Crafting Urban Quality: A Story of Practice

This thesis aims to understand how urban qualities emerge through practice and shape urban development, contributing to existing literature on value and quality in architectural and urban studies.
By examining a prominent Copenhagen urban development project envisioned to address pressing societal and environmental challenges, the research moves beyond traditional positivist/objectivist and
social constructionist approaches. These conventional methods often fail to grasp urban quality's
complexities and situatedness by ignoring its processual aspects. Instead, inspired by Actor-Network-
Theory and John Dewey's Theory of Valuation, this thesis conceptualizes urban quality as a processual
effective agent within urban development practice, shifting focus from attributes to active performance.

Through eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in developers', architects', and investors' offices, meeting rooms, and site visits during developing a new local plan for a post-industrial site, the study
gains deep insight into how urban developers produce and utilize urban quality. The research explores
urban quality across multiple analytical scales, from intimate ethnographic observations to broader examinations of official narratives, historical context, and political-economic environments. This multiscalar approach reveals how seemingly minor practices collectively shape cities. The findings demonstrate that Copenhagen's urban development practice is entering uncharted territory with global investment funds as key players. Long-term investment goals significantly influence how 'urban life' is produced and performed. For instance, what used to be
traditionally known as ‘home’ is now performed as a ‘product’, a ‘service’ and a ‘living experience’ tailored, and largely curated, to specific demographics. Temporalities are integral to the urban development professionals’ work in crafting urban quality. For instance, cultural heritage, as urban quality, is not inherent but strategically mobilized to create a sensory, urban atmosphere. Likewise, the future serves as a powerful agent in the
development process. Professionals compose events and recruit tenants to perform the urban future to
come. Pasts and futures work in the present as effective agents and are mobilized to create ‘urban life’
before construction takes off, effectively mobilizing champions and creating a ‘strong sense of
belonging’. This thesis argues that failing to take these practices of crafting and mobilizing urban
quality seriously as architectural would undermine their agency. The architectural processes analyzed in
this thesis are often performed through storytelling, images, and performative events. They are not
representations of a future but work within the present by setting out directions for the urban
development process.
Through examining how urban quality works in practice, this thesis offers a new perspective on
contemporary urban development. It highlights the transformative potential within the practical space
where urban quality is crafted. It contributes with new perspectives to assist political and municipal
authorities, citizens, and urban development professionals in discussing a foundational question
concerning their work and engagement in developing Copenhagen and, indeed, other cities: Who is this city built for?