Arhus Harbour Strategy

International competition, 1999

The medieval port town of Aarhus is beset with problems caused by waterside industry and food processing, and the expansion of container terminals. The historic symbiotic connection of town to harbour has been severed to the point that the water's edge is little more than a blighted traffic corridor.
With the model of Barcelona's seaside boulevards or Chicago's lake-side strip, planning strategies for the 10km stretch of Arhus's harbour areas have been developed within a context of an increasingly connected network of European cities, and new knowledge-based industry.
The key to change is radical traffic management, the implementation of public open space running along the entire harbour stretch, and the liberation of inherent potential. Such a framework plan is intended as a structure for future planning possibilities concerned with connectivity.
The public zone connects woodland to the North and South of the city, and is articulated by five character areas; station, cathedral, converted power station, new developments, and specially defined open space.

with Bodil Kjaer, Arkitekt MAA and Jane Wernick, Ove Arup Transportation