(HORIZONTAL) SKYSCRAPERS IN SCANIA
ZERO VISION AND REVERSE SPRAWL.
Whatever the future scenario, from rise of sea-level or increasing immigration or intensified economy – already today there is a crisis in handling the housing sector. Skånes unique concept of zero vision – no building on valuable agricultural soil – makes cities in Skåne grow inwards and upwards, not outwards, the borders of the cities are locked, use has to be made of leftover plots. With global rotation in mind: students, seasonal workers, refugees, as well young families, the deficit of housing is urgent to point that affects local enterprises in terms of recruiting and the whole region in general. 7000 new housing units is minimum need for next 30 years in Skåne. Where to find so many plots, sites inside the city boundaries or that are well connected to green infrastructure? In the games of homes Skåne is loosing.
NETWORK OF HORIZONTAL SKYSCRAPERS ALONG THE ARTERIES OF LOCAL TRAIN SYSTEM.
Step 1 – redefine skyscraper. Only effective and sustainable way to build away the inward sprawl with such high demand of housing would be a skyscraper, with small urban and ecological footprint. As Skåne is rural and flat collection of fields, a new horizontal skyscraper is proposed, an elevated sheet, platform, mix of field and housing. That field in sky intensifies the host cities from above, requiring a little space on ground. Step 2 – horizontal skyscrapers are built close to existing (and in future promoted) infrastructure, every local train (Pågatåg tex) station becomes a host, thus creating a network of fields, as well healing the urban tissues broke by rail tracks.
Horizontal skyscraper, the elevated platform of mixed uses, as rural and as urbanized as Skåne itself, consists of three main parts that can be modified according to the local needs and constraints of the site:
– Load bearing structure that as well contains communications, both vertical and horizontal, and technical units, is variable in height and the width, according to number of the railway tracks, it can have more or less, bigger or smaller interfering footprints.
– Housing units are placed in a general supportive framework, so that they can be built over time, added (or reduced) according to growth of population. The size and placement varies also along sites, so no building will look the same.
– Landscape is a public space, a domed sheet that connects the urban, often residential, fabric on both sides of railway tracks, thus sewing together the broken tissue, and offering a fluid communication, as well recreation. It may vary seasonally, from being a field of crops, to pure “pedestrian street” with cafes, taking in consideration what is most missing in each small society.
Finally, the whole structure has “holes” to enable light and views and to erode an otherwise massive body.
CONCEPT DIAGRAMS:
CHALLENGE AND PROPOSAL:
SITEPLAN:
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