Architecture of Aarhus

[1] The history of the city as a Viking fort is evidenced in the street layout of the Latin Quarter, the wider Indre By neighborhood testifies to its later role as a Market town and center of commerce while the Frederiksbjerg, Trøjborg and Marselisborg districts showcase the first cohesive urban planning efforts of the early 20th century.

[2] The hilly area consists of a morainal plateau from the last ice age, broken by a complex system of tunnel valleys.

The coastal cliffs along the Bay of Aarhus consist of shallow tertiary clay from the Eocene and Oligocene (57 to 24 million years ago).

Humans returned as the glaciers retreated and evidence points to a hunter gatherer culture until around 4.000 BCE when peoples from the south immigrated north and gradually introduced agriculture.

[9][10] The area around Aarhus contains many structures from this period, primarily burial sites in the form of tumuli which was a common practice up to the Viking Age.

The fjord further to the west in Viby was the primary harbor where ships were stored in safety from seaborne attacks in close proximity to the king's estate.

The moat surrounded an area around present day Store Torv and Aarhus Cathedral marked by the streets Graven (Lit.

Aarhus was defined by its Market town stage and many expansive, multi-winged merchants houses were built at the ends of the main thoroughfares.

The only preserved example is Ridderstræde 4 but the small street Møllestien is a reasonable approximation of the types and sizes of houses the lower classes lived in at the time.

Typical for many classicist designs was the 3-parted facade; in larger structures the middle section was often formed with pilasters and triangular gables while smaller dwellings usually settled for minor decoration and ornamentation.

Many more structures were built in Gothic Revival; the most prominent examples may be Jydske Asyl from 1850 but Studestalden from 1865, Mejlen from 1883, Samsøgades School from 1914 and the farm buildings of Vilhelmsborg manor are also significant works.

Italian renaissance architecture is demonstrated in several prominent structures around Store Torv; the Business- and Agricultural Bank of Jutland from 1900 and Domkirkepladsen 1 from 1926, which also includes some elements of English Baroque.

The Aarhus Fire Station from 1904 merges national romanticism with Renaissance Revival while the Ole Rømer Observatory from 1911 by Anton Rosen incorporates the Arts and Crafts movement.

Other examples are Sankt Lucas Kirkeplads 6–8, H. Pontoppidans Gade 18, Gerlachsgade 14 and Villa Kampen, originally Hack Kampmann's home.

A new breed of young architects got involved in socio-political issues and sought to design neighborhoods, blocks, buildings and institutions in cheap but appealing ways.

The neighborhood Frederiksbjerg, planned and designed by Hack Kampmann and Einar Ambt in 1898, was erected quickly as large, continuous blocks in the spirit of Neoclassicism.

Aarhus Female Seminary from 1910 in Trøjborg is a rare example of a trend inspired by French palace-architecture with plastered, richly ornamented and clearly divided facades.

[32] The Aarhus University buildings from 1933 by C. F. Møller, Kay Fisker and Povl Stegmann is listed and a part of the Danish Culture Canon.

[32] Århus Statsgymnasium school from 1953 by Johan Richter featuring large ceramic artworks by native artist Asger Jorn, signals the emergence of modernism and the buildings have been listed since 2003.

The late 1960s to early 1970s also produced modernist icons like the dormitories of Børglum Hall (1967) by Harald Salling-Mortensen and Skjoldhøjkollegiet (1973) also by Knud Friis and others.

In line with contemporary practises, the building incorporates features such as solar panel facades and a number of energy efficiency devices (central heating, LED lighting, proper insulation, etc.).

[citation needed] Development of the Docklands in the 2010s has produced a number of notable buildings such as the irregular Isbjerget (Iceberg) from 2013, the star-shaped Navitas from 2015 and the heptagonal neofuturistic Dokk1 cultural center from 2016.

Northwards into what became the Nørre Stenbro quarter, initially small-scale industry and small houses but in the late 1800s larger 4-5 story perimeter blocks with rental units.

The largest industrial factories has left the center of Aarhus for the suburbs but their legacy remain in the form of several large complexes of buildings.

The area of the former Ceres Brewery is being developed into a new, modern neighborhood in the 2010s after it closed in 2008 and the factory and ironworks complex for Frichs, was converted to a commercial business district in the early 2000s.

The oldest and best preserved site is the Aarhus Central Workshops which comprise numerous buildings from the early 20th century train repair facilities, today a cultural and commercial center.

In 2001, the glass facaded office building of Prismet (The Prism) stood finished at 63 metres, but the City Hall is built on a hill and it still appeared as the highest structure on the skyline.

Kampmann worked in the Art Nouveau National Romantic style and designed a number of important buildings in Aarhus at the turn of the 20th century.

C. F. Møller (1898–1988) also had a large impact and is responsible for some of the largest public institutions in the city, the University from 1933 and the Municipal Hospital from 1935, both designed in the Functionalist style.

The organization is not attached to any political party and is a meeting spot for the citizens of Aarhus to discuss and share their interest in the city's history, architecture and physical planning.