Cross Roads

The objective of the project Cross Roads is to turn the residential areas Sædding, Fourfeldt and Aadal into one nice community. For the past 3 years, Esbjerg Municipality has run the project: ”Sædding and Aadalen at the Top”. The project period ends in the fall of 2014 and more focus areas are in play.

Cross Roads focuses "mental health" and aims to create a bigger sense of coherence within the residential areas.

Especially among the young people in grades 7 - 9 but hopefully with adult support. As of the school year 2013 – 2014, two schools close to each other have changed their structure and placed the lower secondary education (7th – 9th grade) in one school.

This gives rise to new cultural encounters between grown-ups and youths.
In order to get this encounter off to a positive start, Esbjerg Municipality wishes to initiate a process which includes the young people and helps them "invent" positive relationships across the cultural divide provided by the separation of the residential areas.

The cultural divide is made very concrete by the road that divides the two areas. There has been a series of surveys and the theroretical basis for specific action is clear. With this project the local government wishes to focus on ideas and how to get started.

How do we establish new cultures that will continue after the project “Sædding and Aadalen at the Top" finishes? Three of the Kolding designers' initiatives have been documented in Danish newspaper articles:

• Boligområde i Esbjerg skal blive et fedt sted at være ung.
• En dag i fordomsmaskinen aflivede en masse rygter
• Børns tanker om superhelte og fællesskaber på Sædding Bibliotek