Enghave Minipark is an art and urban development project where Kenneth Balfelt Team, Spektrum Architects, Vesterbro Local Committee and Vesterbro's beer drinkers have together built and landscaped a mini-park for everyone.
On September 31, 2010 at 9:00 am, the last corner of Enghave Plads under the chestnut tree was closed off to beer drinkers due to the Metro construction. This meant that a group of 30-100 beer drinkers who had the square as their social network no longer had a place to gather.
As an artist, I thought it was interesting to show authorities and society how to take responsibility for their vulnerable citizens in a way that enriches everyone. That's why I collaborated with Thomas Egholm from Vesterbro Local Committee, Spektrum Architects, urban sociologist Simon Mertner Vind and architect Chalotte Vad to find a new place for them.
We have created a process that has involved the beer drinkers to an extreme degree. They have been involved in choosing where the new location should be, they have been involved in all the planning and decision-making - and then they have been involved in building the new location themselves.
One of my goals has been to show that all people - regardless of social status - can contribute just as much to urban development as anyone with a professional education. They can do so because they have a deep understanding of the context in which they find themselves. In other words, beer drinkers are 'super users' of this kind of public space. They are there most of the day, all week, all year round. No urban planners, anthropologists, architects or municipalities have as much insight into the urban spaces that beer drinkers use. And it has been our job to translate that insight into physical and procedural solutions - and make them aware that they have this knowledge.
The project is an extension of the report from the Ministry of Social Affairs 'The City as a Living Room' by Hausenberg, Spektrum Architects and visual artist Kenneth A. Balfelt. The report provides guidelines for how we can design urban spaces with socially vulnerable people and recommends a high degree of involvement of the vulnerable. The report can be downloaded here
The report can be downloaded here