Translating the compact city and New Urbanism in international knowledge circulation processes: the case of Sydhavnen in Copenhagen

The international circulation of urban design concepts often leads to a superficial replication of non-contextualized ideas. Such travelling ideals are used as slogans to promote the marketing of urban projects through taken-for-granted or institutionalized concepts such as the compact city or New Urbanism. This research draws on theories about circuits of knowledge and policy mobilities. It focuses on the regeneration of Copenhagen’s Southern Harbour (Sydhavn) in which the compact city and New Urbanism ideals, together with a declared inspiration from Dutch architecture, were originally incorporated in the masterplan. The paper, through the analysis of documents and semi-structured interviews, aims to highlight: a) how dogmatized urban design and planning concepts such as the Compact City and New Urbanism have been locally reinterpreted in Sydhavn b) the influence of actors in mobilizing such travelling ideals c) the mutation process of the original idea into something new, meshed with the local context.