(More) Dispatches from Class
Even though some people might not think that class time itself would be the highlight of study abroad, my classes at DIS are incredibly fun! The instructors take full advantage of the city as a tool for learning, and our various excursions add color to the topics we cover in lectures and discussions inside the classroom. Here are some highlights from the second half of the semester.
Visiting Carlsberg with Adaptive Reuse
This visit occurred on a field study with Professor Mia Behrens for my class about adaptive reuse. Carlsberg is a neighborhood of Copenhagen that has been developed in an area formerly home to the brewing operation of Carlsberg beer. The neighborhood retains a lot of the industrial character from its history, but now hosts apartments, commercial spaces, restaurants, and more.
We started the day with a tour of Dansehallerne, a building with performance and practice spaces for dance, which is housed in Carlsberg's former mineral water factory. It was really cool to have an insider's perspective about how the building is utilized today.
We also walked around to see many of the outdoor spaces. Our professor gave us lots of background knowledge about the firm that had designed certain areas, as well as public reception to their work.
We ended up seeing lots of other buildings throughout Carlsberg, many of which were examples of adaptive reuse. One of my favorites was the Hotel Ottilia building, the one pictured in the center just above. The flashy golden discs were preserved from the original brewery building, though the architects created narrow vertical windows to let in light without detracting too much from the discs themselves.
Site Visit for Urban Design Studio
In the second half of the semester, my urban design studio assignment was a redevelopment plan for Vermlandsgade Kvarteret, an industrial site on Amager. Before starting any design work, we had to visit the site as it is now to get an understanding of the area, take reference photos, and conduct stakeholder interviews. We first went to the site during a class period, but we returned several times on our own to continue working.
Visiting Cisternerne with Adaptive Reuse
I was very excited for this visit, because we went to a site I had already been hoping to see! Cisternerne is an exhibition space located in a former cistern in Frederiksberg. Not much has been done to change the space, so the artists who design exhibitions for it each year must consider the environment and how it will shape their work. The current exhibition is Seven Deaths, a series of short films by iconic performance artist Marina Abramović. I found it to be very powerful.
Visiting Klimakvarter with Climate Change and the City
For this visit during class time, Professor Silvia Dragomir took us to Klimakvarter, a climate resilient neighborhood in Østerbro. Just a couple days later, one of my other classes mentioned a couple of the sites we saw during this excursion!
For me, a highlight was visiting ØsterGRO, a rooftop organic farm. It was absolutely amazing to see all of the cool work they could do on a rooftop, including growing food, raising chickens, creating compost, and hosting a small restaurant in a greenhouse.
All of these visits will definitely stick in my memory as part of what made my study abroad experience so special! They truly illustrated how real-world examples and experiences add great value to learning.
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