The sustainable lifestyle of Aalborg

Abstract

The strongest and most appealing image of Aalborg is its waterfront, facing the Limfjord that runs across Denmark, halfway between Kattegat and the North Sea. However, until a few decades ago, this water-“front” could have been described more likely as a sequence of “rears” of inaccessible, degraded and disused factories and abandoned port infrastructures. Fed by the strongest will power, the city council decided to adopt a new project in order to emerge from the economic crisis that, between the Seventies and Eighties, saw factories and industries shutting down one by one. The idea therefore was to reconvert the image of the city from an industrial and port center into a strategic, innovative and international hub for instruction, healthcare, renewable energies and digital technologies. The formerly industrial buildings were reconverted, and sometimes completely replaced, with the aim to host research centers, cultural activities and services for the community, overturning the preexisting bond with the waterfront, this time projecting their main façade towards the fiord.