Varberg Living Cities – Competition Brief
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Europan is a biennial competition for young architects under 40 EUROPAN 16 years of age. VARBERG LIVING CITIES – COMPETITION BRIEF ”Transformation of a traffic barrier into a living town street for people” VARBERG 1 2 C www.europan.se Visit our website: 16 EUROPAN Page: ONTENT 04 INTRODUCTION 05 URBAN CONTEXT 08 E16 THEME 10 STUDY SITE (MARKED IN RED) 12 PROJECT SITE (MARKED IN YELLOW) 14 TASK 16 MISCELLANEOUS 17 REFERENCES 19 APPENDIX GENERAL INFORMATION Site Representative Jury evaluation Maria Söderlund With the participation of the site Municipality of Varberg representatives. Actor involved Post-competition intermediate Municipality of Varberg procedure Presentation of the rewarded ”Team representative” teams to the site representatives, Architect, landscape architect or followed by a discussion. urban planner The ambition of the municipality Expected skills regarding the is to involve the prize winning site’s issues and characteristics team(s) in an implementation Architecture, landscape process. architecture, urban planning Assignment after the competition Communication The prize winning team(s) will Anonymous local exhibition after continue the work with the the 1st jury round. competition assignment in a workshop with the municipality, After the competition there will with an option for further work be a public prize ceremony, towards an implementation of the a catalogue of results will be proposal, including workshops, produced, and the winners will various planning documents, be published on the website of illustrations, drawings and citizen Architects Sweden. dialogues. 3 3 INTRODUCTION PARTICIPATE IN EUROPAN 16! INTRODUCTION VARBERG The Municipality of Varberg Varberg is a steadily growing and Europan Sweden would city in an expansive region. The like to thank you for choosing ongoing construction of new to participate in Europan 16. railway tracks, with a tunnel The competition brief provides underneath part of the city centre information about the character and a new train station, will of the site and plot, and includes preserve and further develop a list of references with links to connections within the region. supplementary information. In This will also enable the city addition to this material, you can centre to expand with new public download high-resolution images, spaces and residential areas. maps and drawings from the project database. Please read the The strategy for the development condensed ”Synthetic Site File” of Varberg is to densify the city brief parallel to this unabridged within 3 km from the city centre. competition brief. The theme of A dense city will create conditions Europan 16 is ”Living Cities”. for more people to walk, ride a bike and use public transportation www.europan-europe.com instead of taking the private car. www.europan.se The densification of existing areas is also a way to spare agricultural land and green areas from being exploited. The competition site, Trädlyckevägen, is an entrance road to Varberg city centre that has been identified as one of two heavily trafficked roads that should be developed. The task for the competition is to transform Trädlyckevägen into an inspiring living environment for people. The goal is to bridge the barrier effect of the road and to transform it into a unifying link that works as a life-giving bloodstream in the connection between the city centre, a new development area in the east and surrounding residential areas. 4 URBAN CONTEXT Competition brief Varberg Kungsäter Väröbacka Veddinge Bua Skällinge Rolfstorp Varberg Tvååker URBAN CONTEXT Description of the region Varberg is an attractive municipality for people to region of Öresund and Scania in the south. Good live and work in. For many years the population has communications to surrounding regions and been increasing, and it is anticipated that this trend other municipalities within Halland give access to will continue. Today Varberg has a population of employment opportunities, higher education and around 65 000 inhabitants, of which about half live in regional exchange. To travel by train between central the city. By 2030 the population of the municipality Varberg and Gothenburg takes around 40 minutes. is expected to grow to 80 000 people. In order to Varberg also provides great possibilities to commute manage this growth and still provide attractive inland. Viskadalsbanan connects the municipality living environments there is a need for new housing with Borås and Sjuhäradsregionen in the north-east. and business activities, as well as investments in infrastructure, municipal service, green areas and Varberg is in the middle of an extensive city places for play and recreation. development phase. The industrial port will be relocated, and the railroad will be moved to a tunnel The attractiveness of the municipality lies mainly in under the city. This creates opportunity for the city to its unique location in the region and the closeness grow towards the water, with new housing close to to the sea and nature. Varberg is situated in the the central station and the city centre. New parallel province of Halland on the Swedish west coast, railroad tracks through Varberg will enable more half-way between Gothenburg and Halmstad. It and faster trains along the West Coast Line, and will has a strategic location along the West Coast Line contribute to Varberg becoming a more integrated (Västkustbanan), on the stretch between the region part of the rapidly growing Gothenburg region. of Gothenburg in the north and the transnational 5 URBAN CONTEXT Description of the city Historical development land and nearby farms created a need for a centrally Varberg has grown in different ways during different placed market square in the city. Today, Varberg is time periods. In the 17th century a grid plan was characterized by the lively city centre, with a wide formed for the inner city centre, that for many commercial range and large number of local shops centuries defined the city and its boundaries. By and businesses. the end of the 19th century, the city outgrew its old boundary and continued to expand during the years Strategy for development of urbanization. At this time large forests started “Varberg – the creative centre of the West Coast” is growing that today are of importance and central to Varberg’s vision that describes how the municipality the city. should develop and this influences everything from formulating missions to developing new action plans. Over time, Varberg has grown with smaller Keywords are; innovation, knowledge, forward- segments that have been added one by one, rather thinking and courage. The development of Varberg than growing with annual rings. It was first during should focus on sustainability and participation. the second half of the 20th century that Varberg started growing with larger areas successively. This New development should mainly be made by has resulted in a significant variation in age and complementing existing built areas. This way, character of individual buildings before that time. previous investments in existing infrastructure Within the most central areas the older buildings can be utilized in an efficient way and surrounding have successively been replaced one by one. This arable land can be spared from new exploitation. way the heterogeneity of the city centre has been The densification strategy of the city promotes kept, even though the tendency is that the scale densification within 3 km from the city centre. is increasing, and larger buildings are replacing Prioritized strategies for the development are to smaller ones. transform traffic routes into living environments and to densify around local town centres. Further from the city centre the character of Varberg changes to more functionalist planning with Cohesive and dense areas with short distances also uniform residential areas surrounded by parks and lead to reduced need for transportation. Within 3 km traffic routes. These areas have grown during the from the central square, it is possible to reach the 21st century and contain some of the first housing entire city by foot or by bicycle. New development developments with more than 8 stories. These areas should be planned so that walking, riding a bike and have not been densified as much as others part of using public transport is simple and attractive. Varberg, mainly because they are so new. The overall design of the city should provide variation The character of Varberg and good access to services. A dense city creates The image of Varberg is very much associated with conditions for a safe and accessible city with mixed the sea, Varberg Fortress, market trade, swimming functions and varied buildings that will inspire more and surf life. The city is characterized by its location people to enjoy the benefits of retail and service. by the water with panoramic views and sightlines towards the water from many places in the central As the city grows and is being densified, it is parts. The elevated landscape towards the east of important to respect the existing character of the the city provides views over the city’s central parts city. The cityscape of Varberg and the cultural- with the sea in the background. The historical historical heritage is a great resource that creates bathing culture and today’s spa culture has been the base for a rich city life. It is important to set important for the city’s identity and character, with high standards for new buildings in order to keep the development of swimming pools, ”Varberg the identity and sense of closeness and safety in the simstadion”, nude swimming, health resorts and city. When people feel safe and trust each other, the the lush park Societetsparken with its restaurant creativity and innovation in the city increases. and surrounding activities. The city also has a close relationship with nature and visitors can be surprised It is also important to respect green and blue values to find that the atmosphere of open air and beach in the city.