TRUE SKOV TRANSFORMATIONS

For two weeks in September Studio 1A Urban Design | Landscape Architecture participated in a design workshop focussing on the physical transformation of True Skov, a 400 ha. large and 25-year-young afforestation project in the north-western periphery of Aarhus. True Skov was planted at the turn of the millennium as part of an afforestation strategy for the city of Aarhus. Some of the main goals were to create new recreational landscapes close to the city, to produce biomass and to help regulate the drinking water quality in Aarhus.

But even though the local landscape has played a role in the layout of the forest (i.e. choosing which species to plant where) one of the challenges in True Skov is the lack of spatial diversity and sense of place. Students of Arkitektskolen Aarhus were asked to make small-scale interventions that could help alter the perception of True Skov from being simply a managed landscape to being a place with a distinct character and atmosphere, which more people would want to visit.

Small-scale interventions have emerged as reactions to unused wasteland sites in urban areas but the principle can also be applied to large-scale structures such as forests on the periphery of our cities. The transformed spaces in True Skov seek to reveal the architectural character of the young forest and engage users with the remnant traces of the past that remain legible across its landscape.

The Studio worked with the idea of ‘addition by subtraction’. No artefacts were added to the forest to make the interventions, rather students worked with the plants themselves as the medium and active components of their designs. Each intervention is restricted to an area that can be grasped by the human eye, typically a few hundred square metres. The interventions contrast with the managed, wooded matrix and aim to convey that the forest is cared for and is intended for recreational use.

The workshop resulted in a series of interventions dispersed in the young forest. The Poplar Path, The Burial Mounds, The Cherry Hall, The Ice-Age Passage and The Pillar Hall. It is possible to visit the interventions in the years to come as the intention is to integrate them in the future management of the forest.

The workshop was run by AAA in close collaboration with Naturstyrelsen, Lokale- og Anlægsfonden, Copenhagen University and Aarhus Municipality, who are currently working with True Skov as a case study in the development of a national catalogue on new urban forests in Denmark. The results of the workshop will help serve as inspiration for managers of young urban forests and future afforestation projects both nationally and internationally.