From IT pioneer to global centre of excellence

Building plans for the IT City of Katrinebjerg will elevate this IT neighbourhood to a world-class centre for research, education and business development.

Arne Vollertsen, Head of Communications at the Alexandra Institute, has a certain amount of pride in his voice as he presents the new construction plans for Katrinebjerg. “Mammoth ideas – really huge – have gone into these plans for the area where the University of Aarhus has gathered all its IT research and education,” he says.

This part of town – which hung up its first commercial sign in 2002 when the Innovation Lab was set up – will undergo an architectural makeover. The aim is for an overall look of an urban park area with a mixture of new construction, green spaces and older buildings that have always been there. The plans were drawn up by the municipal architect, and Helsingforsgade will be the main pedestrian thoroughfare, with running water and roadside trees. There are also plans for laying out gardens on the roof of the Storcenter Nord shopping complex and building a high-rise building in the style of the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden.

Global springboard

The new Katrinebjerg will be a springboard for the IT City’s ambition of reaching out to the world’s elite in the area of developing and applying IT. This will be best achieved by concentrating the business community, education and research within a limited geographical area. This idea is based on models including no less than Silicon Valley – the centre of advanced technology in the USA.

Forskningsfondens Ejendomsselskab A/S (FEAS), the University of Aarhus, is the major individual property company in Katrinebjerg. This company has already spent almost DKK 400 million in this area on constructing buildings that include IT-huset (as co-owners) and IT-parken. However, the company is on the lookout for more properties.

Managing Director Jørgen Andersen says, “Well probably spend an additional DKK 150 million, but that depends on whether or not people will sell their property. However, in the immediate future, we have to finish building IT-parken and then we’ll discuss whether or not to extend IT-huset.”

FEAS is also interested in building a business park at Katrinebjerg in collaboration with another party. This park will provide room for companies that grow too big for the IT-huset premises.

“We’d like to add yet another string to our bow, as far as developing the IT industry is concerned,” says Mr Andersen.

Engineers are also included

To the great delight of Katrinebjerg, the Engineering College of Aarhus is planning to transfer all its IT and electronic engineering education programmes to Katrinebjerg. “This will fill a gap in the innovation process,” says Mr Vollertsen from the Alexandra Institute.

“Getting expert knowledge in the physical area will be an added strength for the area. The engineers are good at hardware, and will thus supplement the computer science and humanities students at the Institute of Information and Media Studies,” he continues.

The master plan steering committee at Midtjyllands IT-råd (the Central Jutland IT Council) is behind Master Plan 2011, which includes plans for Katrinebjerg. This council is a collaboration between the County of Aarhus and the Aarhus Municipality, and their work so far must be considered successful.

One example is that Google recently chose Katrinebjerg as the base for its new development department.

Helsingforsgade, to be Katrinebjerg’s new pedestrian thoroughfare, is pictured here.In the top right corner are two fifteen-storey, high-rise buildings that Master Plan 2011 proposes for construction in Ringgaden.A tunnel will also be built under Ringgaden, with connecting paths to the University Park and the future location of the Aarhus School of Architecture and the Engineering College of Aarhus in the harbour area close to the city centre.The University Park and the tower on the State and University Library can be made out in the centre of the picture and to the left.