EAST JUTLAND MILION-CITY

A book that contributes to the debate about the phenomenon of the ‘East Jutland Million-City’ and the historical absence of coordinated regional urban and landscape planning in eastern Denmark.

Modern infrastructures and means of mobility have shifted geographic boundaries and altered our understanding of physical geographic conditions. The administrative boundaries that shaped local life two generations ago are transcended by a modern everyday life that measures distances in minutes. New functional links have emerged between big and small cities, which have begun to form clusters and more or less independent urban regions. Copenhagen has expanded far beyond the famous Finger Plan from 1947 and has become the centre of gravity in a new Danish-Swedish Øresund region. This development has been followed up by a number of state-funded initiatives in the fields of infrastructure, culture and the arts.

In western Denmark, the situation is somewhat different, although there is progress here, too. In some regards, Denmark’s other regional growth centre, the so-called ‘east Jutland urban belt’ that has emerged along the E45 motorway, is emerging as a counterpart to the nation’s leading growth centre. The diffuse urban network between the towns of Randers and Kolding in eastern Jutland has long been a topic of debate in various professions, but it has not really made it onto our mental map of Denmark. In contrast to the development of the Danish-Swedish Øresund region, there is no coordinated planning. That raises two questions, which are addressed in the book: why? And is it actually necessary to plan a fusion of cities in Jutland?

Download a pdf of the book in Danish here