ABSTRACT
This chapter reconstructs Aalborg’s urban transformation from the early 16th century to the consolidation of its sustainability profile in the 1990s, interpreted through the Urban Sustainability Compass (Chapter 1). Urban transformation is here intended through the shifting planning rationalities, which are framed through the interpretive logics of urgency, legitimation, implementation, and experimentation, shaping spatial strategies, institutional practices, and governance cultures across four historical phases. The first phase (1516–1869) traces Aalborg’s transformation from a fortified market town to a regional trade hub under royal and ecclesiastical authority. The second (1869–1970s) consists of its industrial expansion, driven by infrastructure-led planning and the logic of implementation under modernisation imperatives. The third phase (1970s–1994) materialised with the socio-spatial disruptions of deindustrialisation, which prompted public contestation and strategic experimentation. The final phase culminates with the adoption of the Aalborg Charter (1994), which represents a milestone in European sustainability governance, as it repositioned Aalborg as a leader in urban sustainability. The chapter demonstrates that Aalborg’s transformation towards urban sustainability emerged through historically situated crisis responses, governance innovations, and political negotiations. The central research question guiding this chapter is: how did the shifting historical conditions and governance rationalities shape Aalborg’s transformation towards urban sustainability?
