Aalborg Vestby's coastal areas by the Limfjord are exposed to flooding due to rising sea levels and frequent storms challenging the buildings at the habour and the residential area of Aalborg Vestby.

"With the Boat Park, we also manage to give climate protection a social purpose. Climate protection in the sense of flood protection is often seen as a barrier between city and water. But on the route from the old Liquor Factory to Vestre Fjordpark, we are creating urban and landscape spaces, both large and small – for big and little ones – that safeguard Aalborg's link with the fjord, which is part of the city's DNA," says Jens Rex, Head of Landscape & Urbanism at C.F. Møller Architects.

The Boat Park extends from the old Liquor Factory to Vestre Fjordpark and is the last part of the area along the fjord in Aalborg which is threatened by flooding and appears disconnected from city. The area includes two marinas, a food market, and a bridge across the fjord. The Boat Park will climate-proof both the marinas and Aalborg Vestby while creating a new recreational link between the water and the city, which retains the area’s uniqueness that has emerged from the contrast between the well-organised and dense blocks of the Vestby, and the multifaceted harbour environment.

The main climate proofing of Aalborg Vestby is established with a dyke in the green park between the harbour and the city, as a meandering landscape feature with naturally shaped, continuous hills that bend through the park, creating spaces and seating areas, shielded from the busy road from the city centre towards the Vestby. To create a link between the harbour and the city, the dyke is broken by portals between the city and the harbour, inviting the area's users to linger by the water.

Currently disconnected urban spaces will be linked in a new route with cobblestones from the quayside, which will have a wooden promenade with seating areas at different levels. The quayside will be elevated, safeguarding the marinas but maintaining access to the fjord and the harbour basin inviting to activity, by and in the water.

With a future marked by storms and flooding, the Boat Park shows how coastal urban environments can adapt and exist in accordance with climate change.

Read more about the Boat Park.