The Trace of Superusers: From Santiago Centro to Superkilen in Copenhagen

The city and its public spaces can be seen as a fragmented whole carrying meanings and traces of culture, use and politics with it. Whereas architects impose new stories and meanings on the urban fabric, the city itself is layered and assembled, a collective of social flows and routines a result of people’s everyday life.However, traces of culture, the routines and every day habits of immigrant culture can both emerge through informal colonization in the every day and be intentionally designed. By juxtaposing immigrant spatial traces in Santiago Centro with the intentionally designed traces of immigrant culture at Superkilen, Nørrebro in Copenhagen, this article seeks to discuss how traces influence public space, and how various ideologies and even politics are interwoven into the urban fabric by means of urban traces.