Gadehavegaard, Høje-Taastrup, Denmark

A community between the homes in Høje Taastrup

Gadehavegaard is a residential area of public housing, located west of Copenhagen. The entire area is around 150.000 m² and consists of 19 apartment blocks, all in 4 storeys with a total of 986 homes, a communal house, and laundries. Buildings are a total of approx. 72,000 storey m² and was built in the period between 19731977.

The future park area, which will be the case of the DESIRE project, is around 30.000 m². Domea.dk is a non-profi t housing administrator that manages the transformation of Gadehavegaard on behalf of the social housing company DFB.

The site

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In 2019 Gadehavegaard was designated as a ghetto-area by the Danish government and therefore it must undergo profound physical changes towards 2030.

Because of this, by 2030 the number of public housing apartments should decrease from 100 % to 40 %. The development plan for Gadehavegaard includes demolition of 260 houses, sale of 75 houses to a private developer, a merge of 100 houses with another 100, transformation of 105 small houses to student housing, building of 5.800 sqm new education/community facilities, 100 new private houses, 54 houses for older people (social housing) and remodeling of the landscape

Furthermore, there is a pronounced need for renovation of the ageing buildings and to change the resident composition by attracting new residents, making the area more diverse both socially and physically.

The qualities between areas

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The great qualities of the area today is that it has a very green identity: There are lots of big trees, bushes, and fl owers all around. Furthermore, there are a lot of small playgrounds, especially for the smaller kids, and the rent is cheap and the apartments quite big.

Gadehavegaard has a very central location in Høje Taastrup, close to the motorway, train station, buses, grocery shopping, schools, and daycare centers.

We will try to enforce these qualities by developing more - and more diverse - green zones, changing for example the existing parking lots into park areas that invites all citizens to take part, learn and study nature.

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Gadehavegaard is a large monofunctional residential area with 986 apartments from the 1970s. It will undergo a comprehensive transformation by 2030 through re-positioning the neighbourhood as a suburban vision 2.0. Elements from the surrounding landscape will add qualities to the neighbourhood and support a continued perception of being suburban. The site will experiment with citizen involvement in redefining open spaces and their connection with nature and how circular principles guide the implementation of the transformation through reuse and recirculation of materials. Listen to Lisbeth Engelbrecht Jensen Project Manager at our partner Domea.dk. Press the icon at the bottom right of the video to expand the image and see the entire video.

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“We want to create a residential area in balance, where there is room for everyone” (Development plan for Gadehavegaard 2022-2030).

We will do so by building an open settlement with attractive and vibrant green areas, green and sustainable buildings, an urban area that supports communities, a safe place to be and to live, attractive homes with good indoor climate and low energy consumption, and a varied range of housing, housing forms, architecture, and resident composition.

We also have a strong focus on sustainability, which means that we, among other things, will try to recycle as much as possible from the buildings that will be torn down.

Furthermore, we want to, in an inclusive process, create a green and vibrant area with surplus land from construction, which will become a gathering point for citizens inside and outside the residential area and which will ensure a close relationship between residents and nature. DESIRE will be a central part of reaching this goal.

Read about Desire

Desire will create a movement that sets new standards and develops methods for transforming urban spaces. See two pager.

About Desire