‘Godsbanearealet’, a disused railway freight area in Aalborg, forms a sculptural setting for a vibrant educational environment

Building community for SOSU and VUC at Godsbanearealet, the disused railway freight area in Aalborg. The college community will basically consist of four buildings, connected by the halls of the packages terminal. VUC and SOSU’s buildings make up the first two structures in the complex. The college community is structured as a campus or a ‘city within a city’ with streets and plazas between the buildings. The streets and plazas are housed in the halls of the parcels terminal in an open, outward-looking environment. The buildings’ varied heights of 4, 5 and 6 storeys and the appropriate ‘humane’ dimensions of the halls invest the College Community with a scale and variety, which match its use and counterbalance the ‘rules of play’ of the district’s layout.

The College Community’s relationship to its surroundings is totally unique. It has an open, outward-looking and welcoming relationship to the city that surrounds it with its open, transparent ground floor and its recreational breathing spaces among the buildings’ volumes. This means there will be three (ultimately four) new such urban spaces, each with its own unique character, depending on its location.