THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE VI — AArhus — SEPTEMBER 2017 Featuring: Gehl Architects, Institut for (X), Kaospilot, Stephen Willacy, Lacaton & Vassal, Aarhus School of Architecture, Issue VI Martin Thim, Smag à la Gellerup and more Aarhus Aarhus: The Perfect Storm of our local football team winning the The city expanded its horizons Martin Thim Danish championship. across all parameters and with that, built Founder, The Coal Bridge project, Like a perfect storm, so many up a new and more confident identity. and organiser, Creativity World Forum rare factors came together to create City growth is currently a tendency the wave that we have been riding on across the globe and, despite all our I have lived in Aarhus my whole life – be proud of. Aarhus was a stepping since then. Culturally, the new ARoS newfound confidence, not something 40 years so far, and over those four stone, merely a stop on the way towards Aarhus Art Museum and later MoMu we can take credit for in Aarhus. decades Aarhus has changed massively. bigger cities, bigger dreams and a better (Moesgaard Museum) and DOKK1 (public However, it is my hope that Aarhus For the better, I might add. life somewhere else. library and culture centre) came to will embrace this trajectory and use Not so long ago, Aarhus was a But ten years ago, something town. Architecturally, the development it to make all its citizens richer – not in village, both physically and mentally. started to change. Our city grew proud of a whole new neighbourhood on terms of money, but in terms of passing We had a small and provincial city – grew balls – and started believing the old industrial harbour began, on a smarter, wiser and better city to centre, a university and Den Gamle By and investing in itself with bigger and entrepreneurially, a strong start- forthcoming generations. (The Old Town), a tourist attraction to ambitions than the elusive dream up and culinary scene began to bloom. (Continued on page 2) 2 THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE VI — AArhus — SEPTEMBER 2017 THE — UNLIMITED — EDITION ISSUE VI — AArhus — SEPTEMBER 2017 3 That’s the good thing about being in the city – to keep these open view THE UNLIMITED EdiTION is a newspaper exploring, celebrating and speculating an architecture student: the crits. portals between the water and the city, Rethinking It’s something I’ve now instated with but also to have a series of very large about the future of particular places. Each issue is place-based, delving into key the planning department. We organise and over proportioned (in our opinion) sessions and people bring boards of the public spaces within the plan. So when themes, which shape our cities including places of work, cultural spaces, food projects they are working on, and ideas we began questioning that – it was Aarhus for discussions. I want to lift the level of highly controversial. The development competence through these discussions.’ plan had, over the years, kept to this networks and development legacies. The paper invites guest writers, policy-makers, Melissa Meyer, in conversation masterplan without questioning if it was with Stephen Willacy, Aarhus City Architect, right. But in the meantime, there were a artists, architects and community members to contribute creative snapshots and Camilla van Deurs, Gehl Architects RE-THINKING HARBOUR SPacES lot of other city developments along the harbour and within the city that actually of each place. Previously, Issues I–V celebrated the London neighbourhoods of As with other previous ECOC cities like blocked some of these views that the Aarhus in 2017 is a city putting on and I work closely with the magistrate Liverpool and Marseilles, post-industrial plan aimed to maintain – so it became Whitechapel and Bermondsey. Issue VI looks further afield to Aarhus in Denmark, a show. Denmark’s second largest for technical and environmental dockland spaces and maritime heritage kind of pointless. city, situated on the east coast of services. When there are competitions are important narrative and spatial The original masterplan was also while upcoming Issue VII will travel to Liverpool. The Unlimited Edition is curated the Jutland’s peninsula, is this year’s I judge and advise. I am a chief advisor references for the ECOC programme. aiming design at a much larger scale. European Capital of Culture (ECOC) and to the councillors, about architectural While these spaces are in some ways Some of these public spaces that were by We Made That. Digital versions of Issues I–VI of the paper are available for free as such is currently host to an array of and urban topics. They don’t have to the manifestation of the programme’s supposed to be local intimate squares