Institute of Planning

Subject area
The institute’s name indicates its complexity and holistic orientation. Its subjects range from landscapes and towns to rooms and details. Its research and interdisciplinary teaching is action-oriented, with an emphasis on the academic methods and strategies of planning, and on the connection in planning between spatial form and function.

The institute’s aim is to develop, describe and communicate new knowledge about forms of spatial organisation and academic methods as a response to the cultural changes and changes in preconditions resulting from technological developments, globalisation, changes in population structure and life patterns, and the opening up of planning processes.

Research areas
The research is linked to the institute’s subjects. The subjects take care of and develop subtopics within architectural planning with significance for city development, settlement and living conditions – and contributes academically to the social debate. Through research, the subjects’ aim is to ensure that, of both the architect education and profession, the necessary knowledge, experience, theory, criticism, etc., are developed and imparted to the school’s students and professional architects in interdisciplinary courses, consultancy activity, CPD and further education programmes and publications. 

The institute teaches the following subjects: Landscape Planning, City Planning and Building Planning.

Landscape Planning
Denmark’s transformation from a landscape dotted with towns to a unified cityscape gives landscape architecture a new scale. The primary task of the research is to describe contemporary landscape architecture, its conditions and with this architectural expression and aesthetic possibilities. Environmental issues, resources, zoning regulations, settlement patterns, communication, energy and modes of operation are all important headings in this ongoing work.

City Planning
Research in the subject City Planning is directed at the development of the post-industrial city, urban theories and forms and methods of strategic planning. In connection with the establishment of a master’s degree in the subject, the school’s academic and interdisciplinary networks will be expanded and an international knowledge base will be established, with examples of city planning strategies and methods.

The subject area Public Space Planning is concerned with public spaces across the scale with an emphasis on the human dimension and city quality. The subject area ranges from public space policies to the concrete format and detailing of public spaces.

Research in the subject Planning and Construction in the Third World focuses on studies of city and settlement conditions in developing countries – currently Ghana, South Africa and Thailand. The developing countries’ explosive city growth and city transformation is the core area of research, with the residential sector as a central theme and keywords such as megalopolis and uncontrolled city growth.

Building Planning
Research in the subjects Residential Construction and Institutional Construction focuses on the issue of large cities. Research is conducted into water supply, office and industrial buildings and housing. Research into Residential Construction is to contribute to the development of a new concept for residential building, to develop theories about the changed settlement conditions, and to develop new methods, housing types and residential complexes in the post-industrial society. Keywords are variation, changeability, location, sensory impact and weight.

Research into Institutional Construction concerns the re-urbanisation of sport and its spaces, the processes behind the development of new institutions, the construction of schools seen in relation to architecture and pedagogy, and the development of a manual for upgrading existing facilities.