{"id":142684,"date":"2026-08-09T07:25:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/142684\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T07:25:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T07:25:32","slug":"dock-star-how-aarhus-became-denmarks-capital-of-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/142684\/","title":{"rendered":"Dock Star: How Aarhus Became Denmark’s Capital of Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re not interested in neat branding. We tried that; it was a disaster,\u201d says mayor of Aarhus Jacob Bundsgaard. \u201cYour brand needs to be credible, it needs to be rooted in the city.\u201d He is looking out over the skyline through, literally, rose-tinted glass but this laidback 39-year-old is no deluded optimist. Together with city architect Stephen Willacy he is overseeing a genuine paradigm shift in the liveability of Denmark\u2019s second city.<\/p>\n

We are standing in Your Rainbow Panorama, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson\u2019s multicoloured city halo perched atop Aros, the modern-art museum. And OK, technically the glass is violet. When it opened in 2011, this DKR60m (\u20ac8m) enclosed circular walkway became the audacious new symbol of a city emerging from a rather dour post-industrial chrysalis. \u201cThe effect of Rainbow has been amazing, particularly for our international profile,\u201d the Social Democratic mayor says, adding that the city\u2019s name was changed from \u00c5rhus to Aarhus for the same reason. \u201cBut you can\u2019t just have one attraction. Now we have Moesgaard [the new Henning Larsen-designed museum that is home to Grauballe Man, the world\u2019s best preserved bog body], the new botanic garden and, of course, there\u2019s Dokk1.\u201d More on that later.<\/p>\n

Aarhus has always been wealthy but it lacked the appeal and liveability of the capital and was usually thought of by Copenhageners as the chippy little brother \u201cover there\u201d on the Jutland peninsula. These, though, are boom times for this city of 320,000, home to Denmark\u2019s busiest container port, one of the country\u2019s highest-ranking universities (45,000 students live here) and blue-chip companies such as wind-turbine firm Vestas, global clothing giant Bestseller and mega-dairy Arla.<\/p>\n

Aarhus 2030, a plan to create a more liveable city for the 60,000 people expected to move here over the next 15 years, hinges on tempting car-users out from the centre with a 110km, DKR2.4bn (\u20ac322m) light railway network; investing DKR1.3bn (\u20ac174m) to improve Gellerup Park, Denmark\u2019s largest \u201cghetto\u201d (as referred to by the Danish government) and home to more than 80 different nationalities, including some highly publicised Islamist radicals; and several new, mixed-income housing developments, most of them on brownfield sites. Along the way Aarhus will enjoy a stint as European Capital of Culture in 2017.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s rebirth was kickstarted by the exigencies of its port. Founded by the Vikings in the 800s, today it handles 66 per cent of Denmark\u2019s container traffic and is a major hub for northern Europe. With an increasing number of mega-ships arriving in the city, the only way to expand (and compete with Hamburg, 340km away) was by relocating the whole shebang to the south of the city.<\/p>\n

Aarhus was always aquaphobic. In denial of its seaside location, for decades its bay was obscured by cranes, containers and warehouses. But now, at last, the city has reconnected with the water. \u201cWe\u2019ve opened up the harbourfront and brought the water right through the city centre by opening up the Aarhus River,\u201d explains Willacy, an Englishman who has lived in Denmark for 30 years. \u201cEveryone said it would be a catastrophe but it\u2019s been our most successful urban initiative ever.\u201d The harbourfront is unrecognisable from Monocle\u2019s last visit three years ago, with large, open public spaces and the DKR2.1bn (\u20ac280m) library known as Dokk1, which opened in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should think of it as a noisy living room for the whole city,\u201d says library manager Knud Schulz of the multifaceted space (both in function and fa\u00e7ade) with an area the size of five football pitches. Dokk1 features underground parking for 1,000 cars, a caf\u00e9, event spaces and private offices \u2013 not forgetting its 325,000 books. Eventually it will have its own light-railway station on the ground floor. As part of the design process, architecture firm Schmidt\/Hammer\/Lassen consulted with toddlers so it also boasts numerous play areas.<\/p>\n

