Danish low‐rise housing

Abstract

In other countries industrialized housing is dominated by multi‐storey buildings. In Denmark, however, the low‐rise housing has become predominant. During the past 20 years the development has changed from large, monotonous high‐rise housing estates to small, varying low‐rise housing units. The research on “low‐dense housing” performed by the Danish Building Research Institute (SBI) since 1970 has largely contributed to this development. And it has been of major importance to the penetration of this research that it has taken place in close cooperation with the Ministry of Housing and with the social housing corporations, the building industry and the practising architects and engineers. Research on low‐dense housing is interdisciplinary, and the successive members of the research team are not only architects and engineers, but also sociologists, psychologists and economists. Nor is this research confined to technical conditions alone; it also deals with the well‐being and comfort of the user and with cit...