Villages in landscapes: the importance of appearance

For more than 30 years the physical environment (buildings, gardens, roads and spaces, etc.) in Danish villages has undergone dramatic changes. Many villages close to the bigger towns have grown and are dominated by modern, architecturally maladapted buildings, and as one of the results other villages especially in the periphery are declining with physical impoverishment and decay.

Mainly due to the structural rationalization processes in the agricultural sector throughout the last generation the physical rural structures are under pressure. The changes in the countryside are highly visible, and the physical appearance of many villages and detached farms can at best be characterized as shockingly inferior.

It can be argued that the Danish society has grossly omitted to take care of the largest and most important part of its cultural heritage in the Danish landscape; 6-7,000 large and small villages dispersed in the Danish cultural landscape.These villages are crucial to the future of rural areas and are normally neglected.