Journal_Trondheim2011

OVERCOMING BORDERS

First impressions The overpowering elements which define Trondheim are a part of everyone’s first impressions. The unique nature with the iconic fjords, the mountains and the darkness enlightened with northern lights covers Trondheim with a mystery that is both attractive as frightening. This is only intensified by the distance that isolates from the rest of Europe and the tough climate. Therefor it is excusable to see these things as obstacles or borders to overcome in finding a way through this city.

The impact of the climate on the people is significant. Regularly facing snowfall from November up till March, Norwegians take every opportunity to enjoy nature. With short working hours, Norwegians have now almost 7 hours of leisure time at their disposal each day, much of which is spent outdoors.

But the thresholds as seen by outsiders come natural to native Norwegians. They managed to build up a community around these forces of nature. It is part of their identity which is reflected in daily activities, in the archetypical shapes and forms of their buildings and in the usage of local materials.As result Norwegians are known as honest and hardworking people who have a strong connection to these matters.

The Changing Dynamics of Norwegian Society

As we take a look at the future demography of Trondheim, the statistics shows that immigration will be more and more an important part of the further development in the change of the population. The evolution from 1997 until 2009 already indicates this in the last years. The second diagram tells us that even in the year 2010 the increase in population particularly in Trondheim is due to 50 % excess of births and 50 % due to net migration. Thus an input of different cultures in Trondheim is and definitely will be an important issue to address. In order to integrate successfully we believe to start with making changes not only for immigrants but for the general people of Trondheim.

[Statistics Norway: http://www.ssb.no/norge_en/]

DOES THE RESPONDENT (IMMIGRANTS AND PERSONS BORN IN NORWAY TO IMMIGRANT PARENTS)

HAVE ANY GOOD FRIENDS IN NORWAY WHO ARE NORWEGIAN?

1996 - 57% Yes 2005/6 - 56% YesNewcomers into Norwegian society have integrated with limited success. With such fragile connections to the existing community, newcomers and locals alike risk alienation from each other.Thus our goal is to build connections among people, and try to bring this into an architectural exercise.

People Infrastructure Infrastructure

People+ People+

Infrastructure+

Opposite page: How do the norwegians feel about immigration?

Infrastructure in Trondheim

During the creation of these suburban areas outside the actual old city center, the whole infrastructure was shaped around the use of the private automobile.On the other side this implementation of the idea to never leave your private car was also partly responsible for these mono-functional and decentralized community’s.

We need to change the infrastructure otherwise as long as these suburban areas keep expanding the difficulty to implement possibilities and infrastructure will get almost impossible. The cold climate is partly responsible for this hesitation to change their transportation system. So they saw no need to open up the existing spectrum of the transportation system.

The current infrastructure is not sustainable from an economic and ecological standpoint. Also due to the changing demographics in the area a more public transportation system is highly needed.

Site Location

The first map shows the location of both sites. Site 1 [Rosenborg] is located where the densely-built city centre ends and where the sparsely-built, sprawling suburbs begin. We see potential to create a connection in between these two very different typologies.

Site 2 [Tyholt] is right in the middle of the suburban sprawl. However it is an anomaly in the landscape of typical suburbia in that it is densely built up with considerately more commercial functions and urban housing. We hope to use this to our advantage by altering it to a urban form more typical of the city centre and connecting it to down town Trondheim [since the connection now is poor].

Both site 1 and site 2 are connected by a south-east axis from the city centre. By extending our sights beyond the city centre, we hope to incorporate the bigger picture into our scheme.

We discovered that we were not the first to think of making a connection from Tyholt to the city centre. There is a debate in Trondheim concerning the improvement of the public transportation system by adding more bus routes and possibly a light rail. The current public transportation system works in rings around the city centre [which are indicated by the green dotted lines on the opposite page] but lacks a south-east axis. As can be expected, non-residential functions have begun to cluster around these main roads. Both our sites are straddling two of such roads.

