Gellerup
| Gellerup | |
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| Neighborhood | |
The Gellerup Parken urban development project
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 Gellerup
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| Coordinates: 56°09′26″N 10°08′07″E / 56.157267°N 10.135157°E | |
| Country | Kingdom of Denmark |
| Regions of Denmark | Central Denmark Region |
| Municipality | Aarhus Municipality |
| District | Brabrand |
| Population (2012) | |
| • Total | 11,406 |
| Postal code | 8200 Brabrand |
Gellerup is a neighborhood of the Brabrand district in the city of Aarhus, Denmark. The neighborhood was formerly a suburb that has now completely merged with the city and it is characterized by several natural attractions, detached house sectors, highrise apartments and an industrial park.
The name Gellerup is also commonly used to refer to the large residential area and housing project of the Gellerup Plan (Danish: Gellerup Planen) located within the neighborhood and comprising several residential areas including Toveshøj and the Gellerup park (Danish: Gellerupparken). The project houses people from many places in the world.
To address housing problems that suddenly emerged in the late 1960s, Brabrand Housing Cooperative initiated and financed the Gellerup Plan. It was designed by architects Knud Blach Petersen and Mogens Harbo, who were influenced by the functionalistic ideas of Le Corbusier. The Gellerup Plan was constructed between 1968 and 1972, and contains a total of 2,448 apartments in two neighbouring sectors, Gellerupparken and Toveshøj, with 1,824 and 624 apartments respectively.
Even though the buildings are characterized by high rise concrete apartments, constructed from the usual large prefabricated concrete slabs, the project has a unique architectural value. The Gellerup Plan is the largest housing project in Denmark, with approximately 8,000 residents, but was originally planned to house more than twice as many people in 6,000 apartments.
The Gellerup Plan and its facilities, was all built as an architectural and functional unit, that at the same time makes it work as a self-supporting satellite city. This includes schools, kindergartens, sports facilities, a local waste incineration plant supplying central heating, a church, a library and a large mall that originally offered a post office, bank, dentist, doctors, general and grocery stores, supermarkets, restaurants, cafés, hairdressing saloons and a cinema among other stores and facilities. All these stores and structures were originally owned and administered democratically by the residents themselves through the Brabrand Housing Cooperative, based on a socialist idea. This ownership and administrative structure has changed somewhat since these early years, for various reasons, but the architectural aspects remains.
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