The BELT project emerged from a growing interest in how the upcoming Fehmarn Belt connection is transforming rural territories across Denmark and Northern Germany. Rather than understanding the region only through infrastructure and economic growth, the project explored the everyday landscapes, local identities and spatial conditions already being reshaped by the new connection. Through fieldwork, mapping, interviews and public conversations, BELT documented a region navigating multiple possible futures at once.

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Developed in collaboration with Roskilde University and Technische Hochschule Lübeck, the project unfolded across towns, villages, coastlines and agricultural landscapes throughout the Fehmarn Belt region. Over several years, the team travelled through the area, returning repeatedly to sites and communities to understand how change is experienced from the perspective of local life. The work gathered voices from planners, residents, entrepreneurs, activists and cultural actors, creating a living archive of visions, hopes, tensions and emerging initiatives.

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Rather than proposing a single masterplan, BELT positioned the region as a landscape of overlapping realities and negotiations. The project highlighted how questions of mobility, development, heritage, care and belonging are deeply interconnected within contemporary rural transformation. Through publications, networks and spatial research, BELT sought to make visible the human scale of regional change — and to contribute to a broader discussion about the future role of the countryside in Europe.