I am working on a ph.d. thesis with the working title "The Transformation of Former Industrial Urban Landscapes".

My main case study is the redevelopment of the Carlsberg Breweries in Copenhagen.

About the project:

The past is never what it used to be. The remains of the past of a given urban situation are constantly re-formed, re-interpreted and negotiated. Many current urban re-development projects on former industrial sites are playing an ambivalent role in the dynamic shaping of identity; while introducing new functions, users, cultural imaginary and physical qualities, they simultaneously seem to aim for an activation of selected signifiers of the lost past.

Currently heritage is celebrated and manufactured seemingly ubiquitously in the discourse surrounding the city. The meaning of the notion of heritage has changed. From being understood as a static and vulnerable object for protection, it is increasingly described as material and immaterial phenomena that can be utilized as elastic resources in urban redevelopment. It is relevant to ask whose past, for whom, why, based on which sets of values and with which impact on the urban environment.

Meanwhile, deindustrialization is everywhere. Production is closing or moving. Industrial production has set marks on our territories more than any period has before. Industrial environments cannot be grasped by the traditional distinction between 'landscape' and 'the built environments' that we find in both Danish planning and preservation practice. The post-industrial landscape asks for re-interpretations of the past.

Hence, it seems relevant to ask what roles heritage can play in the transformation of former industrial urban landscapes. The aim is to bring to the surface, or rather dig into, the relation between heritage and urban transformation of the industrial landscape.

The most widely discussed current Danish example is the transformation of the 81 acres (32 ha) area of the Carlsberg Breweries in Copenhagen into a new urban area. Identity was the key notion in the brief for the international competition for this redevelopment, won by the Danish architectural office Entasis in 2007. The owner of the area and commissioner of the urban project is the company Carlsberg, that hereby plays a key role in interpreting and deploying it's own past on the site. The extent and complexity of this particular transformation, the status of the area as a Industrial Heritage Site of National Significance, the amount of listed buildings and the ambition of creating a new city district characterized by 'constant change', makes this a relevant case study.

The project started on the 1. November 2007 and is financed by Copenhagen University, The Heritage Agency of Denmark and Carlsberg.

My supervisors are:
Prof., dr. agro Malene Hauxner, Copenhagen University (Main supervisor)

Ass. prof., ph.d. Ellen Braae, Aarhus School of Architecture (Project supervisor)

Ass. prof., ph.d. Tom Avermaete, Delft University of Technology (Co-Supervisor)