‘We need history because we need rest: a pause to rest our consciousness, so that the possibility of a consciousness may remain – as the seat not only of thought, but of practical reason, affording full latitude for action...’
Patrick Boucheron[1]
Situated on the eastern coast of the Jutland peninsula, Aarhus traces its origins to an early Viking Age trade settlement established in the 8th century, in the delta of the river Aros, from which the city derives its name. Today, Aarhus stands as Denmark's second-largest city, a major container port, and a dynamic site of rapid urban transformation, particularly in its harbor area.
The medieval street network remains preserved in the city's Latin Quarter, where key landmarks such as the Brick Gothic Aarhus Cathedral—the tallest and longest in Denmark—and the Church of Our Lady, home to Scandinavia’s oldest preserved stone structure, continue to shape the city’s skyline. The urban fabric is further enriched by well-preserved Renaissance merchant houses, Classicist buildings, and colorful 17th-century timber-framed structures
By the late 19th century, Aarhus had evolved into Jutland’s primary urban center, whose newfound identity benefited from Hack Kampmann’s projects, which blended Art Nouveau with National Romanticism. The 20th century marked Aarhus as a site for modernist experimentation, particularly in social housing and public institutions, such as the Functionalist Town Hall by Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller, and the Aarhus University campus, designed by Kay Fisker, C. F. Møller, Povl Stegmann, and C. Th. Sørensen. The postwar era addressed the needs of a growing urban population through housing and infrastructure projects, exemplified by the brutalist works of Friis & Moltke and the ambitious Gellerup Plan. The partnership of Kjær & Richter perpetuated this moderate modernism with new means. In recognition of its wider impact, one of the founding partners, Johan Richter, was named honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1989.
In the 1980s in general, however, little was built in Aarhus, due to the general economic downturn, yet from a solid base in the city, the architectural office of Inger and Johannes Exner made headlines with its innovative restoration philosophy, which came to life in projects such as Koldinghus Castle. Moreover, the couple has been the most prolific modernist church architects by far in Denmark to date, and in and around Aarhus one easily comes across many of their creations. Additionally, other striking modernist church buildings, by architects such as Jacob Blegvad, Paul Niepoort, and Leopold Teschl, can be found in the vicinity of Aarhus.
Meanwhile, architectural creativity also found an outlet in the culture of the architectural drawing. Thus, the late Svein Tønsager of the Aarhus School of Architecture was the center of a network that made Aarhus an attractive destination for renowned architects and theorists such as Sverre Fehn, Zaha Hadid, John Hejduk, Léon Krier, Daniel Libeskind, Wolf Prix, Michael Sorkin, Peter Wilson, and Lebbeus Woods. Also in the 1980s and 1990s, benefiting from the agency of art historian Lise Bek, architectural and spatial analysis became a main component in the curriculum of Art History at Aarhus University. This legacy is alive and well, encompassing research in architecture from the Middle Ages till the present, and it provides an ideal setting for the activities of the EAHN.
The 21st century has introduced large-scale urban regeneration projects, including significant investments in Aarhus Harbor and Aarhus Ø, alongside the development of pedestrian and green corridors. When, from 2005 through 2015, the Aarhus River, which had been paved over to make way for the automobile from the 1930s onwards, was unearthed, it not only signaled a new approach sensitive to history and ecology alike but also heralded the impact of landscape urbanism on Danish urbanistic thinking. Just like the new Town Hall was a beacon of a time when modernism and optimism went hand in hand, the recovered river has become a symbol of urban regeneration in the present.
Aarhus is the home to Aarhus University, one of the largest educational institutions in the Nordic countries, a vibrant School of Architecture, an Art Academy, and several prestigious museums. These include the contemporary art museum ARoS, Den Gamle By (The Old Town)—one of the pioneering open-air museums—and the Moesgaard Museum, which houses ethnographic and archaeological collections. The surrounding region offers a diverse architectural and historical landscape, from Neolithic passage graves and dolmen structures to Renaissance and Baroque manors, Legoland, expansive social housing projects, and notable modernist and contemporary works by architects such as Jørn Utzon, Dorte Mandrup, Alvar Aalto, and Steven Holl. In addition, one encounters spatial and architectural works by visual artists such as Per Kirkeby, Ingvar Cronhammar, and Olafur Eliasson (and soon by James Turrell).
Negotiating the local and the generic, the introvert and the global, Aarhus presents an ideal setting for discussing architectural histories, as the outer boundaries of architecture and its histories are constantly redefined. As technological, cultural, and territorial boundaries are constantly transgressed and conflicted, and with the planetary boundaries simultaneously expanded and consumed, the outer boundaries of architectural history are also constantly reset, expanding in temporal and cultural span and diversity, registering the past in the present as a projection of the future.
[1] ‘Of what is History capable?’, Inaugural Lecture delivered on Thursday 17 December 2015. Translated by Liz Libbrecht. Paris: Collège de France, 2018.
