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Reconnecting

by Silje Lockert
tutors
Hedvig Skjerdingstad
Cristian Ștefănescu
course
Diploma project
location
Brattholmen, Litle Sotra
Tags
civic building Culture Identity reconnecting Refurbishing Sustainable development transformation walking for pleasure water levels
years
2022
Introduction

– An alternative proposal for Litle Sotra

The project explores the communities of Litle Sotra, using the local Brattholmen School as an anchor point in the proposed connecting path. As an alterantive to the current centeralized pattern, the project seeks to propose a new strategy on how to grow a community.

Reinventing the neighbourhood spaces in the suburban and rural places must be central for future development. To create an open sportshall allow for more, and create a sustainable community life and produce social space, as well as strengthening reciprocal cross-generational meetings and overlaps, and creating an active and inclusive environment for the elderly as well as the schoolchildren.

CONTEXT
It started with my personal feeling of not wanting to move back to the island where I am from. The community I once knew while I grew up has changed so much the last decade, due to the centralization around the area and the growth of the shopping centre. We now meet at the retsaurants inside the mall, and pass our village as if it was a drive through. At the beginning of this semester, I made an extensive study of Litle Sotra and Brattholmen and identified the problems present in the area where the school-age population is shrinking but the elderly population is growing, and with more people moving into the neighborhood either retired or working elsewhere. This results in the risk of dissolution and creeping suburbanization, with the school at risk of being relocated. Current densification is elsewhere and centered around the shopping mall, and to counter this I have focused my attention on the latent possibilities of the school to strengthen the community and hold the ground. It’s a mix between a shrinking city and a growing community. It is very much about a new village strategy. The site today contains a lot of asphalt inside and outside the school area, a very nice recreational space that is hard to find, a historical seafront, that today has the only seaside shop on the island, and a quay with a public program which is a parking lot for 16 cars.

WHAT
What can this place be for its neighbors and what can it be as a part of the island? The project seeks to deal with the question of loss of identity, change, densification, neighbourhood and civic infrastructure. How we move from our house to our meetingplaces in our neighbourhood. And what are these, or can they be? Our mailbox-wall in the middle of our roadway down our street where we meet a neighbour we have had for 15 years, is that it? On Litle Sotra most neighbours know each other, and most sotrastriler live here due to the rural qualities of the landscape, the seaside and trails in nature I want my project to deal with this looking at the school as a catalyst, where I speculate that the school and the area around can come alive for bigger parts of the day for its neighbourgood, its users and as a part fo the island. How we build schools in the rural can be a village strategy, and it can both include the old as well as the young where we secure the informal meetingplaces at the core of our neighbourhoods.

HOW

I want to utilize the qualities of the place, and weave them together. By connecting the edges of the neighbourhood together, to suggest a seconday pedestrian pathway through the landscape and down to the civic anchor of Brattholmen, the school. The area lacks of sidewalks, but I see this as an opportunity to look upon the wilder paths and connect them anew to create the local loops. The pathway a part of the school and the things you find along it are part of the neighbourhood. The school is to be the anchor in the neighbourhood, to offer both an exciting place to go to school, and to share the functions of the school with other actors making it alive day and night, all year. Local participation has been central in the develoupment of my project, to arrive at more plausible public program and connections both within and across demographics, that make use of existing facilities of the school as well as the proposing new ones arising from the experiences and expertise of retirees and other locals.

The site was Brattholmen, at Litle Sotra, and the proposal takes on a large neighbourhood scale to try to give new meaning to the school by linking to existing paths and new ones. This to connect to already important places of the neighbourhood. The site was Brattholmen, at Litle Sotra, and the proposal takes on a large neighbourhood scale to try to give new meaning to the school by linking to existing paths and new ones. This to connect to already important places of the neighbourhood.
At one of the sites, which today only has a turningspace for your car I imagine a social space hidden behind the hill, where the neighbourhood loop leads too and gives a warm sauna all year around open to the people of Brattholmen. At one of the sites, which today only has a turningspace for your car I imagine a social space hidden behind the hill, where the neighbourhood loop leads too and gives a warm sauna all year around open to the people of Brattholmen.
The social connection masterplan central for the proposal takes place at the local school, transforming the spaces and reinventing some parts anew to make space for the path to come to and through. The social connection masterplan central for the proposal takes place at the local school, transforming the spaces and reinventing some parts anew to make space for the path to come to and through.
Today the outside spaces is full of asphalt. How can we rethink the outside spaces, to link to the nearby beloved forest the kids already play in. How the 17th of may celebrations can take place on the platza, and how the daily route of pedestrians can walk through it all. And how can we also imagine productive land again, at this spot where it used to be a farm. Can all these components give life again to the place, both in the morning and afternoon - also on weekends. Today the outside spaces is full of asphalt. How can we rethink the outside spaces, to link to the nearby beloved forest the kids already play in. How the 17th of may celebrations can take place on the platza, and how the daily route of pedestrians can walk through it all. And how can we also imagine productive land again, at this spot where it used to be a farm. Can all these components give life again to the place, both in the morning and afternoon - also on weekends.
Times and hours, and for who was an important part of the project. New functions of the already existing program could in the plan extend to bigger usage due to how the plan was solved. Times and hours, and for who was an important part of the project. New functions of the already existing program could in the plan extend to bigger usage due to how the plan was solved.
The central building, Bratikken, was in a way a centralisation of the programs of the school that could be shared with the neighbourhood. This part of the building can have a bigger life then the others to also be a place for the afternoon where the library has events, and the canteen has cooking classes or other events. The central building, Bratikken, was in a way a centralisation of the programs of the school that could be shared with the neighbourhood. This part of the building can have a bigger life then the others to also be a place for the afternoon where the library has events, and the canteen has cooking classes or other events.
Bratikken stretches on to the top platza where the library, foaje, school nurse/neighbourhood nurse and canteen can be. This was reimaged as the old village, creating different identities to the long wall. Bratikken stretches on to the top platza where the library, foaje, school nurse/neighbourhood nurse and canteen can be. This was reimaged as the old village, creating different identities to the long wall.
What can a school in a district be, and how can we transform them to be a part of the walking neighbourhood? What can a school in a district be, and how can we transform them to be a part of the walking neighbourhood?
Brattiken is the oldest part of the school, and separates the two platzas apart. By making this the public building pulling the stairs through, through the opening in the wall making the stair come all the way through. I wanted to imagine a part of it that is always open. A staircase can allow for social and unplanned things to take place, a place to hang out after school. Brattiken is the oldest part of the school, and separates the two platzas apart. By making this the public building pulling the stairs through, through the opening in the wall making the stair come all the way through. I wanted to imagine a part of it that is always open. A staircase can allow for social and unplanned things to take place, a place to hang out after school.
The exhibition space was in 6,5 at BAS, and aimed to show at one wall a video of the people I met and the wall at the end of the space I tried to tell their stories anew in this alternative proposal. The exhibition space was in 6,5 at BAS, and aimed to show at one wall a video of the people I met and the wall at the end of the space I tried to tell their stories anew in this alternative proposal.
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