URBAN PAINTING
Kragerø, Norway - Open Competition - 2nd PRIZE
The kragerø church area is a beautiful site, nestled between the mountains and the sea and surrounded by a variety of objects rich in culture and heritage. However, it has long been a facilitating space, dictated by traffic or parking and losing its own inherent identity.
Our proposal, the urban painting, aims to give this area an identity of its own and to allow the identity of Kragerø to be expressed. We see the use of public space as a creative, unpredictable, enriching act which our proposal would set the stage for.
Our painting is made up of two elements, the Canvas and the Frame. We have created two separate elements to provide for the full range of needs of contemporary spaces, not just spaces for gathering and meeting but also spaces for solitary thinking and appreciating your surroundings.
The canvas, located in the centre of the church area, is a public space of performance, a stage set up for the everchanging needs of kragerø, from the daily gatherings to the yearly events.
The frame, is located around the church, projecting out over the road below, creating a walkway for people to appreciate teh beauty of kragerø and its surroundings and to take a quiet contemplative moment.
CANVAS
THE PERFORMATIVE PLATFORM
The origami like surface of the canvas is a pure square of 35m.
Its simple form and orientation smooth over the unusable parts of the existing streetscape, connecting the two highest points of the church area.
Its shape welcomes people and creates an independent and adaptive island, a potential territory ready to be colonized by the people of kragero. A performative platform ready for special events and the rituals of everyday life alike.
FRAME
THE CONTEMPLATIVE PROMENADE
Where the canvas is a place of performance and action, the frame is a place of contemplation and reflection. The frame is an expression and development of the existing fence,
becoming a walkway around the church and projecting out over the road below. This creates a space for spectacular views and brings the distant landscape into the kirkeområdet.
Benches along the walkway provide spaces for rest and to admire the surrounding archipelago, creating a contemplative place between architecture, landscape and nature
There are 3 main strategies for illumination.
1. The vegetation is used as a illumination system integrated within the ground. Light emerge fromt he pavement or grass dramatically illuminating the trees.
2. The church is illuminated by the new walkway surrounding it. Parts of walkway are lights casting light up onto the church from below and creating a play of shadow whenever someone walks around the church.
3. The canvas pole is a metallic tube with a light on the top whose strength can be adjusted based on the use of the canvas. It is used to emphasize the most important spots on the canvas. The organic plays with the other vertical elements, the trees
VEGETATION STRATEGY
The symbolic tree is preserved and included in the new square, The trees in Joransberg are cut and used t create new spectacular tree benches.
The new trees have 2 tasks: became spectacular and emphatize the specificity of Krangero. It is in this direction that are restored local tree species as Lund, Birches and Marple, different in foliage and colors during the year.
A new and small tree is indroducted: the apple tree. Is is a domestic tree but it belongs to the cultural landscape of krangero and it is importanto di give to such important square a touch of identity
