Ålesund Waterfront

Ålesund's waterfront today is the result of a series of poorly coordinated actions, some of them unfortunate, which have produced a space without order, without identity and obsolete, with heavy road traffic. This is also happening in the best part of the city, around the Brosundet and the Jugend district. There is no need for new inventions in Ålesund, we take what is valuable and extend it carefully. We are proposing the construction of a group of buildings for residential, hotel, commercial and service use, the layout of which is essentially based on the ambition to give continuity to the Jugend district in its scale, volumetric and spatial variation, on the one hand, and on the other to the general layout of the city, which runs in the direction of the contour lines, in the east-west direction.

The large void occupied by the port makes it possible to articulate a sequence of varied elements and public spaces, each with its own character that recaptures its urban landscape tradition and the atmosphere of the Norwegian Atlantic coast. Cruise traffic needs a renovated terminal and a berthing jetty; these two port facilities provide the city of Ålesund with the opportunity to have an exciting and pleasant south-facing place for citizens to enjoy by the sea. The broken surface of the jetty is like the deck of a large ship on which to 'travel to another place'. A strategy of segregation of levels and accesses makes it possible to bring together different uses in the same place, thus intensifying its possibilities.