VEST Gro og byg fremtiden sammenINTRODUCTION GROWTH is an exhibition that aims to inspire discussion about how we as citizens, planners, and politicians can rethink both the city and rural areas as the focal points of new economic, social and cultural growth. Since the advent of the welfare state, we have as a society sworn by the conviction that we can stimulate growth by building. ‘The result is a nation which consists of winner towns and looser rural areas. ‘The story of the ‘welfare state has thus become that of the opposition between country and ‘town, between the grown and the built. GROWTH introduces a more holi areas and ci ic view of society, in which rural are each seen to posses their particular quality of life, and in which the grown and the built environment are not opposites, but complement one another. ‘The exhibition shows how they as coexistent entities — expressed as nature and construction respectively — can create improved quality of life both in the towns and in the country. By referring to examples, the exhibition also expresses the grown and the built as the self-organised and the planned respectively, and shows how it is precisely in the tension between the two, that entirely new possibilities arise for” establishing new types of locally rooted communities and new sustainable business models, both in the city and the country. GROWTH is intended to help start a new and more holistic debate about future architectural policy in Northern Jutland. The exhibition is therefore not intended as a key, but as inspiration for how we can grow and build the future together.‘REDISCOVER THE CITY AND THE LANDSCAPE. LONG LIV icrivisrst Step ito a universe that stimulates the senses and provokes debate atthe Utzon CenterA universe inhabited by activists, outstanding nature, expanding cites, and the most beatiful materials which we had almost forgoten {nthe exibition GROWTH we have dg wp the white cha which Becomes cement a Aalborg Poland Borawed esi ook tes which become bats n Hon Hered. And found hand petrified wood from @ foreten age eles have come fiom the land of Mors wth sediment frm ss milion-yarol volanie ruption. On the cos ofthe Linford channel we have four «plethora of white muses. And from the land of Lase hos come the fines seed which used to ul house ands eaten. This the weal of mates ies ight outside our front dors off orcas and under ou sl Andwhich we must take 4 our starting point when we lek tothe future. We show fom Aalborg, Norther Juan, and he whele word that he town and he landscape hove so ‘mc pte we vemenber to bth ow and uid tpter In along new pars ond squares suchas Karlnelund and Budo re pinging up wth nature andthe community as tha fea pois Examples ffom bth Aalborg and France show ha ght raitoys and who development cannet happen sly on a economic bass ut mst be combined with hat whch gros nature an in he Scal ommunitis af hua bigs. Av fom Spin comes sight ito haw stagaton and deine can Become grout in he noturl and rough landscape ‘And test but not ost we shoo he whole of Norther uand inhabited by both poets ard people filed wit dedication determination, and the potential to shape a Novem Jutland which features gout in nature, communis, andthe economy alike. 6a growth whichis diferent to that inthe city: Coté Haut n Klar, es Te 7 Parishes Village om Mars ts he yk As ook towns an the best schnapps nthe country, and much mare I a goueh which springs from the community end oct Aedteation ~ and which oims higher ond further than a mere bottom ine. ‘At the Utzon Center we want to generate a discussion during the whole exibition period, i which the Utzon Centers transformed nto The Community Hall We have invited enthusiasts, activists, tien, politicians, and academics to dscuslons which arn't about winner touns and loser areas, but about how we in our towns aswell asi our rural areas cun grow an bul a sustainable future ~ together. Keep an eye on the programme at wwwtzoncenterd Lasse Andersson, Exhibition Maroger, Utzon CenterIn Search of a New Age ‘As children we collected stones along the coast. We found strangely formed flint with nuances of dark, greyish and white tones. The flints awakened our interest in knowing more about the world’s relationships. About natural processes in the late cretaceous, and the catastrophic meteor strike that wiped the slate clean and made room for a new age, in which mammals and humans could become what they are today. ‘The flints were important testimony to this historical development, and they were therefore categorised in cardboard boxes and given labels. I still have several of the stones. And I have taken my interest in investigating the relationships with me in my work as an architect. The fact that we at SLA create meaning and new insight into the world is what gets me out of bed in the morning. For itis far from unlikely that we today are once more on the cusp of a new age, with entirely new living conditions. ‘The exhibition you are standing in is based on the following belief: We can create a new meaning of life in Northern Jutland if we understand the importance of the grown environment in the development of the cities and rural areas of the future. The grown is first and foremost nature, which is the basis of our existence; but the grown is also the creative force, which nature inspires us humans to set free, when we allow ourselves to come into contact with natural resources. ‘The modernisation of society has altered our view of nature. The commonly held view in society seems to be that nature no longer demands respect, and for this reason we have lost contact with it. We no longer think that we as human beings are part of nature. We deny nature, and merely use it as a resource for creating our culturally based prosperity. This is a conviction which has only existed for a brief moment in the historical development of humankind. But we are nevertheless witnessing a development which has destabilised the order of nature over the last 50-70 years. Not just here in Denmark, but all around the world. In 40 years the number of birds has been halved, and half of all life in the oceans has disappeared. ‘We have created our own life-threatening “meteor strike”. And if we want to turn this development around and make sure that our children can in the future breathe a clean atmosphere, we are compelled to shift our focus from a growth economy to a growth of nature. In this exhibition we want to draw attention to some of the phenomena which we can still experience as things that affect us, and which touch something inside each of us. Something aesthetic, which concerns the sensing of things, which awakens the dormant love of nature. It is not more than a generation ago that our view of nature was based on a love of nature, its processes and the aesthetic sense. This feeling, this aesthetic feeling for nature, is the Sleeping Beauty we hope to awaken. Once we realise that we are dependent on nature as something other than a resource for material prosperity, and at the same time acknowledge that it isn't dependent on us, but we on it, there will be hope for a new life. If, on the other hand, we continue the exploitation and denial of nature and its importance for us, children and youngsters not have the opportunity to experience nature and its processes, and will therefore not understand the relationship to natural phenomena such as butterflies, birdsong, and the growth of trees. If they do not have this understanding, they will not see the importance of nature, they will not understand the world’s relationships, and neither will they therefore understand the importance of changing our course. ‘We have made an exhibition which gives the child and the youngster in all of us food for thought, and the insight that taking action makes a difference. Furthermore, that it makes sense to create something to take the together with other people — and not simply leave society's institutionalised welfare bodi initiative. ‘To grow and build the future together is about we ourselves — at the edge of all that which is falling to pieces — creating the conditions for the life we wish to lead. Stig L. Andersson - Curator - Partner, Design Director, SLA - Professor, University of Copenhagen