Kulkransporet

“Kulkransporet” (i.e. the old coal track line) is a series of plazas, urban connections and outdoor facilities in the southern harbor area of Aarhus. This public urban space connects the city center with the harbor area on a physical level, but also creates new human meetings and relations between the start-up-companies and the more established businesses, and between the socially vulnerable, the local families and the entrepreneurs and businessmen.

The old industrial bridge structure for the track, used for handling coal, will be transformed into a pedestrian pathway, connected to the ground floor level by a series of towers where all kinds of activities are to take place. Wherever there is an infrastructural intersection an urban space is created and a connection between the ground level and bridge is made. The towers act as both access points and zones for different programming and activities. Each of the urban spaces has its own identity and function which makes it a special destination with the bridge as a common link acting as a structural backbone for the area. The tower in the Coal Park is a vertical playground where the shift between ground level and the bridge becomes a theme in itself: You can climb up through the tower, jump in trampolines and slide all the way down through the twisted tubes. The other tower generates a focal point for the ‘Workplace’ and offers meeting facilities, a coffee shop and a podium suitable for presentation activities.

The project is based on and respects the heritage of the place, the existing activities and the ongoing urban life. This enables the design to be innovative. The concept is “urban life before urban space before buildings”. Hereby the area becomes alive and used from day one. The project also respects and reuses the existing vegetation. Many trees have been self-sown, and have grown taller than the bridge, allowing a unique experience of tree-top-walking from the first day.

“Kulparken” (the Coal Park) offers lots of diverse activities ranging from skateboarding, playing on the hills to more quiet meeting spots. The area is characterized by spontaneous urban vegetation which is incorporated as a main element in the new project and will be developed further in order to emphasize the heritage and special atmosphere of the place. “Kulparken” points both back to the original character of the place and onwards with the new vegetation that will evolve now that the former industrial harbor area is no longer in use as such.

“Arbejdspladsen” (the Workplace) is where the everyday life moves out of the buildings and into the urban space. The “floor” of the square is a paved surface which is inspired by the patchwork of surfaces we find on site today. Hereby a multifunctional and useable plateau is created, that can be used and inhabited by new and existing users.

The harbor area and its former use as material storage has resulted in a unique seed bank and vegetation. Here is a combination of seeds shipped to the site by the coal transportation and seeds from plants normally appearing in post-industrial areas. This site-specific aesthetics is preserved by adding “local” soil containing the unique seed bank in all the new joints and cracks.      

The landscape strategy is focused on having areas that requires a time consuming maintenance. The high maintenance-level which is required when working with existing and self-grown vegetation provide opportunities for light, but meaningful jobs for socially vulnerable which is not part of the established labor market through socio-economical firms.