European cities are increasingly defined by one fundamental constraint: space. As density grows and demands for housing, mobility, and public areas rise, allocating space has become a key urban challenge. Aarhus’s harbor front stands as a compelling example of how mobility infrastructure can be integrated without dominating valuable urban space. At the heart of this transformation is the DOKK1 building, home to Europe’s largest automated parking system, which now reaches a major milestone: 3 million parking operations.
Credit: Lödige Industries
Hidden beneath the building is Europe's largest public automated parking system
Opened 11 years ago, the facility provides space for 972 vehicles – including charging options for electric vehicles beneath the building. The system was designed, planned, and implemented by Lödige Industries on behalf of Realdania, a private Danish association focused on livable architecture. It ensures a highly space-efficient parking concept, providing sufficient parking capacity for users without the former industrial harbor area being dominated by surface-level parking infrastructure.
DOKK1 houses Scandinavia’s largest library as well as municipal facilities, event spaces, and more. The large number of visitors makes intensive use of the installation, with up to 2,000 parking operations per day. Thanks to intelligent control software from Lödige Industries, the average retrieval time is only 62 seconds, with the system analyzing usage patterns to maximize efficiency.
“DOKK1 is among the most extensively used automated parking systems worldwide and one of the very few with a documented multi-million operational track record. Its long-term performance under real urban conditions sets a benchmark for the industry and demonstrates that convenient access for thousands of daily visitors does not require space-intensive parking areas. Since its opening, we have implemented a number of additional systems, as the example created here has become a model for many urban development projects worldwide,” says Dr. Tobias Wennekamp, Chief Product Officer at Lödige Industries.
The facility in Aarhus is based on Lödige Industries’ automated parking technology for large-scale installations, enabling particularly fast and smooth operation. Users simply park in one of 20 ground-level transfer cabins, from which the process runs fully automatically: the vehicle is scanned, lowered, and optimally stored across three underground levels using lifts and flat transport robots. The system accommodates a wide range of vehicle sizes. Since its opening, the system has been in continuous operation. Without a single day of downtime, it has achieved an availability rate of 99.5 percent.
In addition to space efficiency and user comfort, long-term reliability is also crucial in the planning of parking systems: “Through the combination of proactive remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, and skilled on-site technicians, we ensure that users will continue to park effortlessly in Aarhus in the future,” adds Conrad Ilsch, Managing Director of Lödige Scandinavia ApS.