gameplay for Core House and Offshoots – link here