Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel 等建築師進入瑞典 Slussen 都市再造競圖決選名單
位於瑞典斯德哥爾摩(Stockholm, Sweden)的 Slussen 區域於1930年代中期開始開發，此區域位於 Lake Malaren 湖通往 Baltic Sea (波羅的海)水道上，地理位置顯得格外重要，整個都市跨越了水面，居民的生活與水體有強烈的鍊結。
↗ 綠色與黃色區域分別各已經使用了80年與30年的時間，紅色則是是目前亟待改造的區域
開市70年後，於2007年底為了重新整頓開始顯露繁亂的 Slussen 都市交通問題並且給予都市在廿一世紀新的風貌，瑞典官方舉辦了 Slussen urban redesign competition 國際競圖，競圖決選名單已經出爐，進入決選的包括 Norman Foster、Jean Nouvel、BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)、瑞典當地建築師Nyrens Architects、Gert Wingardh Architect 等建築團隊。
Nyréns Architects 建築師事務所設計提案
Gert Wingårdh Architect 建築師 + Tema 設計提案
Foster+Partners 建築師 + Berg 設計提案
BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) 設計提案
Atelier Jean Nouvel + Habiter Autrement 設計提案
出處：NYTimes
Bold Plans Prove That a City’s Future Needn’t Be Set in Concrete
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published: March 15, 2009
STOCKHOLM — City officials here have yet to announce the winning design for the Slussen project, which aims to replace a tangle of traffic circles, bridges, underpasses and boat locks in the heart of this city. But they have already done us a major public service.
The five proposals in the competition, on view at stockholm.se/slussen, offer a snapshot of contemporary urban planning ideas. They include a breathtaking design by Jean Nouvel, a head-scratching proposal by Norman Foster and some intriguing work by younger talents who are still mostly unknown internationally.
But the competition’s greatest value is as a measure of just how far many European governments have come in addressing failed urban policies of the past. The designs all seek to breathe new life into the dead zones created unwittingly by Modernist and postwar planners. Americans can only hope that such ingenuity will prod us toward a similar re-evaluation in the near future.
Built in the mid-1930s, Slussen is a prime candidate for a re-examination of large-scale Modernist planning. Designed to link two sides of the historic city, its concrete entry ramps curl around a cylindrical office building before stretching over an underground bus terminal and the massive locks that regulate boat traffic between Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea.
In some ways the weaving of a mind-numbing range of transportation systems into a single integrated network made the project a tour de force. But the structure began to deteriorate decades ago, partly because of the poor quality of its concrete construction. Most planners regard it as a lesson in everything that was wrong with orthodox Modernism: endless swaths of barren concrete plazas and dank underpasses that seemed to invite midday muggings.
The competition encourages us to ponder those values with a fresh, unbiased eye. The most intriguing of the five designs can be separated more or less into two categories: those that try to bring clarity and order to the jumbled traffic systems, and those that seek to draw the bustling energy of the old city across the site.
Mr. Nouvel’s entry tries to harness that energy. He begins by rerouting the bulk of car traffic to the west, forging a more direct connection between southern Stockholm and the central business district. An immense public park laid over this freeway would offer stunning views of Lake Malaren.
The existing bridge is transformed into a contemporary Ponte Vecchio, a pedestrian alleyway of shops and restaurants that links the two sides of the city. A series of layered roof structures replicate the density and complexity of the urban tissue on either side; terraces present spectacular watery vistas. The design reflects a conviction that the collision of ideas, even more than architectural forms, gives cities their civilizing power.
The most impetuous challenge to Mr. Nouvel’s proposal, a design from BIG, a young, still relatively unknown firm in Copenhagen, treats emptiness as a virtue rather than a vice. Like Mr. Nouvel these architects reroute the majority of car traffic to the west. A new pedestrian plaza is then draped over the network of locks and walkways like a soft crumpled blanket. A series of incisions are cut into this surface, and the concrete fabric peels back to make room for retail space underneath. The surfaces of these giant flaps become public bleachers where pedestrians can sit and look out at the sea.
The contrast in philosophies is striking. Mr. Nouvel is part of a generation of European architects whose ideas were shaped by the student uprisings of 1968 and the collapse of old Modernist dogma. Through his architecture, he has sought to recapture the messiness of ordinary life that tabula rasa planning typically erased. Rather than smoothing over the competing forces that shape the contemporary city, his fragmented forms celebrate tension.
