NÖDINGE STADSPLANERING
DROTTNINGTORGET
Three separate zones with three different characters.
1. Water collector/stairs.
2. Green area.
3. Rain shelter/tram stop.
ABSTRACT
Gothenburg is a city that is currently facing several significant changes and has the ambition to become the best city in the world by 2021, when it comes to experiencing rain. Gothenburg has evolved from a shipping industry to an event city.
Investing in rain experiences fits well with the overall direction that the city is taking.
The city has a sustainable environmental program where the delay of the rainwater is an important issue.
We try to protect ourselves from rain becuase we don’t like getting wet, but there are many positive qualities that rain can offer us. Rain effect our minds in many different ways. Experiencing rain is something that everyone can relate to, regardless of one’s cultural or religious background.
This thesis is an attempt to solve the issues of a specific part of town in Gothenburg. I’m trying to do so by not focusing on the underlying issues but rather work around it, focusing on other challenges, that in the end will, make it easier to solve the specific issue. In this case, the rain experience is a driving force and concept that, thanks to its qualities, can help to change a problematic place like Drottningtorget.
A city is also a place between our target points. Open spaces, plazas, are connected with movement. You often move from one target to another as you pass a square. The motion that belongs to a square can be slow and enjoyable, and it can cause one to stop. Drottningtorget does not let you stop, and instead it forces one away.
Through a design proposal for a better solution for the use and expression of the place, I want to capture peoples interest and make use of the different qualities of rain to make Drottningtorget a place where the rain becomes an experience and a square for stay and enjoy.
Keywords : Rain, Drottningtorget, Urban design, Public Space.
CONCLUSION
Architecture is not just construction in general, it is also the composition of the elements and their relationship to each other.
Furthermore, the architecture of a city is not only a set of blocks, a subordination of street routing and a break in symmetry by green parks. The architecture of a city is is also a general impression of beauty.
The city is not only the vision of its wealthy sponsors. It is also the fruit of the expectations and desires of its general population. An architectual shape should subsequently not only include functionality but also a dream, some aspiration, ambition and sometimes an indefinite goal.
The space that ancient geometers called physis and mental space interpenetrate each other. That is why architecture can be the metaphor - the embodiment of ideas.
A square like Drottningtorget has great potential, not the least when it comes to experiencing its atmosphere. The water and the rain, in turn, have a direct and true connection with our senses. It affects us in many ways, regardless of one’s cultural or religious background. To create a place for everyone, a place that affect us and shares the experience of its water and rain became an obvious starting point.
Some fundamental criteria provided the outlines of the project. The criteria that belong to the rain experience are hierarchically arranged and desirable in the architectural elements. Equally evaluated are the criteria that belongs to the redesigning of the site. They are also desirable in the architectural element.
These criterias are:
-collecting and delaying water
-experience changes caused by rain
From previous studies, I got a vision of what the rain could contribute to different experiences of a site and how rain transforms different places. Now my vision would take shape at Drottningtorget and lead the work on the site in its specific direction.
The municipality wants to create open and green spaces near Region City, these spaces will be created right next to Drottningtorget. The location is also often the first location to greet an arriving traveler to Gothenburg and because of that it is extra important that it feels open and welcoming.
I also wanted to highlight the cultural values that are present in the square. I wanted to create conscious direction and positions that make us discover the buildings around the square and I also wanted to create places that make us stop and look at the surroundings. To give the opportunity to discover the beauty of all-around one—a quest to create a place where people want to stay and not just pass it.
I have furthermore considered the knowledge that rain can also be a problem.
The questions arise:
Can rainwater be collected in a different way?
Can the gathering water contribute something exciting and new?
Can this place act like places where the tide is actively changing its character from moment to moment?
These thoughts contributed to various experiments with design variations and architectural solutions where rain plays a central role.
New architectural elements would, in turn, fit into the already existing elements and, at the same time, be so evident in themselves that they felt in their own right. A long-lasting architecture strengthens its position by either being classified as art and/or by creating a new whole with the surroundings where people’s new memories become part of the place and thereby gives it importance.
Architecture plays an important role in maintaining continuity and maintaining the tradition of the culture. It is important in maintaining a sense of belonging to a particular place, society or civilization.
Architecture does not prohibit the change of its existing forms, but instead their creative continuation. Innovation or originality does not conflict with creative continuation and dialogue with the existing. Unfortunately, the lack of dialogue with history can lead to randomness, strangeness, or unprettiness.
How can rain gain the experience of architecture and how can architecture gain the experience of rain?
In this project, which was about redesigning Drottningtorget, the experience of rain was a driving force and also a framework. That experience transformed into a way to embark on such a complex project.
In all three zones the rain helps to create a specialized experience and atmosphere. The zones do not need the help of the rain to operate on their own. But the rain unites these three zones and helps create a unified feel that, in turn, ties the place together into a whole.