TWINPHENOMENA

International Competition Europan 12

Höganäs, Sweden, 2013

First Prize

 

The international competition Europan 12 suggested the development of a residential fabric in an área of 24ha, in the city of Höganäs (Sweden). Under the slogan “Adaptable City” an urban plan extended in time was sought, sustainable and dense, that wouldn’t come into conflict nor with the small scale of the existing buildings, nor with the surrounding agricultural land.

TWINPHENOMENA proposes to generate new settlements in Höganäs thanks to the reconciliation between URBAN and RURAL. The project colonizes the territory through a strategy of densification over time and, at the same time, integrates the agricultural landscape in the voids of the residential fabric, minimizing paved areas to guarantee a low-footprint urban development.

 

 

 

In order to achieve these goals, we propose a network of public spaces that manage their own buildability and a grid of productive gardens to exploit the agricultural landscape. We define the rules that ensure its proper functioning (maximum buildability, relation between different scales of investment, maximum land occupancy, etc.) and guides for its subsequent management (centralization of ground floors, buildability exchange, community participation, etc.)

 

A dual linear narrative (urban vector/rural vector) deals with concepts of sustainability, identity or participation as well as qualities of diversity, porosity and hybridization. Through this strategy, every concept of the intervention is transformed and developed towards the reconciliation between urbanity and agriculture.

 

 

 

Special acknowledgements for the development of this project to our collaborator Almudena Cano Piñeiro (architect) and to the architectural students Paula Fernández, Ana Isabel Prieto and Kerstin Pluch.