Review: Kollegiegården — a dorm with an upgrade to a cheap apartment

The walls of the long corridor on the 1st floor of Kollegiegården are adorned with Twister dots. These yellow, red, green, and blue spots fill the spaces between the 13 doors. If you go into the next corridor, you will find graffiti paint rather than multicoloured dots, and it feels like you are at a train station in the 90s, and two spray-painted trains have just entered the platform. The explanation for the multicoloured walls is the Danish dorm tradition of ‘Tour des Chambres’. Each year, the walls become a little bit thicker as the residents paint the hallways in preparation for the annual Tour des Chambres.

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It is a fun tradition, say current residents Jonas Munch Andersen and Jonas Allaoua, and they would like to see more traditions at the dorm.

Kollegiegården does not have many traditions. This may be because residents tend to move out after just six months. But don’t worry, they are not fleeing the dorm; after six months, residents reach the top of the internal waiting list for the two-bedroom rental apartments located in an adjacent wing, which are only allocated students living at Kollegiegården.

The dorm is owned by the public housing company fsb, as are Kollegiegården’s rental apartments, which can accommodate two people. Jonas Munck Andersen is one of the residents who decided to stay on at the dorm. He’s happy to live here: »If I had to sell it to you: Peaceful place. Great location. Cheap price.«

Owned by fsb, controlled by residents

Although Kollegiegården is owned by fsb, the residents still have some say over everyday life in the dorm. If you want to change something about the communal dining arrangements or start a new tradition, you can suggest it at a kitchen meeting. The date for these meetings is fixed: the first Monday of every month. Twice a year, a larger meeting is held to discuss matters regarding the entire dorm – although only one representative from each kitchen participates.

On Jonas Munch Andersen and Jonas Allaoua’s corridor, the residents dine together once or twice a week. There is no specific plan for who will be cooking or on what day, but when someone decides to make food, the details are posted on Facebook and Snapchat.

In the basement, there is a gym with dumbbells, wall bars and exercise bikes. At the other end there is a banquet room with a bar, and a room with pool table, which can be rented for parties for a fee of DKK 500.

Despite its location in the middle of Tagensvej in Nørrebro, Kollegiegården is not a very well-known dorm. Jonas Munch Andersen and Jonas Allaoua had never heard of it until they found it on a long list of Copenhagen student accommodation. They joined the waiting list and were offered a room a year later. You can do the same to get a taste of life at the dorm.

[This review has been written by a student reporter at the University Post. If you want to write an English-language review of your dorm write to uni-avis@adm.ku.dk and mark it ‘Dorms Disclosed’]

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