Return to nature

To support the theme of this years week of festivities ”Neighbors”, the organizers in collaboration with the local landscapearchitect Schønherr planned a contemporary forest in the very center of the city. In a peculiar way nature and culture was brought together in this years of festivities in Aarhus.

The major plaza Store Torv was turned into a major forest, Store Skov. So, for a one-week period grass, moss and 130 trees formed a framework – a social green melting pot – for nature and culture, locals and visitors, young and old to come together.

People in all ages and from multiple different nationalities gathered for picnics, play or just relaxation in extraordinary green urban setting at Store Torv. According to the organizers the forest ought to blur the boundaries between the natural landscape and the urban space, creating a new kind of hybrid space in between culture and nature, people and places.

During the entire week of festivities the forest revealed unfamiliar scents and sounds that gave the plaza an unfamiliar fresh and vibrant notion. Between trees, bushes and grass covered substrate, intimate glades appeared, inviting people to play and reflect surrounded by greenery and historic buildings. The controversial water sculpture, named the Waterdragon, completed in its own way the landscape of the urban forest. When the sun was shining, vapour rose from the sculptures fountains and wrapped the entire area in light mist.

While the festivity is shutting down for this year, yet the trees stay. A partnership between the city’s Department for Children and Youth and the organizers will make sure that the 130 trees are being transferred and replanted new places in the city. In this way the natural qualities of the trees will continue to live even after the party ends, generating new green milieus that will last and benefit the entire city, kindergardens and schools.