Freetown Christiania is an example of a green community, focusing on sustainability and reuse.
By Floor Blommaart
In the middle of Copenhagen, you can stumble across Freetown Christiania, a green hideaway offering residents and visitors a moment of peace in the centre of a bustling city.
Charlotte Steen built her own home here; her house serves as an example of the town’s sustainable ideology.
A sustainable home
Since 1995 Steen has settled down in the house she has built by hand.
“It was a trend; I built another house before I built mine.” she says.
A motivation for building her own house was sustainability. To achieve this, Steen mostly used second-hand materials:
“Houses were being restored nearby; they gave us a lot of materials for free. We used those to build.” She explains.
Green initiatives
The town is already car-free, walking and cycling are the most popular ways to get around and reuse sits high on the agenda. ‘Christiania’s Green Plan 2023-3032′ is a neighbourhood initiative to protect and develop nature to benefit man, animal and plant.
Steen has noticed green initiatives since arriving here:
“A lot of people were eating vegetarian and deciding how to live sustainably,” She says.
An example
Steen hopes that the town’s green way of living is an example for other neighbourhoods:
“We would like to be an example. From Christiania’s start we said that everything should be sustainable and collective.”
This story is for a global audience, with an interest in sustainability and green living. This article could be published on TheGuardian.com