Developing urban growth and urban quality: Entrepreneurial governance and urban redevelopment projects in Copenhagen and Hamburg

Abstract

This paper considers the cases of urban redevelopment at waterfront and brownfield sites in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Hamburg (Germany) to explore how two municipal governments have pursued divergent kinds of entrepreneurial governance, even as they have aimed to create similar kinds of new-build neighbourhoods. Copenhagen and Hamburg have both engaged in large-scale speculative development projects, simultaneously raising urban land values and adding urban public good. The cities follow a long tradition of using land value capture to raise funds for municipal activities, yet their scopes of action and tools for achieving progress have been shaped by local economic and political conditions. Although both cities began redevelopment at similar kinds of sites in the 1990s, Copenhagen’s municipal government was relatively impoverished, while Hamburg’s municipal government was relatively wealthy. As a result, even though both cities deployed state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and revolving funds models to reinvest revenues in future development, they possessed different potential strategies for increasing intercity competitiveness: Copenhagen’s immediate aim in redeveloping its Ørestad and harbour districts was to fund a citywide mass transit system and thereby enhance competitiveness through infrastructure development, while Hamburg sought to use its HafenCity waterfront redevelopment to boost competitiveness through port modernisation, increased in urban quality and commercial expansion in the city centre. By comparing these two cases, we can better understand the contingent nature of entrepreneurial governance and urban redevelopment processes.

Housing in Germany and the Rebirth of the High-Rise in Post-Modern Urban Design

“…Besides, other selective high-rise projects and peripheral large housing estates with striking high-rise accents were built, but, as elsewhere, they came under criticism for their modernist urban design. Particularly with the conversion of abandoned port facilities directly south of the city center into the so-called Hafen-City, one of Europe's largest multifunctional urban developments for up to 45,000 office jobs and about 15,000 residents, which began in the 1990s, the city has now been trying for several decades to channel its growth dynamics close to the city center in a more mixed-use approach (Bruns-Berentelg et al, 2022;Flagner & Schick, 2017). Here, as on other inner-city conversion sites, competitions are being held to develop an effective small-scale urban configuration highlighted by iconic high-rise accents in selected locations.…”

Tendencje rozwojowe w architekturze mieszkaniowej i mieszkalnictwie w Polsce w I dwudziestoleciu XXI w.

“…Formę piramidy przyjmuje natomiast budynek W57 w Nowym Jorku (Il. 5) 5 (także autorstwa BIG). Budynek ten można uznać za hybrydę kopenhaskiego 8 Tallet 6 i klasycznego nowojorskiego drapacza chmur.…”

A very Nordic set of concerns?

“…The collaborative, comparative work of late Finnish urbanist Anne Haila can be seen running across more than twenty years of research, from her work on evolving metropolitan-level governance in Helsinki (Haila & Le Galès, 2005) to entrepreneurial land-management strategies across Finland (Hyötyläinen & Haila, 2018). More broadly, this Nordic vein of work has had a clear comparative impulse, even when primarily focusing on a single national context (e.g., Sørensen & Torfing, 2019), whereas some scholars embrace more explicit comparisons between regions (e.g., Bruns-Berentelg et al, 2020). Specifically focusing on spatial devel-4.…”