Dorte Mandrup Selected to Create the Hinge, a Landmark City Gate to Aarhus’ Newest Urban Area

Dorte Mandrup has imagined ‘The Hinge’, a landmark transition between the new urban area Aarhus Ø and the historic town of Denmark’s second-largest city. The new city gate will put in place an innovative and sustainable urban focal point. Expected to open in 2026, The Hinge was designed in collaboration with landscape architect Kristine Jensen and Søren Jensen Consulting Engineers.

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Rising from the waterfront, the urban area Aarhus Ø creates an artificial island, characterized by tall buildings. As the development approaches the inner city, the urban fabric starts converting into more modest structures, in order to meet the historic center. The new city gate ‘The Hinge’ will create a landmark in the transition between the historic town and new district, a highly ambitious plan to create an innovative and sustainable urban focal point.

The building ensures that the important view out over the bay is maintained. From Nørreport you will get a beautiful view under the building and from a distance, you get the impression that the building is floating. It is innovative and without any defined backside, urban space is created all the way around the building. It will be a beautiful gateway to Aarhus Ø and a building that can add the connection between Aarhus Ø and the old city center that the area really needs. -- Bünyamin Simsek, councilor for Technology and Environment, The City of Aarhus.

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Located in an essential and relevant site in the city of Aarhus, the client states that the intervention managed to successfully get the project and location to reflect each other. With an open base, the Hinge creates transparency towards the coastal roads and the harbor, while putting in place intimate pockets “to enjoy the sun and life at the canal, protected from the wind”. Its staggering levels at the bottom reinterpret the classic floor separations by providing a new open market space, elevated above the busy road. In addition, the structure, sculpturally shaped like an organic figure, follows the line of the boulevard to the east.

On another hand, sustainability was at the center of the design process. Seeking to use upcycled materials like concrete and glass in the construction of the building itself, the Hinge aims for a positive result on the life cycle analysis. The entire office building will provide spaces for innovative businesses and start-ups to evolve their ambitions for the future. In the public market space on the lower floor, visitors can enjoy organic food and meet to upcycle furniture, clothes, and bicycles.

Info via Dorte Mandrup.