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Områdeprogram Floa

The strategic planning programme for the Floa area in Fredrikstad is a preliminary strategic planning document, prepared for the Fredrikstad municipality, and is now undergoing political evaluation. The goal of the final revised version of it, is to form guidelines for the development in the Floa area and be a common ground and a starting point for discussions on new initiatives here. The programme was first presented for the politicians in late August 2012, and the evaluation process through this autumn will end in a formal decision making process, hopefully in early 2013. It was prepared in collaboration with Griff Arkitektur as.

The document contains: a status report on the different public plans for the area and their relevance today / a status report on the fragmented private initiatives and their relevance today / a summary of the different owners´ present needs for development / a set of development strategies that tie together the private and public needs / sustainable development strategies, with the focus on reducing CO2 emissions / a toolbox for the above mentioned sustainable development strategies / visualisation of the inherent possibilities in the area / a guideline for the following planning processes, their extent and timelines.

The overall environmental philosophy is based on a reduced, timeline-defined and optimized approach to planning. The municipality of Fredrikstad has made national commitments, and set themselves high ambitions, to reduce CO2 emissions through planning. The Floa area is one of the strategically important areas in Fredrikstad with a great potential, thus the overall philosophy focuses primarily on key points to achieve these goals. By critically evaluating needs, and continuously optimizing the solutions throughout the processes and projects, the best possible reduction of CO2-emissions can be achieved. Life cycle evaluations and timeline evaluations should be implemented in the future planning processes, as well as the documentation of the material- and energyflows, in and out of the future projects. Sustainability certification can spur owners to create a higher quality built environment, which in the end will benefit everyone and be more attractive on the market.

There are suggested tools for lowering CO2 emissions – ranging from the planning stage and administration of the processes / projects down to the execution of each individual project. In the planning stages, the focus is mainly on detailed high ambitions pared with demands for documentation. Setting high standards and sticking to them throughout the process is essential. In the execution stages the focus is on critically evaluating the demands, and finding smart solutions in accordance to the predefined high ambitions. To reuse the existing urban fabric to a high degree (both buildings and infrastructure), to reuse instead of transforming, and to transform in stead of substituting are essential evaluation criteria. And when substituting, follow the energy- and materialflows out as well as in.

The more spesific development strategies for the Floa area and the adjacent Holmen area include a redefinition of the diverse traffic movements through the area, a new health and activity triangle, public programs to activate it, a temporary / permanent marina, riverside beach / parks / walkways, a new soft network thoroughfare along a reopened canal, and a bouleward park also connecting to the riverside public areas. Several of these strategies and projects are visualized to show their inherent potential.

Motto X

The motto:X is the competition proposal for a new Pilgrim Centre at the medieval stave church in Røldal, Norway. The competition was concluded in February 2012, and with 182 entries it is the 3rd most popular Norwegian architectural competition to date.

X is created and confined by the existing elements of the site – rows of birch trees confine the pilgrim centre and the old stone walls of the churchyard extend outwards and rise to spatially define it. An atrium, as a modern interpretation of the traditional cloister courtyards, unveils as an unexpected quiet oasis for the tired pilgrim at the heart of the centre.

As the motto X indicates, the pilgrim centre acts as a meeting point on several levels. One can enter at all 4 sides. Each entrance has its own particular use, and the different parts of the centre are bound together by the atrium at its core. The atrium is a multifunctional space that opens up for the flow of people, especially in summer, when the pilgrims are many. The bigger communal spaces open up to the wider landscape and to smaller secluded gardens within the perimeter stone walls.

The interior spaces are created underneath flowing slabs, cantilevering out to provide shade and protected entrances and walkways. These «elevated meadows» can be seen from the adjacent mountain sides, and stand out from the neighbouring pastures by their seasonal flowers. As the slabs cantilevers towards one another, they form light slits that articulate the texture of the stone walls underneath. Their lines curve and indicate the movement through and the meeting points within the pilgrim centre.

A heavy construction and thermal masses, control of the sunlight and shading, low-emitting surface materials and a tight envelope are keywords for reducing day-night temperature fluctuation which make possible the use of natural ventilation even in a nordic climate. The choice of materials focuses on low CO2-emissions and aboundancy: The use of stone, wood and grass roofs have all been common building practise in the Norway.

Motto Arken

The motto:Arken is a proposal for a new visitors centre and storage facilities for MiSF (Museene i Sogn og Fjordane) and SuM (Sunnfjord Museum), located at the premisses of the latter, a scenic outdoor museum facing the Movatnet lake in Sunnfjord. It was a competition proposal in an international design competition held in may 2011. There were submitted about 40 different proposals. The proposal was done in cooperation with SArkitektur in Oslo.

One of the main challenges of the competition was to locate the new facilities , either at a new public entry point at the north facing bog – or within the mountain separating the entry point from the lake Movatnet – or stacked at the back end of the hillside facing the lake as a backdrop for the current museum buildings. The sheer scale of the facilities would in our opinion outscale the delicate small buildings of the museum, and placing it within the mountain too drastic an approach for simple storage facilites on this site.

We settled therefore for an underground storage facility with the visitors centre as the only visible marker on top, as the new entrance to the museum. By placing the large volumes underground, the visible parts of facilities were downscaled to a recognizable size, suitable for the museum identity.

After entering the museum you would then connect to the old postal road which runs along the hill, making this historical landmark a part of the exhibition path. We also suggested to create a new lakeside path to an old settlement site, today in use as academic premisses, and further connect this back out to the postal road. This would make a «full exhibition circle» with the new facilities as the logical starting point for a new and more complete exhibition experience.