\"TwoAnders Laursen and private developer Nicolai Hommelhoff<\/p>\n

\"InteriorInside Aarhus Central Station, built in 1927<\/p>\n

\"TurquoiseAarhus Central Station<\/p>\n

\"InteriorInside Aarhus city hall<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Jacob Bundsgaard<\/p>\n

\"PeopleYour Rainbow Panorama<\/p>\n

\"MaleneMalene and Claus Bellinger head a successful eyewear company<\/p>\n

\"ChildrenPlayground at Dokk1<\/p>\n

\"CattleAbattoir in the city centre<\/p>\n

\"SandyBallehage Beach<\/p>\n

\"ManLasse Dahl, CEO of Designit<\/p>\n

\"PeopleTree-lined Graven is a draw<\/p>\n

\"PeopleHarbourside beach<\/p>\n

\"CityCity architect Stephen Willacy<\/p>\n

\"Tree-linedAarhus River by M\u00f8lleparken<\/p>\n

\"ABustling Graven in central Aarhus<\/p>\n

\"SeagullsAarhus has Denmark\u2019s busiest container port<\/p>\n

\"InteriorPainter Thorvald Hagedorn-Olsen\u2019s large mural decorates city hall<\/p>\n

\"ModernView from Dokk1<\/p>\n

\"InteriorDokk1, the new public library, that was opened in June<\/p>\n

\"MoesgaardMoesgaard Museum<\/p>\n

\"ModernIceberg development on the Aarhus \u00d8 waterfront<\/p>\n

Schulz is charged with bringing life to this new city landmark. \u201cWe were flying drones in here yesterday,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cThey are illegal outdoors but no one has said anything about indoors.\u201d Pride of place in the library goes to the world\u2019s longest tubular bell that lets out a mighty clang as we speak. \u201cIt is rigged up to Aarhus hospital\u2019s maternity wing,\u201d explains Schulz. \u201cEach time a baby is born they press a button and the bell rings here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing our tour of the city in an area close to the new container port, Willacy passes a small walled zone for substance abusers beneath an old overhead coal-crane bridge (which will eventually be turned into an Aarhus High Line). Nearby is a fully operational abattoir, complete with cows queuing to meet their maker.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the smell and noise and sometimes a cow escapes,\u201d Willacy says. \u201cForget your gentrified meatpacking districts: this is the real thing. I really want to protect the grittiness in this city. We don\u2019t want to over-gentrify; that\u2019s why we insist 25 per cent of private developments are housing-association flats. It\u2019s a policy that has been adopted nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue through the more conventionally appealing medieval heart of Aarhus in the company of Willacy and you soon discover that, as well as a container port and university town, this is a city of architects: at every turn we meet former students (he used to lecture at the city\u2019s renowned architecture school) and colleagues from some of the several world-class firms that are based here.<\/p>\n

On Graven, a bustling street lined with caf\u00e9s and bars, we bump into Julian Weyer, a partner at CF M\u00f8ller Architects \u2013 perhaps the most venerable of all the city\u2019s studios. Weyer was responsible for planning the new container port: \u201cWe thought it would take 35 years but within five we have moved the traffic flow away from the city and removed trucks from the harbourfront.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weyer shows us around the city\u2019s greatest architectural jewel, Aarhus University campus, designed in a functionalist-Bauhaus style from the 1930s onwards by a team headed by the late CF M\u00f8ller. \u201cGetting a university was a really big step for this city,\u201d says Weyer, whose firm continues to be involved in its expansion. He invites us to look at the view from the 12th-floor roof terrace of CF M\u00f8ller\u2019s offices, where he points out the company\u2019s most recent developments: the new harbourfront HQ for Bestseller and, to the west, the padded-polymer dome for the new botanical gardens.<\/p>\n

