The Tingbjerg Experiment

A TRANSITION Culture Club event: Film screening and conversation with Louise Detlefsen, director, Jon Helt Haarder, University of Southern Denmark, and Mette Mechlenborg, Aalborg University.

We invite you to a screening of the Danish documentary The Tingbjerg Experiment (Tingbjerg-Eksperimentet), followed by a conversation with director Louise Detlefsen, literary scholar Jon Helt Haarder and housing researcher Mette Mechlenborg. The conversation will be moderated by Pia Quist, Director of TRANSITION.

The Tingbjerg Experiment is a portrait of a neighbourhood in change. The film follows everyday life in Tingbjerg at a time when the area is being reshaped through new housing, changing population patterns and political ambitions for social transformation. Private homes are being built among existing public housing, while residents, newcomers, planners and researchers are left to ask what kind of neighbourhood may emerge from this process.

Tingbjerg was originally designed in the 1960s as a modern “dream city” for families with children, but later came to be understood and discussed as a socially vulnerable housing area. Through character-driven stories, the documentary moves beyond simplified images of Tingbjerg and opens up questions about architecture, belonging, community, and the lived experience of urban change.

After the screening, Pia Quist will be in conversation with Louise Detlefsen, Jon Helt Haarder and Mette Mechlenborg. Together, they will reflect on the documentary and the questions it raises: How can film make neighbourhood change visible? How are places shaped through policy, stories, buildings and everyday practices? And what can Tingbjerg tell us about broader urban transformations in Denmark today?

Louise Detlefsen is a documentary filmmaker and journalist. Her films include Fat Front and It’s Not Over Yet, and she is the director and screenwriter of The Tingbjerg Experiment.

Jon Helt Haarder is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Southern Denmark. His research includes literary representations of housing estates, “ghetto” narratives and Danish welfare landscapes.

Mette Mechlenborg is Senior Researcher at Aalborg University. Her work focuses on housing culture, home-making, place and everyday practices, including public housing, suburban life and vulnerable housing areas.

TRANSITION Culture Club is a format where we explore how literature, film, museums and other cultural forms can inform reflections on rural–urban transitions and historical change. Everyone with an interest in documentary film, housing, urban transformation and the cultural life of places is welcome to join.

Sign up here for the event.