BY Anders Klebak
With their involvement and ideas, enthusiasts can shape change and encourage urban development. But how to keep enthusiasm on the boil throughout a project when you run into the wall of local authority by-laws and endless red tape? Realdania invited people to a meeting in Copenhagen to talk about the enthusiasts of the building trade.
other old market towns,” she pronounces firmly. Her associa tion is currently in urgent need of financial support to run an information campaign aimed at local craftsmen and shop owners. This is why she has come to the meeting this even ing – to pass on information about her project, to learn about the experiences of others and to discover what opportunities there are for funding. A much-coveted group Karen Margrethe Olsen is one of the enthusiasts targeted by the meeting this evening, which is intended as a source of inspiration. Realdania has invited both local authorities and people who are driven by the desire to develop or preserve buildings and the life of their towns or who have new, per haps wild, ideas. The aim is to focus on voluntary work and the vital role played
Karen Margrethe Olsen has come to the meeting in Copen-
by enthusiasts. Sarah Line Bohn, who heads the office for the
hagen all the way from Præstø on a stormy, rainy December
Enthusiast Campaign, stresses how important it is that local
evening. But she is the chairperson of The Preservation Asso
authorities open their eyes to the achievements of enthusi
ciation for Præstø and District and is not to be put off by a bit
asts: “Enthusiasts produce major results from limited
of blustery weather.
means,” she says.
“Our association is working to preserve the special character
One of the speakers at the meeting is Bjarne Ibsen from the
istics of this small town in South Zealand. We don't want our
University of Southern Denmark, who is doing research on
pedestrian precinct to be yet another house of horrors with
voluntary work. He notes that there is huge political interest
the kind of garish signs and shop fronts you see in so many
in the efforts of enthusiasts and volunteers. In terms of work