Project:
Between the lines

About

• Project description

  Nodal development on the shores of the Telemarksvassgradet.

  Goal: To create an attractive, coherent and sustainable urban transport network that will facilitate the growth of the twin city of Skien-Porsgrunn.

  How?

  1. Create a network for slow traffic - pedestrians and bicycles to feed the station nodes

  2. Create a public transport network, improving on the existing rail line by integrating it into a new public transport system

  3. Develop the station areas with specific and attractive cultural program
  

  

  As a 'Fremtidens By' the twin city of Skien-Porsgrunn faces the challenge of combining growth within the existing urban sprawl with a clear vision of an attractive and sustainable urban landscape. The river forms the heart of this area; historically it has created the shape and function of the urban landscape but it also forms a barrier within this landscape.

  The existing rail line, combined with the Metro and Pendulum lines, provides insufficient incentive for Grenland inhabitants to use public transport. 

  In order to increase public transport mobility in the area, simply developing a light rail connection with its station nodes seems insufficient. The light rail connection must be an integral part of a wide reaching public transport and slow traffic network, which not only connects upriver Skien to downriver Porsgrunn, but also connects the west and east banks of the river. 

  This will create a coherent whole, making public transport accessible and attractive to use for both commuters and tourists. This concept provides a vision of a wide reaching transport network, with development of the network nodes. Cultural, urban and recreational program is added enhancing the identity and appeal of these areas. Public transport and spatial program balance and boost each other.
  

  

• Jury remarks

  The jury appreciated that this proposal addressed the region's relationship to the water in a convincing manner. This is read and elaborated upon as a scheme "in between the lines" of the planned and existing transportation infrastructures and the course of the existing river. A new linear zone is proposed, facilitating access to the waterfront, built up as a chain of new public spaces with various atmospheric qualities adjacent to the water.

  While this approach offers considerable potential in integrating infrastructure with urban quality, some of the proposed spatial interventions at the strategic nodes were questioned by the Jury. At Skien, for example, the scheme proposes what the Jury believed IS a needless eradication of the historical industrial buildings of the city.

• Team

  Posad Spatial Strategies
  Binckhorstlaan 36, 2516 BE
  Den Haag, The Netherlands
  tel. +31703222869
  mail@posad.nl
  www.posad.nl
  
  POSAD is an urban office from the Netherlands established five years ago by Boris Hocks and Han Dijk. Since the very beginning, the office has collaborated with architect Emile Revier of the firm Revier Architectuur. The team won first prize for EuropanI0, located in The Hague. POSAD works on strategic design at scales varying from region to street. The team investigates complex spatial tasks in urban areas, infrastructure and major regional challenges.