Nordkraft - experiences at full throttle

From coal power to culture power...

Once upon a time, Nordkraft supplied the people of Aalborg with electricity. But now, the old, coal-fired power station in the center of Aalborg generates a completely different kind of power – Culture Power.

Nordkrafthas been converted into one of Europe’s biggest and most impressive culture and activity centres. You can go to the theatre in Teater Nordkraft, listen to concerts at Skråen og KUL, visit art exhibitions at Aalborg Art Pavilion and Art Hall North or watch films in Biffen. You can get fit in DGI-HUSET, Aalborg Kickboxing Klub og Sportskarate.dk and you can enjoy a bite to eat and a drink at Azzurra Nordkraft and Mumbai – and visit Norther Jutlands biggest produce market.

Those are just a few of the activities on offer in the center’s 30,500 m2 of space. Everything is linked together by a spacious communal area, an urban “village green”. Here you can relax and watch the world go by as if you were sitting on a town square somewhere in the south - regardles of the weather. And it is also home to VisitAalborg’s tourist information center.

Aalborg - ambition & achievement

The transformation of Nordkraft also tells us something about Aalborg’s overall development. Aalborg was once a thriving industrial city. Today it is an internationally orientated university city, providing visitors with top class culture and activities.

While ostensibly two completely different sides of Aalborg, they actually have one thing in common. Dynamism. That is certainly the opinion of Claus René Pedersen, Area Director in Aalborg City’s Culture and Leisure Department. 

- “In Aalborg we never just sit around doing nothing,” says Claus René Pedersen. “We get on with things. Therefore, we didn’t hesitate, when it came to creating a culture and activity center that would be large-scale and multifaceted. A centre that could hold its own in international terms.”

The first phase of the Nordkraft project was opened in 2009. But construction is still in progress in this vast space. 

- “Nordkraft will never really be finished,” says Claus René Pedersen. “We will be updating all the time. I believe that the various forms of art and activity in Nordkraft can proceed together and create all sorts of completely new and extraordinary experiences.”