page_title: Architecture of Aarhus
section_title: Building materials
hierarchical_section_title: Architecture of Aarhus / Geography / Building materials
caption_attribution_description: English: Red brick wall of Aarhus Cathedral with shadow of Christian X statue
context_page_description: The architecture of Aarhus comprises numerous architectural styles and works from the Middle Age to present day. Aarhus has a well-preserved medieval city center with the oldest dwellings dating back to the mid-1500s and some ecclesiastical structures such as St. Clemen's Cathedral and numerous smaller churches that can be traced back to the 1100s. The industrialization of the 19th and 20th centuries left distinctive industrial structures, important National romantic works and some of the best examples of Functionalist architecture in the country. The history of the city as a Viking fort is evidenced in the street layout of the Latin Quarter, the wider Indre By neighborhood testifies to its later role as a Market town and center of commerce while the Frederiksbjerg, Trøjborg and Marselisborg districts showcase the first cohesive urban planning efforts of the early 20th century.
context_section_description: The early Viking settlement consisted mainly of wooden structures and pit-houses of which nothing but archaeological artifacts remain. Wood was the primary building material through the middle ages except for ecclesiastical buildings. The first stone churches built in the 11th century were constructed of split and rough granite boulders, limestone, travertine or ashlar such as the crypt church in Our Lady's Priory from 1060. Production of fired brick began in the 13th century and Aarhus Cathedral can be said to be a product of the north European Brick Gothic style resulting from a lack of suitable natural materials commonly used in southern Europe.
  Timber-framing was the most common construction method up to the renaissance and the oldest such buildings date to the 1500s. There are numerous half-timbered structures from the 16th to 19th centuries throughout the city although many have had a brick building facing the street added later as the first fire codes were enforced in the 18th-19th century. Brick gradually became the predominant building material in the 19th century and most of the urban developments from the rapid growth during industrialization is of red brick. Characteristic for Aarhus is the use of yellow bricks in central neighborhoods and buildings such as the Central Station and the area around it including Park Allé, as well as Aarhus University. Reinforced concrete was used for the first time when the Five Sisters were erected in the late 1920s but it didn't become a widespread building material until the 1940s. In the mid 20th century more exotic materials gradually became popular and affordable such as the porphyry used in National Bank Branch in Aarhus from 1926, the Nexø sandstone in St. Mark's Church from 1935 and the marble used for cladding of Aarhus City Hall from 1941.
caption: The Aarhus Cathedral in red brick. Brick is a common and traditional building material in Danish architecture.
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