Year: 2016-2017
Location: Aarhus, DK
Size: 101.500 m2
Status: Ongoing
Collaborators: SLA, Moe, Urban Creators, Innovation Lab, Mogens Morgen and Martin Thim

The County Hospital in Aarhus, originally designed by renowned city architect Axel Høeg-Hansen, is to be developed and transformed into a new urban district with respect for its cultural-historical roots. SLETH’s winning proposal for the 101,500 m2 development plan illustrates how to create a well-functioning and attractive urban district that seeks to find a balance between city life, active communities, the quiet everyday life and a new green landmark in Aarhus. The vision for the project is based on a reading of the historic hospital and landscape, activating the original structure as the backbone for the new urban district. The development plan envisions a wide range of dwelling typologies, inspired by the multitude of building types and spaces in the historic complex.

Through cultural heritage analyzes, SLETH points out which of the red hospital buildings worthy of preservation from the 1930s that should be preserved and transformed into housing, businesses, cultural functions, and other urban life support functions. The development plan is based on a concept around “The Organic City Quarter”, as a new urban space hierarchy for the entire area, where the new public city park and the central city street connect the new neighborhood with the surrounding urban areas and parks. The cohesive green network also creates an active city life and a safe framework for life between the houses as well as a new city district with its own identity. With the Organic City Quarter, a neighborhood is created where the city’s families with children, young people and the elderly can live door to door with the quality of life that follows from living different generations and cultures in the same area.

The development of the neighborhood is based on creating an area in balance between being close to city life and active communities and at the same time meeting the needs of the private, quiet everyday life.