The architects of BIG, weaned in the age of the Internet, seem more interested in fashioning a fluid, integrated relationship among architecture, landscape and public infrastructure. To them the barren windswept plazas of early Modernism are not horrifying; they are a source of inspiration. In an age when we are constantly bombarded with visual noise, these architects seem to be saying that desolation can be a refuge. If their design has a weakness, it may be that it lacks the mix of monumental and intimate spaces that humanize Mr. Nouvel’s scheme.
The rest of the proposals fall somewhere between these two extremes. A design by the Swedish architect Gert Wingardh evokes Baron Haussmann’s grand arterial plan for Paris, substituting straight lines for the old curves of the 1930s project. The traffic bridge is straightened to create a more direct link to the old medieval quarter. The city grid is extended to the water’s edge, bringing the two sides of Stockholm closer together.
The most poetic detail is a small pedestrian bridge whose low form seems to skim over the surface of the water, bringing you closer to the natural scenery and offering an impressive view of the muscular structure that supports the traffic bridge above.
But the project is tainted by commercial excess. The matrix of retail and residential buildings that spill toward the water’s edge are split in two by a giant staircase that evokes a more vulgar version of the Spanish Steps in Rome. A towering wall of glass shops on the banks of the lake is no more than a glorified mall.
Mr. Foster’s entry also disappoints. It is dominated by a pedestrian bridge that corkscrews up over the lake before connecting to a big public plaza. The bridge would take forever to cross while presenting nothing special in terms of visual experience. The plaza, roughly the proportions of London’s Trafalgar Square, is framed by pretentious pseudotraditional buildings that are meant to blend into the surrounding context but only diminish it. A series of generic bridges for cars, pedestrians and bicycles are equally unimaginative.
(The design is reminiscent of his scheme for the site of Rossiya Hotel in central Moscow, and the two schemes make you wonder if Mr. Foster’s planning skills match his reputation as an architect.) The cool hyperrational spaces of the final design, by Nyrens architects, may bring to mind Eastern-bloc architecture of the 1960s and ’70s. It is dominated by a series of sweeping terraces that step down to the lake. A massive exhibition building sits on top of the bus terminal, its monumental form isolated within a plaza.
But whatever you may think of the individual designs, the range of ideas presented here will be instructive for American urban planners entering an era of potential policy change. Government cash is nice. But we also need government to support fresh and innovative thinking about cities.
↗ 綠色與黃色區域分別各已經使用了80年與30年的時間，紅色則是是目前亟待改造的區域
開市70年後，於2007年底為了重新整頓開始顯露繁亂的 Slussen 都市交通問題並且給予都市在廿一世紀新的風貌，瑞典官方舉辦了 Slussen urban redesign competition 國際競圖，競圖決選名單已經出爐，進入決選的包括 Norman Foster、Jean Nouvel、BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)、瑞典當地建築師Nyrens Architects、Gert Wingardh Architect 等建築團隊。
Nyréns Architects 建築師事務所設計提案
Gert Wingårdh Architect 建築師 + Tema 設計提案
Foster+Partners 建築師 + Berg 設計提案
BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) 設計提案
Atelier Jean Nouvel + Habiter Autrement 設計提案
出處：NYTimes
Bold Plans Prove That a City’s Future Needn’t Be Set in Concrete
By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
Published: March 15, 2009
STOCKHOLM — City officials here have yet to announce the winning design for the Slussen project, which aims to replace a tangle of traffic circles, bridges, underpasses and boat locks in the heart of this city. But they have already done us a major public service.
The five proposals in the competition, on view at stockholm.se/slussen, offer a snapshot of contemporary urban planning ideas. They include a breathtaking design by Jean Nouvel, a head-scratching proposal by Norman Foster and some intriguing work by younger talents who are still mostly unknown internationally.
But the competition’s greatest value is as a measure of just how far many European governments have come in addressing failed urban policies of the past. The designs all seek to breathe new life into the dead zones created unwittingly by Modernist and postwar planners. Americans can only hope that such ingenuity will prod us toward a similar re-evaluation in the near future.
Built in the mid-1930s, Slussen is a prime candidate for a re-examination of large-scale Modernist planning. Designed to link two sides of the historic city, its concrete entry ramps curl around a cylindrical office building before stretching over an underground bus terminal and the massive locks that regulate boat traffic between Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea.
