History
A large part of the current Nordvest, was previously a part of then Brønshøj-Rødovre municipality and was at that time mainly low-density housing and small businesses. In the early 20th century the Copenhagen municipality procures the area from Brønshøj-Rødovre municipality, with the purpose of constructing a "social-democratic dream where one can live from cradle to grave without moving more than a few blocks", and in the following years, a large amount of social housing is constructed, where evicted residents from the central Copenhagen (which was under large housing "sanitizing" during that time) and homeless shelters. Along with the construction of social housing, the readily availability of workforce, results in construction of smaller and large industrial complexes, in the unused areas between the housing buildings, which create the base for construction of different kinds of housings, such as the typografernes hus (lit.: Typographer's housing), where the residents in 2012 still primarily are retired and working typographers and similar, and where an old working and occasionally still used printing press is located in the basement.
Towards the 1980s the Nordvest are increasingly characterised by being an area for apartments, which are relatively cheap compared to the surrounding areas of Copenhagen. In 1980 the area is appointed by the community psychiatry as an area to house people with mental issues among the regular population. This was done to "normalize" the people with the mental issues, but in fact resulted in a vast increase of vandalism and attacks. In 1993 the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Copenhagen municipality made an agreement on a "holistic effort in the Nordvest" to improve the situation. This would in fact later serve as a model and precursor for later area improvement projects in Denmark.
As of 2013 the area has, due to the large focus on the area, partially undergone an urban regeneration, and the area is characterized by having a large ethnic diversity in both population and shops, while the former industrial complexes are at large renovated and converted to modernized housing.
Read more about this topic: Nordvest
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