Workshop La Cambre

INTRODUCTIONLooking at the images of the development, we saw no signs of attachment among the residents to the area. Set in a large city, where people are often anonymous strangers to each other, we saw a need to build a community. As much as we can push green strategies, it will be of no use if the residents take no initiative to keep it up. Therefore, our proposals are geared towards establishing a sense of community among residents, and them taking responsibility for their development. Jacobs (1961) stated that the process of an area becoming a slum was not people unfortunate enough to in the lower socio-economic bracket moving in, but rather people who are financially capable moving out. We hope, with our proposals, to make residents start to see their development as a place where they belong in the community, and have the power to change for the better instead.

PROPOSALSFirst we proposed to allot vegetable-growing plots and divide responsibility for the green space among residents. We aspire to increase the emotional attachment to a piece of land so the residents take care of these pieces of land. The use of a grid helps to divide the land equally. Like a façade of the buildings the resident are aware which land is their own. The emotional attachment is also affected by physical distance. How further away the plot of land, the less the residents get attached to it. We suggest gradations from close to building to further away, from private to public space and from self-maintenance to maintenance by city. The possibility to grow vegetables or just maintain their plot of land as a lawn creates a diversity in land use that the neighborhood can give a unique view.

A much-used strategy for reducing energy use in new developments is to encourage use of public transportation, but there is no reason it should not be implemented in an existing residential area. A sheltered public transportation hub, frequented by busses, within easy reach of all the blocks, not only allows residents to wait in comfort even in the rain, but also to interact with their neighbours. This will not only give the residents reason to reduce private car usage, but also enforce the sense of community—and it can be done with a simple, affordable structure.

Finally we proposed to create a community space at the bottom floor of each floor that the residents have to pass by each time they enter. This way we reduce multiple exits or entrances to one exit or entrance. Possible meetings between the residents stand more chance of happening by giving fewer options to their personal space. At least the residents cross each other more and get a better insight who their neighbours are.

Workshop La Cambre

TRONDHEIM

This concentrated high rise occurred during a period of prosperity and strong growth in population in the 60 sixties.The cities sought an outlet in height in order to continue to meet the needs of its growing population.These residential services were designed for families with a strong financial standard and were able to rely on their own car, to maintain the connection to the city and its structure.Over the years, the falling value of these homes and their functionality created an attraction point for many immigrants and socially disadvantaged people.This new demographic group needs a strong public network connection in order to keep up with their daily living structure.

As in most cities the high-rise in Trondheim is seen as a first arrival, an iconic concrete structure overlooking the city and simultaneously to be observed. In these areas, we have a high density of different cultures living together in a fairly small area. If one is an account of the fact that the combined unused green structures and lack of infrastructure makes it harder for this group of people and makes social problems and confrontations inevitable. So the overcome these borders we need a gradual process of improvements.

Taking in account the changing demography of Trondheim and the positioning of our sites in Trondheim’s city layout we find integration and bringing people together starts not inside the houses but outside and in between them. As streetlife consist of different elements which can prohibit people of making contact with each other we try to let them overcome these borders, physical and mental.

Life between houses.

To integrate in a community there is a need for contact. According to Jan Gehl the daily and modest things happen between the houses. These small events are an important step to profounder human contacts. The scale of intensity is expressed in next diagram:

Life between houses consists mostly of passive contacts. In comparison to other forms of contact seeing and hearing others seem to be the least relevant of them all. Yet these kinds of contacts possess important possibilities. It can lead to more intense contact or sustain a number of existing contacts. It provides a source of information of the social environment. It can even be a source of inspiration.If these possibilities are lost, the higher ranked contacts disappear as well. And boundaries between isolation en being together are even more defined.

SITE 1 [ROSENBORG]

DIMENSIONS USE OF SPACE PROLONGED ACTIVITIES

SITE 2 [TYHOLT]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GEHL, J., Leven tussen huizen, Zutphen, De Walburg Pres, 1978, 195 p. GEHL, J., Cities for people, Washington DC, Island Press, 2010, 274 p. GRAAFLAND, A. & DE HAAN, J. & SPEAKS, J., The Critical Landscape, the stylos series. 1966, 256 p. JACOBS, J., The Death and Life of Great American Cities, New York, Random House, 1961, 458 p.STEWART, G., Reinventing Suburbia.

TEAMWORK by

Loncke Evy. [BE]Menga Cosimo. [BE]

Tan Yun Ru. [MY]

Uad 1 master: False start. What matters. 2011.