Aarhus Festival

Since 2010, Schønherr has continuously developed temporary urban space experiments in collaboration with Aarhus Festival - Denmark’s largest cultural festival. The aim is to test new ideas that can both inspire urban planning and create more inclusive public spaces, where citizens can physically experience and reflect on visions for the city of the future.

The first experiment in 2010 transformed the square in front of Aarhus Cathedral into a temporary “forest” with hundreds of trees placed on rolling hills of moss and grasses. The city center was infused with new scents, colors, and sounds - unfolding the spatial potential of the square in an entirely new way.

In 2012, Schønherr and the festival created a proposal for a new city park by uniting the green areas in front of Aarhus City Hall and the Concert Hall across one of the city’s main arterial roads in order to test new connections, make room for concert stages and fountains, provide freedom from traffic noise, and challenge the perception of the parks as separate spaces.

In 2014, the Station Square became the focal point of the experiment. Car traffic was shut out, the terrain was levelled, and the entire square was given a uniform “urban floor” and new aesthetic, in order to create cohesion, spatial clarity, and calm.

These experiments have demonstrated how temporary interventions can generate new knowledge, strengthen communities, and create the foundation for long-term transformations of the city’s spaces.