events, festivals, exhibitions and tourist agree with me…[but then] they make ‘Re-THINK’ theme, masterplans and were designed to be the same size as the at www.wemadethat.co.uk, with Issue VII available in winter 2017. visitor numbers well beyond its size. an unwise decision! development schemes have been in cathedral square in Aarhus. There was a For those working in urban I try to get in very early to advise on the works since the late 1990s. complete lack of dimensions which make development and regeneration, the the process itself as well as the planning One of these schemes is Bassin 7, a nice local space. We did a lot of scale ECOC title feels like just one peak of document. It is a multidisciplinary role. a harbour-side site currently in the comparisons across the city, questioning a larger growth story that has been I’m called a free bird – they tend to find delivery phase of a development plan what actually works, what are the nice shaping the city over the past decade. me quite irritating! I had a meeting with by Gehl Architects and BIG. Working places – understanding the scale and Large-scale redevelopment of the the planning department yesterday and to a long-standing pre-existing complexity of the urban fabric. In terms city’s previously industrial sites, the they were like – ‘what is his actual role?’ masterplan for the entire harbour of the public spaces we looked at the opening of new cultural institutions ‘How come he can just come in here area presented challenges to the nice streets that work, and literally and infrastructural ambitions to connect and do that?’ It is challenging. You can appointed teams developing plans for took the same dimensions and put more of the city to the sea, collectively get involved in too many things. I try the individual basin sites as they tried them onto the plan. are delivering the most comprehensive and prioritise. to strike a balance between the original Stephen Willacy, the City Aarhus redevelopment of Aarhus in its history. Since I have been in this role ambitions of the masterplan and Architect, had some very loud University Bassin 7 For this issue of ‘The Unlimited I have been a bit of bridge builder site-specific requirements. Reflecting conversations. His team had worked Edition’, Stephen Willacy, Aarhus’s between the council and these groups. on the process of developing the plan rigorously to the original plan, so that City Architect, and Camilla van I was like a bull in a china shop when for the Bassin 7 site, Camilla van Deurs, was quite a shift for the team. Looking Gellerupparken Aarhus Deurs, Partner and Team Lead at I first started. Because I didn’t have the Gehl’s lead on the project, states that at the comparisons, a lot of model the processes of public space and block work, and discussing it openly really Aarhus Gehl Architects, delve into the city’s political expertise to pull it off, I found Godsbanen Rådhus redevelopment ambitions, reflecting it really difficult. Now it’s been five years re-scaling were crucial: made a difference. There was great support from the mayor’s team and at Kaospilot on working with and within Aarhus’s and I think I’ve become good at what Gellerup Institut for (X) Kommune (the municipality) and I do. I am outspoken, I get the word ‘There were heated discussions, mainly directorate level for trying something because the existing masterplan, which new. At some point, as the masterplan Kulbroen the city’s growing model of citizen out into the newspapers, I try to frame participation and engagement with things properly. was developed in the 1980s, was a very is rolling out, you have to stop and the built environment. I found that planning departments formal plan where the overall idea was evaluate: is this working? And if not, are very bad at criticising themselves. to have some very strong new lines (Continued on page 4) AN ARCHITECT foR THE CITY Aarhus has benefitted from a long line of city architects who have guided the architectural ambitions of the city. In 2019, the Kommune will rk Aarhus a celebrate 100 years of this role. Stephen m Willacy is the current holder of this n e post, having moved to Denmark from D Holme the UK in the early 1980s. Stephen has worked across both London and Aarhus, as a partner at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects as well as teaching and researching as an associate professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture for almost two decades. The exact role (Continued from front cover…) beyond – the bar has been raised across organic ‘city lab’ where we, and people I am proud of the development and positioning of the city architect our entire ‘Region of Gastronomy’ and from all over the world, test new models and ambitions in my city.