Physical cultural heritage

The meeting with urban culture and the life in the modern town or “the industrial town” belongs to one of most seminal social experiences in our modern history. Naturally, this subject is a part of research of The Danish Centre for Urban History. The most important study is Mette Tapdrup Mortensen’s PhD dissertation Et hjem i byen? Pensionatet som urbant mikrokosmos 1880-1960'erne (A Home in the City? The Boarding House as an Urban Microcosm, 1880 to the 1960s).

With economic support from Aarhus Municipality, the Realdania Foundation and Kulturarvsstyrelsen (The Heritage Agency of Denmark), the Danish Centre for Urban History wrote a historical report about Aarhus Freight Yard Station in 2008. The report concluded with a number of recommendations on how the site’s historical values could be preserved. The report Århus Godsbanegård - historie og kulturarvsanbefalinger (Aarhus Freight Yard Station – History and Cultural Heritage Recommendations) was written by Kristian Buhl Thomsen and Jeppe Klok Due and was edited by Søren Bitsch Christensen.

In 2010, the centre was given the opportunity to transform the centre’s interest in industrial history into a publication about 27 preserved industrial heritage sites in Aarhus. The publication discusses preservation and provides examples on how re-use has given new life to old buildings. The starting point was a private project by senior researcher Kenn Tarbensen from The Danish Business Archive. From the centre, research assistant Kristian Buhl Thomsen took part in the project, and Søren Bitsch Christensen was the editor of the book. The project was supported by Aarhus Municipality, and the book was published with the support of Aarhus Urban Historical Foundation.