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The Forest Bath

During Aarhus Festival 2018, we moved 600 trees to Aarhus Ø to create a green, temporary urban space.

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Karsten Thorlund

Head of SLA Aarhus, Partner, Architect MAA

+45 28432197

kth@sla.dk

Location

Aarhus, Denmark

Size

6,000 m2

Year

2018 — 2018

Client

Aarhus Festival

Role

Temporary landscape design

Partners & Collaborators

Aarhus Festival

Challenges

Typology

Services

‘The Forest Bath’ is the second project in a three-year collaboration between Aarhus Festival and SLA, which has been named City Nature 1:1. The objective of the collaboration is, that Aarhus Festival through three years (from 2017-2019) explores the potential for a green, nature-based urban development of Aarhus which can balance the construction boom of the city.

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During the Aarhus Festival 2018, 600 trees created a green, fragrant and lush temporary urban space in the middle of the 600-meter-long Bernhard Jensens Boulevard in the new neighborhood, Aarhus Ø. The result was a sensational and inviting “forest bath” that naturally cleans car exhaust fumes from the air, increases health and quality of life for the citizens of Aarhus and creating a whole new experience of nature on Aarhus Ø.

After the Festival, the 600 trees were permanently moved to SLA’s project Gellerup Urban Park.

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Design director and founder of SLA, Stig L. Andersson, about the project:

“The project is based on the Japanese concept Shinrin Yoku that literally means “forest bathing” and which is based on thousand years of Japanese learning. With The Forest Bath, we demonstrate how an equilibrium between the built and the grown environment creates a whole city – a city of meaning, quality of life, health and welfare for all.”

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Fundamentals

Have a look into the fundamentals of our office

fund. 20

Sakuteiki
– The Book of Garden

Sakuteki – The Book of Garden is a manual, a textbook for Japanese gardeners in the 11th century. This introduction sounds like this: “In making the garden, you should first understand the overall principles. According…

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fund. 19

Essay: The Bark Room

“Bark is both living and dead, growing and cracking, a shell, a protective layer and an integral part of the wood’s tissue. It’s the bark structure and the way it peels, which separates the different…

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fund. 12

Mist

Mist is a phenomenon caused by small droplets of water suspended in air. Physically, it is an example of a dispersion. It is most commonly seen where warm, moist air meets sudden cooling, such as…

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fund. 26

Atmosphere

“Atmosphere is a thin film of enclosure around our world. Without our vaporous, water filled atmosphere, life on Earth – or indeed life anywhere – would not exist. But atmosphere is also what you sense…

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fund. 25

Roots

“A tree consists of three parts: Its foliage, its trunk, and its roots. All three parts are important for the aesthetic feeling of nature. But of these three I find the roots most intriguing, most…

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fund. 26

Sound

“Sound. The soundtrack of our lives often passes us by without us noticing. But I have begun noticing the poetry of the noises around me. The rhythm and the song of the poet. The calling…

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fund. 27

White

“In the beginning was chaos. While the universe began to expand after Big Bang it also decreased in temperature. It became more and more ordered. With that order, the Universe changed its background colour toward…

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