We can also see Godsbanen, the old railway goods yard that has become a focal point for a diverse range of start-ups. The 50 or so tenants pay different rents, ranging from DKR500 to DKR7,500 (\u20ac65 to \u20ac1,000) a month depending on their means. It is overseen by Mads Peter Lauritsen of Institut for X.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstitut for X is a platform for small businesses, which by our definition can be anything from a band to an architecture studio,\u201d says Lauritsen. Godsbanen (\u201cthe freight yard\u201d) has the makeshift look and slightly anarchic feel of Copenhagen\u2019s \u201cfree state\u201d of Christiania, albeit blessedly free of drug dealers and dobermans. \u201cBecause this is Aarhus, when we had the idea it was easy to make contact with city hall, which owns the site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Godsbanen might be living on borrowed time. In two years, builders will break ground here for the new architecture school. All is not lost, however: \u201cMy dream is for it to co-exist with the school,\u201d says Willacy. \u201cI want that complexity in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most successful start-ups of the last few years here is Bellinger, an eyewear company founded a decade ago by husband-and-wife team Malene and Claus Bellinger. It developed the world\u2019s first adjustable carbonfibre glasses, the Blac range, still handmade in its Aarhus HQ. \u201cWe could move but Aarhus has everything and it\u2019s still cosy, friendly and open-minded,\u201d says Malene. \u201cThe beach and the forest are both five minutes away,\u201d adds Claus. \u201cIt\u2019s just easier to live here than in Copenhagen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lasse Dahl, Scandinavian CEO of Designit, agrees. One of the world\u2019s biggest names in strategic design, the company was founded in Aarhus and although its waterfront HQ has been bought by India-based IT company Wipro, Dahl is adamant that they will stay in the city: \u201cThe \u2018Aarhusness\u2019 of Designit is a key USP for us. Our flat, open corporate culture has a big appeal to our clients. We\u2019re a design firm without a design diva; much more Danish.\u201d<\/p>\n

We finish our three-day tour on Aarhus \u00d8, a residential area being built on the site of the old container port. One of the main private developers is Nicolai Hommelhoff, who works with his project manager Anders Laursen. The buildings around us resemble giant shards of ice; apartments inside sell for DKR7m (\u20ac940,000). It has the look of a classic market-led, postmodern rejuvenation project \u2013 only here, four of the blocks are student accommodation and, as in the rest of the new city districts, 25 per cent of the apartments are owned and operated by housing associations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are using the whole site as a kind of test centre,\u201d says Hommelhoff. \u201cWe try to build, say, a mussel farm or a communal garden and if they are successful we make them permanent. Everything is possible here because the city authorities are so open.\u201d On this summer\u2019s day, the urban beach Laursen designed is full and the garden is flourishing. \u201cNormally you build buildings, people move in, then 10 years later you get the life,\u201d he adds. \u201cBut we are creating the life while we are building.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years Denmark has suffered from Copenhagen\u2019s pull as a skills and investment black hole, its gravity irresistible for graduates and investors alike. But with living costs there now perilously high (one of the reasons it plummeted from first to 10th in Monocle\u2019s most-recent Quality of Life Survey in issue 85), the country badly needs a liveable second city.<\/p>\n

Aarhus still lacks a proper international airport, (\u201cRealistically it might take eight years or so,\u201d says the mayor), it could do with a boutique hotel or two and better integration of its immigrant population is an urgent priority. But so far Aarhus is offering a convincing model for how a second city can redesign and reinvent itself to become a legitimate rival to its capital on its own terms.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

How Aarhus is making capital<\/p>\n

Sound business minds:
Companies here have a reputation for cool heads, harder deals, corporate longevity and growth.<\/p>\n

Compact community:
Everyone knows everyone else, which builds trust and makes decision-making chains shorter.<\/p>\n

Progressive government:
City hall isn\u2019t afraid to innovate and take risks, while maintaining a healthy social balance downtown.<\/p>\n

University influence:
The student population keeps the city fresh and agile, with a renewable skills supply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re not interested in neat branding. We tried that; it was a disaster,\u201d says mayor of Aarhus Jacob…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":142685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[57557,27,26,55521,37913,17941],"class_list":["post-142684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-aarhus","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-gentrification","tag-quality-of-life","tag-urbanism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117064363662367108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}