The city rediscovered – On track of the contemporary city

‘The city rediscovered – on track of the contemporary city’ collects the findings from Boris Brorman Jensen’s research project ‘The potentials of landscapes close to urban areas – a study of urban and landscape potentials in sprawling cities’

The study of urban and landscape potentials that the title refers to was motivated by a desire to develop new strategies and tools for architecture and planning. The initial intention was for the project to make a difference in practice, and I expected to return to architectural practice with specific tools and action plans. Therefore, the thesis was based on analyses of specific sites, landscape areas and urban zones representing the contemporary city, initially envisioned in a European context. An important source of inspiration was Rem Koolhaas, whose rhetorical, analytical and practical work, to me, paved the way for a completely new way of understanding and relating to the city. The indirect aim of the research, therefore, macthed Koolhaas’s criticism of critique, and the intention was to look behind modern and post-modern urban ideals, which, in this perspective, represented the first obstacle to establishing a ‘positive’ definition of the ‘residual city’ and its unknown or unacknowledged urban landscapes.

The main part of the thesis consists of three case studies or stories about modern urban areas in Aarhus, Bangkok and Dubai.

Download full-text pdf of ‘Casestudie O2 – fortællinger om den nutidige city’ (in Danish).

Download full-text pdf of ‘Casestudie Sukhumvit Line – fortællinger om den moderne asiatiske storby’ (in Danish).

Download full-text pdf of ‘Casestudie Dubai – fortællinger om en globaliseret bystat’ (in Danish).

Download full-text pdf of the entire thesis (in Danish).