The Visitors Centre is placed on the ground and first basement level, and makes use of the storage facilities as part of the visitors exprerience. Both MiSF and SuM has their administrative facilities on the shared 1. floor, while the basement levels contain the individual needs of each museum entity, as well as the main storage facility. The Visitors Centre draws inspiration from local building traditions and building materials, but using techniques of today – massive wooden elements as slabs and roofs, stone clad walls and green roofs. The choice of insulation and other building materials focuses on a good energy balance and low CO2 emissions.

Motto I

«En by å leve i» (an international urbanism ideas competition for the Strømsø area in Drammen) was held in spring 2010, with a strong emphasis on sustainable development and the reduction of CO2-emissions through planning. It attracted 41 submitted proposals. Because of accute illness in the final stages of the competition, this proposal was not finalised and submitted for evaluation. The winners of the competition was «Look to Strømsø», a proposal by Norconsult and Alliance Arkitekter, an excellent proposal concerning CO2-emissions reduction strategies.

Strømsø has a very strategic position in Drammen, in the city centre with both local and regional transportation hubs within its boundary, and is an ideal site for strategic choices to create a sustainable future development. Key issues are to reduce vehicular traffic, increase soft movement and create a denser urban fabric with greater environmental qualities.

I aims at an overall densification through the act of inversion:

– inverting the city and the landscape: reintroducing the green in a creative way in the denser urban fabric, both horisontally and vertically.

– inverting the grid: reducing vehicular traffic to a minimum an co-locating accesspoints to bigger entities, to make way for street parks and soft paths instead of car traffic.

– inverting the blocks: transforming backyards to walkthroughs and doublesided accessible space with an internal soft access – thus increasing the density in each block (learning from the transformation of Venice).

The main development strategy consists of introducing densified uilt mass along the main roads, as a present-day «city wall», and at the same time locating fewer accesspoints and parking to these larger structures. Within the «city wall» the densification follows a neuanced timeline, at the scale and pace of the existing blocks and building structures. The inversion of city – landscape, grid, blocks and buildings increase soft movement, reduce vehicular traffic to a minimum and enhance the quality of the public spaces, while at the same time increasing the density. The main strategy focuses rather on reuse than transformation, and transformation rather than substitution, and thereby minimizing CO2-emissions.

There´s also set up a transformation scheme of different surfaces in the urban fabric, each surface given a colour of definition, where the goal is to transform as many of the surfaces as possible to better environmental performance:

– reducing the blacks: The black surfaces are for instance asphalt and other hard surfaces on the ground, inactive roof surfaces and also inactive facades with poor environmetal performance.

– reducing the greys: The grey surfaces are undefined in-between surfaces that mirror their adjacent surfaces, and can change their sustainability performance with the changes of the adjacent surfaces. Examples are small green spaces in hard surfaced cityscapes, which are given new value and are easily integrated when these cityscapes are transformed to for instance a street park.

– adding greens: The green surfaces are green organic surfaces with CO2 storage capacities and local climatic effects and quality enhancers, as well as surfaces with the ability to delay the impact of for instance excess rainwater to the drainage systems.

– adding blues: The blue surfaces are energyproducing surfaces, either passive (glass) or active (solar panels). They could also be energy storing surfaces like for instance water basins.

– adding whites: The white surfaces are reflective surfaces, reflecting light and heat to create brighter public cityscapes and reduce overheating of the built structures. They naturally find their place where conditions are not right for either the green or blue surfaces.

Carport at Kråkerøy

An existing single garage, wedged into the characteristic hills surrounding Fredrikstad, need to give way to new double parking and extra storage for outdoor equipment. Because of the exposed site and small building lot, the main challenge is to insert something that still feels at place and not alienates itself from its surroundings.

To maintain the landscape qualities of the rocks, and to minimize the impact on the surroundings, a new gap is wiresawed into the stone. A remaining part of the rocks is slightly moved to create a sufficient gap for the extra parking space. This simple measure also gives safer access to the roads, compared to the existing single garage.

As an added bonus, extra garden space is created on top when the lawn extends out over the gap on a cantilevered slab. The floating slab opens up underneath so that light penetrates the carport on multiple sides. The wiresawn surfaces are left as the interior walls and floor. To create distance towards the neighbours, a landscape stair takes you down from the garden to a back entrance of the carport, following the natural descent.

Low but wide flower trays with a horisontal espalier grid forms the security measures at the slab´s edges, thus reducing the perceived height of the slab to a minimum. Virginia creepers grow out onto the bedrock to give a greener feel from the roadside. The existing rock of the site is shuffled and reused rather than demolished and removed, thereby making the environmental impact of the project is small compared to the enhanced qualities of the site.

Workshop / Gallery at Trosvik

The combined workshop / gallery is located in a typical city centre single family housing area, with several smaller buildings ranging from 1 – 2 stories per lot. The experience when walking through the neighbourhood is of homogeneity in building size and typologies, but of variations in building styles, expressions and materiality.

The workshop / gallery contains the exhibition- and workspace for 3 – 4 cars, as well as small office facilities. A major ambition for the project has been to play down the external articulation of the building, and rather «hide it away» in the urban landscape. The office facilities aritculate themselves on the exterior by using more sofisticated materials and by opening up towards the garden and the views.

The workshop / gallery opens up in full hight, with an articulated rib structure, cantilevering out into the garden at the back. The messanine with the office facilities and a balcony gives overview of the collection, naturally lit by the western oriented rooflight / windows. The rib structure filter and reflect the light to give an ambient light. Big sliding garage doors open up bilaterally, both towards the street and towards the courtyard, so that when necessary the workshop / gallery can open up to its surroundings and reveal its contents.