Pier 2 living lab

In 2022, a bold new city park took shape on Pier 2 at Aarhus Ø, breathing life into a once-barren industrial area. Covering approximately 25,000 square meters, this temporary installation redefines how green havens can coexist within dense urban environments. Visitors encounter rolling hills formed from sand and gravel extracted from nearby canal projects, winding pathways, and clusters of vegetation reflecting the Danish landscape. These natural features are woven into the cityscape, bridging the gap between built infrastructure and ecological renewal.

Equally remarkable is the park’s pragmatic approach to land use, leaving half of its surface area dedicated to nature while reserving the remaining half as unprogrammed terrain open to visitors’ interpretations. This balanced design meets two objectives: regenerating local biodiversity in line with the United Nations’ SDG 15 and fostering collaborative experimentation aligned with SDG 17. By inviting people to navigate and discover the evolving landscape in real time, the park underscores how urban innovation is best realized through hands-on learning, adaptation, and reinvention.

At the core of this project is a commitment to continuous experimentation. Rather than adhering to a rigid plan, the park operates as a living lab, where various community groups, educational programs, and local organizations collectively shape its growth. Each actor takes responsibility for a distinct area, employing new ideas in planting, organizing events, and exploring different maintenance approaches. This dynamic process fosters a spirit of trial and error, revealing fresh possibilities for urban spaces to integrate recreation, learning, and ecological care.

Crucially, half of the park remains unprogrammed, allowing users the freedom to invent and adapt its purpose. Spontaneous social gatherings, informal outdoor workshops, or even small-scale cultural events can emerge in these flexible zones. As residents and visitors continually test novel ways of activating the space, the park evolves into a crucible for new insights on how humans and nature can successfully coexist. These lessons, gleaned on a real-world canvas, can inform future efforts across Aarhus and serve as an inspiring model for other cities.

Regeneration and resourcefulness lie at the heart of this park’s design. Sand and gravel from newly dug canals have been repurposed to form playful topographical features, proving that common construction materials can evolve into foundations for biodiversity. Salvaged light masts from the local tram line construction provide lighting and structural elements, illustrating how once-discarded infrastructure can gain renewed significance within a thoughtfully conceived landscape.

This ethos of creative reuse also extends to organic materials. Fallen trees from around Aarhus are repurposed as insect habitats, seating options, and natural installations, demonstrating how nature’s byproducts can enrich an urban environment. By merging these recycled elements with deliberate planting strategies, the park creates a vibrant scene where culture and ecology thrive side by side. Such trial-and-error tactics affirm that urban regeneration is not a static goal but an ongoing process—one that transforms a stark concrete deck into an ever-evolving space of growth, exploration, and community-driven innovation.