Æbeløgade block Aarhus, Denmark

The Æbeløgade block’s 136 apartments and 10 townhouses sit in Aarhus' historic Øgade district, neighbouring the city’s botanical garden. The development interprets the much-loved area and marks the first addition to the neighbourhood since around 1900. A cobbled street divides the traditional, often introverted, perimeter block, creating an active, communal space for traffic, play, and shared activities, and connecting the residences to the botanical garden and the wider public and urban fabric.

The project reverses the conventional approach to residential design. Rather than beginning with the buildings, CEBRA first designed a new cobbled street, Æbeløgade, and allowed its character to guide the programming and design of the surrounding apartment buildings and townhouses. The result draws on the atmosphere and architecture of the historic neighbourhood while giving the new street its own identity.

A tribute to a historic urban quarter

The Øgade district has long been one of Aarhus’s most attractive residential neighbourhoods, characterised by cosy streets, varied residential architecture and intimate green courtyards. To make the most of this prominent location and historic context, Æbeløgade interprets these qualities in a contemporary development.

The street was designed as a tribute to the area’s history, bringing together some of its defining qualities in a new form. Its cobbled streetscape, trees, pavements and inviting front gardens establish a recognisable connection to the existing district while giving Æbeløgade its own distinct character.

The new street divides and opens up the traditional, often introverted perimeter block. Designed as a community-focused shared space, it accommodates residents, children playing, passers-by and road users, with room for traffic, play and shared activities. In this way, the street becomes an active communal space that connects the homes with the botanical garden, the wider city and public life beyond the development.

Architectural sampling

The design of the apartment buildings and townhouses is based on architectural “sampling”: identifying, combining and reinterpreting characteristic elements from the surrounding Øgade district.

Perimeter blocks, brick facades, green courtyards and cosy streets are combined with dramatic roof pitches, accentuated dormer windows and large areas of glazing. The dormers and large windows create shifts and unexpected variations across the façades, while the pitched roofs give the development a recognisable identity, reduce building heights, and provide optimal daylight and views.

Together, these elements create a varied yet distinctive architectural expression. They reduce the scale of the development, contribute to a welcoming atmosphere and form a contemporary interpretation of the Øgade district’s architecture, rooted in the existing district’s character.

The traditional brick building is further reinterpreted through a monochrome palette of three colours: warm red, light grey and dark brown. Every element of each building follows its respective colour scheme, from bricks, mortar joints and window frames to balconies, mailboxes, downpipes and the interior lift shafts. This makes the street façade appear vertically divided into a row of individual but connected buildings, reflecting the structure of the historic district while establishing a contemporary housing typology and giving the street its own personality.

Connecting the city and the botanical garden

Æbeløgade forms a lively route through the new neighbourhood. Together with a network of intersecting paths, it opens the development towards the city and creates both visual and physical connections with the neighbouring botanical garden.

The garden’s green and blue elements continue through Æbeløen, influencing both the buildings and the outdoor spaces. A sustainable urban drainage system, or SuDS, uses rainwater as a visible recreational element. It is combined with low-maintenance areas where vegetation can grow freely, and new species can establish themselves naturally, supporting a wide variety of flora and fauna.

Trellises for climbing plants are fitted to the development’s many gable walls, extending the planting from the landscape onto the buildings themselves.