How architecture can drive social change
Listen now
Description
How do you address the issues related to disadvantaged public housing areas, often affected by high unemployment, crime, and other challenges? The question is common to many cities across Europe. In Denmark the government is combining social and architectural interventions in the most troubled areas: With the ‘parallel society law’, up to 60% of existing residents are evicted, and entire housing blocks are being renovated and improved. The aim is to convert troubled housing areas into attractive, safe, and diverse neighborhoods. But can the built environment affect the social issues of a place? And how do the changes affect the residents of the area? These are some of the questions Michael Booth raises in this episode of Let's Talk Architecture, as he joins Marie Stender, anthropologist, and senior researcher at Aalborg University, for a walk in Mjølnerparken, a social housing area in Copenhagen, that is affected by the new law to prevent parallel societies.  Let's Talk Architecture is a podcast produced by the Danish Architecture Center, with sound edits by Munck Studio.
More Episodes
Ukraine has seen many of its cities and towns destroyed. One day they will hopefully be rebuilt - with great costs and a large climate footprint as a result. But what are the alternatives? Danish NGO, Arkitekter Uden Grænser (Architects Without Borders), is already working on a solution: With...
Published 04/30/24
Published 04/30/24
Concrete and steel. We know that both of these mainstream building materials come with a massive CO2 cost, and that we need to find alternatives. One way forward is the reintroduction of traditional materials and invention of new bio-based materials. But the implementation of the new materials...
Published 02/21/24