Alta[r]native
Europan 14/ Productive Cities
The project site in Alta is in the very north of Norway in the region of Finnmark.
Alta has around 20.000 inhabitants which is about 1/4 of the population of Finnmark. Even through earlier times of depopulation and stagnation elsewhere in northern Norway, the city has been in growth. The average of the Alta inhabitants are young people with a muticultural background.
Alta is at a point where many things are in a process of change. The political landscape and the climate in combination with the young inhabitans is the right mixture for it:
At the same time, the sprawling urban structure of Alta is a challenging starting point for a sustainable development.
The plot in Alta, Bossekop is a slate fabrication area on the shoreline of the Alta Fjord, called Skiferkaia. The slate fabrication will move during the next years to the pereferic country side of Alta, opening for the creation of an urban, productive and imaginative seafront.
Analysis study area & project site
The plannig area of the Europan 14 can be divided into three parts: Bossekop Center, Skiferkaia and the connecting area between these two (student housing).
There are several critical points :
1 The center of Bossekop seems to have a lack of public space and urbanity. There is lots of space with no defined use besides parking. Nearly the whole center of Bossekop is sealed ground. There is no difference between parking and public space.
2 The big scale structures placed in the center of Bossekop break with the scale of the surrounding buildings. They also produce a lack of public acssebilty to the area.
3 The center is very close to the sea side but there are no connections between the center and the shoreline. The relocation of the slate industry gives the district a great chance to rethink Skiferkaia. It is very important to find deliberating connections between the center and the coastline. There for the area of the student housing has to be renewed, allowing a public connection between Bossekop Center and Skiferkaia.
