At the urban scale the harbour is a grandiose meeting between the town and the fjord landscape, representing an interesting interface between the local life and the big world. Here we still have a great variety of old and new architectural typologies. This scenery calls for quality. The waterfront is a common gift for all citizens and it has been the gateway for hopes for a better life and a meeting place between "tradition" and "the new". In 2005 the "Harbourscape Aalborg" workshop and conference took place at Aalborg University with the participation of 45 architects, engineers and planners from Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The aim was to develop visionary strategies and design proposals emphasising the concepts of the development and regeneration of the waterfront in Aalborg. This book provides a comprehensive presentation of the different methodological approaches and the resulting design concepts. The aim has been to investigate a full-scale dialogue on concepts and architectural quality in the waterfront development among stakeholders in this process, and to illustrate how different design-based methods can serve as tolls in the said process.

Harbourscape does not provide architectural solutions to well defined problems and projects. It is an eye-opener towards new concepts in waterfront development and the use of design-based methods in regeneration projects -- provided by young architects as well as more experienced designers and academics.