THE ISLAND IN BETWEEN Creating a Sustainable District by using its local green qualities as backbone for the development

Abstract: From a reputation of an industrial and trading city, Aalborg has changed into a contemporary university city, with a strong development of creative clusters in knowledge-based industries. Nowadays the Vækstaksen, an urban growth axis set by the municipality, has become the driving force in the city’s development to avoid further sprawl. A great part of East Aalborg belongs to this axis and is currently undergoing a rapid transformation with investments that include a new university hospital, a bus rapid transit (BRT) line and the expansion of the university and the local industrial harbor, among others. The area was designed with a very clear differentiation between functions and a highly efficient traffic infrastructure in the early 1960’s which lead to a neighborhood that has many physical and mental barriers for its residents and an urban structure that seems to work as individual islands with unclear connections but very special qualities. One of these islands, where the villages of Øster Sundby and Nørre Tranders lie, has yet to be included in the strategy to enhance East Aalborg and has a great potential to become a sustainable district by using its local green qualities as backbone for the development. The project ‘The island in between’ intends to create synergy between the site and the ongoing investments in the surrounding areas using nature as the main driver; the landscape ties everything together through a careful use of the topography, respect of the existing built form, integration of functions, densification and mobility.