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BELT catalogue 4

Studio Nakskov

Studio 4 was held in Nakskov under the theme of LIVEABLE CITIES in the future Fehmarn Belt region. Architecture and urban planning students from Technische Hochschule Lübeck and Roskilde University participated. Studio 4 focused on exploring how we can describe and understand our cities in ways other than through planning documents, municipal plans, and local plans. 

The students were grouped with local residents of Nakskov and carried out exploratory fieldwork aimed at seeing the city through the eyes of the locals. Through interviews and photographs, the students produced a series of photo essays about what makes Nakskov liveable as a city and what makes Nakskov a special place for the people who live their everyday lives there. 

These photo essays are a testament to the importance of understanding the lifeworlds of the citizens for whom we plan places. 

The aim of Studio 4 was also to challenge the negative portrayals of Nakskov that have circulated in the media in recent decades; that the city, following the closure of major industries in the 1980s, became part of the so-called "Outskirts of Denmark," nicknamed the "rotten banana." A focus on the city's liveable qualities also opens up an investigation into how locals see the future and what potential they see in the upcoming Fehmarn Belt connection. 

The students' photo essays address, each in their own way, the following questions: 

  • What qualities make a place liveable? 

  • Why do people stay in an (apparently) declining city? 

  • Why do people leave the city, and why do they return? 

  • What narratives exist about the city? 

  • How will the upcoming Fehmarn connection change their daily lives? 

  • Is Nakskov liveable? 
     

We have gathered the students' photo essays here on this page. In these photo essays, you can, among others, meet the regulars at the local pub Guldhornet, Brian, who runs Nakskov Bowling & Thai on a daily basis, the 82-year-old terminally ill Helga and her husband Tage, who have lived a long life in both Nakskov and Lübeck, as well as the journalist and Nakskov native Bernt, who fled the city in his youth but later returned. 

In the spring of 2025, we will compile highlights from these photo essays into a joint exhibition about liveable Nakskov. 

The semester and studio work was supervised by Anika Slawski, M.A. and Svenja Müller, M. Sc., TH Lübeck.

 

Certain photo essays only exist in Danish and German.  

The fourth BELT Studio

Photo essays - overview

Young people in Nakskov

Photo essay 1A

Livable Nakskov

Photo essay 1B

The workers of Nakskov

Photo essay 2A

Optimism

Photo essay 2B

A livingroom in Nakskov

Photo essay 3A

Leaving and returning

Photo essay 4A

Livable Nakskov through Tina's eyes

Photo essay 4B

Place and belonging in Nakskov

Photo essay 5A

Lost and livable places

Photo essay 5B

Nakskov is a very beautiful city

Photo essay 6A

This is where we know each other

Photo essay 6B

Partnerships

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