Urban Mediaspace Aarhus is included in the transformation of Aarhus Docklands, which is one of the largest urban development projects in the history of the City of Aarhus.

In 1997, Aarhus Harbour, Aarhus County and The City of Aarhus decided to move the harbour activities close to the city further east. This made it possible to change The Aarhus Docklands from industrial harbour to city space.

The city’s waterfront

In 1999, the Aarhus City Council arranged an idea competition regarding the Aarhus Docklands.

The Architects Knud Fladeland Nielsen and Peer Teglgaard Jeppesen won the competition and their main idea was recreating the city’s waterfront.

The plan incorporated the 5 km stretch between the public bath Den Permanente in Risskov to the north and Tangkrogen and Marselisborg Marina to the south.

Subsequently, the City Council adopted the "Comprehensive Plan for the Aarhus Docklands" (2003) and the "Quality Handbook for the Aarhus Docklands" (2006).

In these publications, the City of Aarhus establishes the overall visions and guidelines for the restructuring of the former harbour to new, urban objectives.

Comprehensive Plan for the Aarhus Docklands (pdf in Danish only)

Quality Handbook for the Aarhus Docklands (pdf in Danish only)

Recreational connection

The comprehensive plan and the quality handbook are based on two basic elements, which are meant to strengthen the interaction between city and bay, and to generate a new urban harbour space.

A recreational connection will run through the urban waterfront spaces from the north to the south. It is going to make it easy for light traffic to travel between the northern and southern parts of the city.

Read more about the recreational connection

Two significant bastions

Two Significant Bastions in the inner docks are meant to generate a cohesive urban waterfront space as well as frame the future waterfront spaces.

The buildings on the two bastions, Mediaspace and Navitas Park, must have distinctive architectural qualities and have a mutual dialogue across the docks.

Read more about the Aarhus Docklands  (opens in a new window)