Aarhus Landscape Laboratory

Aarhus Landscape Laboratory is Aarhus School of Architecture’s outdoor workshop for cross-disciplinary, full-scale experiments with new forest areas and urban nature in Aarhus Ådal. The intention is to experiment with aesthetic conditions and ecological studies in practice.

Aarhus Landscape Laboratory was established in collaboration with Aarhus Municipality, Biochange (a research centre of Aarhus University), and Natural History Museum Aarhus. The laboratory is based on a shared understanding of the fact that there is not enough room for nature and that new insights in the area should be acquired through experiments. The lack of room for nature not only affects biodiversity in and around cities like Aarhus, it also shapes our perception of what nature can do and our perception of nature’s potential role in our everyday landscapes.

We want to create room for more nature in the city – both in our shared understanding of nature and in the physical spaces of the city. Our vision is based on developing, testing, and demonstrating attractive biodiversity as an integral part of the urban landscape, and on informing the potential of nature. We, however, also want to show that urban nature can be wild and untamed as well as profoundly aesthetic and beautiful. In order to realise this vision, we transform state-of-the-art research on nature, biodiversity, and landscape architecture into specific action-oriented initiatives in areas where we see a potential for creating a platform for dialogue, knowledge sharing, and demonstrations across disciplines – aimed at users as well as visitors. All experiments contribute to developing, testing, and demonstrating new ways of managing and administering urban landscapes.

Aarhus Landscape Laboratory comprises three project areas located at Godsbanen, Eskelunden, and Åbo Skov, a total area of around 100 ha. All of the three project areas are located along the Aarhus River, where they form part of a landscape area that stretches from the dense urban landscapes at Godsbanen, to transitional landscapes in-between the densified urban areas and the more open and spread-out urban areas at Eskelunden, to landscapes on the periphery of Aarhus, the forest of Åbo Skov.