A New City Wall of Nature
What if cities were developed, refined, and defined in a way that made room for more nature?
What would happen if cities stopped growing? Would that give us a lot more nature? This film takes us to the year 2050, where we follow a young person who is gone to the A City in Denmark visitor center. At the visitor center, we experience how the introduction of an urban and rural protection zone in 2025 radically changed Danish cities: Farmland and sparsely built-up areas were transformed into wild nature and dense green spaces, and drowsy towns were revitalized with new housing and fresh energy.
The future scenario is created by architects Knud Aarup Kappel and Lauge Floris Larsen of Atelier for Byers Rum.
About the Architects’ Future Scenario
Imagine a future where our cities are full of life, and nature is allowed to thrive. Right now, cities are expanding wildly and without direction, often leaving city centers deserted and putting pressure on nature. But what if we could reverse this trend?
Atelier for Byers Rum envisions a future where the development of Danish cities is guided by an “urban and rural protection zone”—an invisible boundary that prevents cities from sprawling into the open countryside. This boundary ensures that our cities become denser and more vibrant, with shops, cafés, and people filling the streets. At the same time, nature outside the cities is given plenty of space to grow wild, creating a better balance between urban and rural landscapes.
Atelier for Byers Rum
Atelier for Byers Rum consists of the firm’s founder Knud Aarup Kappel and architect Lauge Floris Larsen. The firm specializes in comprehensive, urban, and development planning, always basing its work on each site’s unique characteristics and potential. Read more about Atelier for Byers Rum here.
Explore the three other architecture firms’ visions for the future: How will we live in 2050?
About the National Architecture Policy
With their future scenarios, the four architecture firms have provided inspiration to The Expert Group for National Architecture Policy. The expert group was set up to develop a white paper with recommendations for a new national architecture policy. The wording matters when formulating Denmark’s new national architecture policy. The architecture policy sets the direction for the built environment across Denmark. Drawing on the national architecture policy, the government and municipalities can create actual legislation that, for example, may dictate façade design, set CO2 emission limits for construction, or determine whether it should remain acceptable to build 200-square-meter single-family homes. The policy can thus have a huge and direct impact on the way we all live.
Helle Søholt, CEO of Gehl Architects and spokesperson for the expert group, says:
“The four future scenarios are an important inspiration for our work in the expert group. They challenge us to radically rethink our urban environments and show how the architecture of the future can be a catalyst for sustainable change. This rethinking will be an important part of how we devise our recommendations for the new national architecture policy. We hope the films can contribute to an open, active, and inclusive dialog about the recommendations in municipalities across Denmark. “
Read more about the about the national architecture policy here.
About the Expert Group for National Architecture Policy
The Expert Group for National Architecture Policy was appointed by the Minister for Culture Jakob Engel-Schmidt to draw up a number of recommendations for what a new national architecture policy should contain. The expert group consists of leading experts in Denmark within architecture and urban planning, including Pil Høyer Thielst, partner at Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects; Lene Dammand Lund, rector at the Royal Danish Academy; and Lars Autrup, CEO of the Danish Association of Architects.
Find out more at the Danish Ministry of Culture’s website.