In some ways the weaving of a mind-numbing range of transportation systems into a single integrated network made the project a tour de force. But the structure began to deteriorate decades ago, partly because of the poor quality of its concrete construction. Most planners regard it as a lesson in everything that was wrong with orthodox Modernism: endless swaths of barren concrete plazas and dank underpasses that seemed to invite midday muggings.
The competition encourages us to ponder those values with a fresh, unbiased eye. The most intriguing of the five designs can be separated more or less into two categories: those that try to bring clarity and order to the jumbled traffic systems, and those that seek to draw the bustling energy of the old city across the site.
Mr. Nouvel’s entry tries to harness that energy. He begins by rerouting the bulk of car traffic to the west, forging a more direct connection between southern Stockholm and the central business district. An immense public park laid over this freeway would offer stunning views of Lake Malaren.
The existing bridge is transformed into a contemporary Ponte Vecchio, a pedestrian alleyway of shops and restaurants that links the two sides of the city. A series of layered roof structures replicate the density and complexity of the urban tissue on either side; terraces present spectacular watery vistas. The design reflects a conviction that the collision of ideas, even more than architectural forms, gives cities their civilizing power.
The most impetuous challenge to Mr. Nouvel’s proposal, a design from BIG, a young, still relatively unknown firm in Copenhagen, treats emptiness as a virtue rather than a vice. Like Mr. Nouvel these architects reroute the majority of car traffic to the west. A new pedestrian plaza is then draped over the network of locks and walkways like a soft crumpled blanket. A series of incisions are cut into this surface, and the concrete fabric peels back to make room for retail space underneath. The surfaces of these giant flaps become public bleachers where pedestrians can sit and look out at the sea.
The contrast in philosophies is striking. Mr. Nouvel is part of a generation of European architects whose ideas were shaped by the student uprisings of 1968 and the collapse of old Modernist dogma. Through his architecture, he has sought to recapture the messiness of ordinary life that tabula rasa planning typically erased. Rather than smoothing over the competing forces that shape the contemporary city, his fragmented forms celebrate tension.
The architects of BIG, weaned in the age of the Internet, seem more interested in fashioning a fluid, integrated relationship among architecture, landscape and public infrastructure. To them the barren windswept plazas of early Modernism are not horrifying; they are a source of inspiration. In an age when we are constantly bombarded with visual noise, these architects seem to be saying that desolation can be a refuge. If their design has a weakness, it may be that it lacks the mix of monumental and intimate spaces that humanize Mr. Nouvel’s scheme.
The rest of the proposals fall somewhere between these two extremes. A design by the Swedish architect Gert Wingardh evokes Baron Haussmann’s grand arterial plan for Paris, substituting straight lines for the old curves of the 1930s project. The traffic bridge is straightened to create a more direct link to the old medieval quarter. The city grid is extended to the water’s edge, bringing the two sides of Stockholm closer together.
The most poetic detail is a small pedestrian bridge whose low form seems to skim over the surface of the water, bringing you closer to the natural scenery and offering an impressive view of the muscular structure that supports the traffic bridge above.
But the project is tainted by commercial excess. The matrix of retail and residential buildings that spill toward the water’s edge are split in two by a giant staircase that evokes a more vulgar version of the Spanish Steps in Rome. A towering wall of glass shops on the banks of the lake is no more than a glorified mall.
Mr. Foster’s entry also disappoints. It is dominated by a pedestrian bridge that corkscrews up over the lake before connecting to a big public plaza. The bridge would take forever to cross while presenting nothing special in terms of visual experience. The plaza, roughly the proportions of London’s Trafalgar Square, is framed by pretentious pseudotraditional buildings that are meant to blend into the surrounding context but only diminish it. A series of generic bridges for cars, pedestrians and bicycles are equally unimaginative.
(The design is reminiscent of his scheme for the site of Rossiya Hotel in central Moscow, and the two schemes make you wonder if Mr. Foster’s planning skills match his reputation as an architect.) The cool hyperrational spaces of the final design, by Nyrens architects, may bring to mind Eastern-bloc architecture of the 1960s and ’70s. It is dominated by a series of sweeping terraces that step down to the lake. A massive exhibition building sits on top of the bus terminal, its monumental form isolated within a plaza.
But whatever you may think of the individual designs, the range of ideas presented here will be instructive for American urban planners entering an era of potential policy change. Government cash is nice. But we also need government to support fresh and innovative thinking about cities.
