Project:
Limelight

About

• Project description

  When you look at the shape of the Scandinavian peninsula and in particular at the Atlantic coast of Norway, the powerful first impression you get is to be confronted with fragments of territory imbued with meaning and identity characteristics. These fragments can be read as a story, a symbolic narrative of the territory, a concise report of a physical situation and temporal rather wide. This situation gives the place a poetic condition, and therefore constitutes the essential rhetoric moment with which we must confront immediately.

  
  The multicore planning policy that assigns the task to several regional centers to perform certain functions to serve the entire region of Bergen, is the first important step to bring together all the fragments of an incredible land and to operate it as a single large system. Osoyro, Straume and Kleppesto, Knarvik and Indre Arna are the four cardinal points around the city of Bergen, that support through various services and offers, economic, cultural and touristic. The importance of this multicore planning policy lies in generating a mutual relationship of interdependence between the various centres, through the generation of complementary and not overlapping actions.

  
  Os, within this regional planning, is also the protagonist of a growth scenario that is expected in the next twenty-five years. This leads to the definition of a strategy that will enable it to become an important regional centre and at the same time allowing it to absorb the growth. As Os is the gate to the northern Europe, it has many stories to tell. From this point, it's necessary to give it the tools to do it. The insertion of a creative industry such as film industry in the strategic site is the starter for activating new synergies and opportunities, cultural and economic, the Alywheel through which activate the territorial network of relationships and initiatives necessary for the growth of the town. Also the creation of a film academy and an experimental film project centre can be the basis for the creation of a specialized high-competence enterprise that allows predictions of expansion over time.

  International film festivals or local ones will involve the whole city. Cinema is not only a communicator of ideas and an essential component of the culture industries. It is also a crucial pedagogical tool that facilitates efficient learning and motivates participation from new generations of audiences. It can help audiences, 'old' and new', to rethink their place in the world.
  

  

• Jury remarks

  This project works on two levels: an infrastructural system of paths and a new set of programs. Cultural, natural and commercial paths highlight the most important aspects of the town. The project recognizes that Os already has an identity – the shoreline – and proposes 5 projects along the shore: An outdoor swimming pool, a canopy bridge – a public space above the water, a cinema house in the existing centre, three housing projects on site, a film academy and a waterfront. The project proposes the implementation of something new in the existing context to generate a desire for a new generation wanting to live in Os. Plans are rational, and the project is beautifully presented.

  The project suggests a transformation of Osøyro into a hub for the film industry by introducing a film academy and organizing an annual film festival. The jury believes connecting Os to an emerging creative industry through a new educational institution and events could have relevance, but find the particular choice of film not fully convincing. Still, the project plays with the notion of bringing a somewhat alien object into the town of Osøyro, which could act as a positive attractor. This move distinguishes this project from other entries. The jury also appreciates the plan that shows a series of additional surgical approaches across the town centre: small scale interventions which build upon readings of the existing spatial fabric, identity and other qualities, such as a proposal for a commercial bridge and the retrofitting of an existing old building into a cinema complex.T

• Team

  Team members:

  ULTRA Architettura
  David Vecchi (IT)
  Michela Romano (IT)
  Emanuela Ortolani (IT)
  Emilia Rosmini (IT)

  Collaborators:

  Elisa Cecchini (IT)
  Nicola Donati (IT)

  Contact information:

  info@ultraarchitettura.com