Torup

Torup is situated on a peninsula between the sea and a fjord, 60 km to the northwest of Copenhagen. Its 356 inhabitants enjoy a range of initiatives and activities, including a music festival, Torup Booktown featuring cultural events, farmers’ markets, repair cafés, common village dinners, a commuter-hub with common office space, jazz concerts, alternative transport, local council, and, most recently, the Danish University Extension.

Such initiatives build on a strong local tradition which has resulted, inter alia, in a parent-initiated school and kindergarten, a common meeting house, an intensely restored railway station, and a utility building containing a café, a bakery, and an organic shop. A group of people who moved in 30 years ago to form a community based on organic principles were instrumental to some of these developments.. Over the years, this particular part of the village has turned into a highly attractive enclave.

Those examples build on local initiatives and local competences. This also applies to the latest major step in terms of expanding the village with 100 new eco-homes over the next few years. To this end, a group of locals established a fund, Torup Fonden, to acquire the land, rather than leaving this to outside investors. Currently, this fund is planning a Torup-wide smart and sustainable heating system based on solar-power. With this backdrop, Torup won the 2019 National Village of the Year award.

People in and around Torup are resourceful, not necessarily economically, but certainly personally and culturally. To enhance the common use of competences and equipment, the village will capitalise on its involvement in the Smart Rural 21 project by bringing this wide range of resources to the forefront, and making them accessible and visible, especially to newcomers.


Village strategy :

Torup village strategy


News


Smart Rural Journey

Follow along with our Village Roadmap here :

The inhabitants of Torup wanted to develop a platform to support and promote their sustainable way of sharing tools and resources. Tools and Talents is a smartphone application enabling villagers to find, book and borrow shared resources both physical tools and local peoples’ competences.



Videos

Fourth Regional Workshop of the Smart Rural 21 project

Recording of day 2 of the fourth Regional Workshop of the Smart Rural 21 project, held in Torup, Denmark. The event presented the outcomes of the Smart Rural 21 project, both in terms of local rural community support and Smart Village policy lessons to date. The event focused on ’The strength of civil society in developing resilient rural communities’.

1st Smart Communities Café, Torup (Denmark), 19 November 2020

During the 1st Café, hosted by Torup (Denmark), Peter Plant was telling about their local democracy, voluntary work, community fund, how they engage community members through ‘Torup Ting’ and about their smart plans for the future.

Torup life-size boardgame

The ‘Ting’ boardgame has thematic links to sustainability.

Torup gets own General Practitioner

Dr. Anne Louise Born Sylvest has set out to open her own medical practice in Torup, DK, on 1 January 2021, enabling the rural area to benefit from a close proximity between the community and a General Practitioner (GP).

Torup Ting

Peter Plant explains what Torup Ting is and how it supports community engagement in Torup (Denmark).

Torup Education

Peter Plant explains how Torup managed to sustain its school and kindergarden, and even "have a university"(!)

Torup Grows

Peter Plant talks about how they are preparing for receiving up to 250 newcomers to Torup and the way they managed to buy the land for new housing and sustain community services through crowdfunding.

Torup sings

"Oh yeah, we always have a song. And somebody would write a new song for each occasion." (Peter Plant, Torup)

Past and Present of Torup

Kirsten Birke Lund (Smart Rural 21 national expert) is talking to Peter Plant about how Torup village has developed over the past decades to become a vibrant rural hub and "the kind of things they like to do in Torup".


Resources :

Tools & Talents
Heino Smed Sørensen - MINLANDSBY ( 2021 )
A digital platform and smartphone app supporting exchange among newcomers and existing inhabitants of Torup (Denmark), through the sharing of tools and skills. It enables villagers to find, book and borrow resources, both physical tools and local residents’ skills.
Language : Danish
White Paper – Developing a digital solution
Heino Smed Sørensen , Kirsten Birke Lund - MINLANDSBY ( 09/2022 – 11/2022 )
A document overviewing the process of developing Torup’s (Denmark) ‘Tools & Talents’ digital platform that supports exchange among newcomers to the village and existing inhabitants through the sharing of tools and skills.
Language : English
Fourth Regional Workshop of the Smart Rural 21 project
Torup Ting , E40 ( 18/03/2022 )
Recording of day 2 of the fourth Regional Workshop of the Smart Rural 21 project, held in Torup, Denmark. The event presented the outcomes of the Smart Rural 21 project, both in terms of local rural community support and Smart Village policy lessons to date. The event focused on ’The strength of civil society in developing resilient rural communities’.
Language : English
Torup’s Smart Village journey
Peter Plant - Torup Ting ( 17/10/2022 )
A presentation on Torup’s smart journey, including how the village got engaged with the ‘Smart Village’ concept, and the ‘smart’ actions carried out and plans for the future. The presentation was given at the Smart Rural 21 project’s Final Conference of 17-18 October 2022 in Sopot, Poland.
Language : English
4th Smart Rural 21 Regional Workshop recording
( 18/03/2022 )
A full recording of the 4th Smart Rural 21 Regional Workshop held in Torup (Denmark) under the heading ‘The strength of society in developing resilient rural communities’.
Language : English
Local Action Group & communities
Peter Plant - Torup Ting ( 18/03/2022 )
A presentation on the LEADER Programme and its achievements in Torup (Denmark), one of the Smart Rural 21 selected villages, given at the project’s 4th Regional Workshop.
Language : English
Tools and talents’ app
Heino Smed Sørensen , Kirsten Birke Lund - MINLANDSBY ( 18/03/2022 )
A presentation on Smart Rural 21 project support to Torup (Denmark), one of its selected villages. ‘Tools and talents’ is an application designed and developed by the local community with the project’s support. The presentation was given at the fourth Smart Rural 21 regional workshop.
Language : English
MINLANDSBY (MY VILLAGE) – Torup tools & talents
Peter Plant , Heino Smed Sørensen - Torup Ting ( 23/02/2021 )
A presentation on Torup’s (selected Smart Rural 21 village) tools and talents online platform planning in collaboration with MINLANDSBY (My Village) application, provided at the 2nd Smart Village Academy of the Smart Rural 21 project during the “Website and community platforms for community engagement” working group.
Language : English
Sustainable Village Planning: Sustainability in 4-D
Peter Plant ( 27/10/2020 )
A presentation provided at the 1st Smart Village Academy of the Smart Rural 21 project about the sustainable village planning process in Torup by Peter Plant, chairman of Torup Ting (Denmark).
Language : English
Summary Highlights of the Smart Village Strategy of Torup (Denmark)
Peter Plant Torup Ting ( 12/2020 )
The Summary Highlights of the Smart Village Strategy of Torup has been developed in the context of the ‘Preparatory Action for Smart Rural Areas in the 21st Century’ project funded by the European Commission.
Language : English
New General Practitioner in an “old-fashioned way”
Henrik Modler ( 14/12/2020 )
Presence, time and close contact with patients are key words for Anne Louise Born Sylvest when she, with her new village doctor practice, is to help combat the shortage of doctors in the Capital Region. “What I want to do with being a village doctor is that there is a little more time. Presence and proximity.” – says Anne Louise in the article published by TV2 Lorry.
Language : Danish

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