A ‘Finger plan’ for East Jutland?

Aarhus mayor Anders Winnerskjold’s call for an “East Jutland finger plan” revives an old dream: planning infrastructure, landscape and urban development as one coherent whole, rather than as isolated municipal decisions. In the article, co-written with Professor Tom Nielsen of the Aarhus School of Architecture, we trace the idea back to the 2006 National Planning Report, which first floated the vision of an “East Jutland Million City” – Denmark’s second metropolis in waiting – and to the 18-municipality collaboration that followed, only to collapse around 2010 under the weight of local competition and infrastructure disputes. A 2019 research project brought fresh knowledge to the table, but political follow-through never materialized.

We argue, once again, that the climate and biodiversity crises – together with mounting congestion – make cross-municipal coordination more urgent than ever. In our view, the landscape deserves a far more active role: steering urban growth away from vulnerable, flood-prone areas, strengthening biodiversity, and supporting public health and recreation. Our conclusion: infrastructure planning is, at its core, urban planning – and a new finger plan promises far more than a fix for traffic jams.

Download the article as pdf (in Danish).