HERSTED PLUS

As part of a team consisting of SLA, ADEPT, Atkins, Emcon and Jørgen Rosted, Kollision participated in the competition for the future development of the industrial park at Hersted in Albertslund Municipality, Denmark. The team was awarded second prize in the competition and Kollision’s business strategy was praised as ‘visionary’ and ‘brilliantly communicated’ in a statement from the jury.

Our role in the competition was to build the business strategy for the area, which has seen a massive loss of jobs and businesses in the last decades. We decided to base our strategy on a participatory and systemic approach in co-operation with the owners of the area, a patchwork of private business- and landowners. This approach allowed for adaptions to individual needs and requests while still remaining structurally robust and maintaining a strong vision for the future.

The park was envisioned in the 60ies as a place for industrial production and the buildings and areas are all geared towards light and semi-heavy industry, most of which has moved abroad since the late eighties. Albertslund is close to Copenhagen and is competing with other suburban municipalities in trying to attract high-tech businesses in a competitive global environment. Our strategy was based on the simple notion of using the low-rent structures in the area as a basis for attracting potential businesses before they even become businesses by entering into a partnership with research institutions allowing them to establish living labs in the area and helping them grow. At the same time the idea was to finance the redevelopment of the entire area by creating a broad range of incitements for business- and landowners to invest in public and private spaces.