A story of Møllendal. The reclaiming process
Starring The Structure
The App
The Site The Enclosure The Water The Bergen Kommune The Bergen citizen The Immigrant The Children The Grandchildren The Grand-grand-...-grandchildren The Black Pavement Belsen The Sun The Kindergarten The Map of Common Spaces
Møllendal’s story awaits to be written. It has an infinity of possible endings. This is not one of them. This is an attempt at reconciliating all the forces that act upon the newly open neighbourhood, in time. Inhabitants can change, climate can change, functions can change, economy can change. All things come and go. Yet the structure and water remain simple, present, timeless.
The Site. The Enclosure ‘The vesper bell [which] is heard everywhere and makes the ‘private’ inside become part of a comprehensive, ‘public’ totality. The vesper bell, however, is something more than a practical man-made artifact. It is a symbol which reminds us of the common values which are the basis of that totality.
Window with falling snow is arrayed Long tolls the vesper bell, The house is provided well, The table is for many laid. Wandering ones, more than a few, Come to the door on darksome courses, Golden bloomed the tree of graces Drawing up the earth’s cool dew. Wanderer quietly steps within; Pain has turned the thresold to stone There lie, in limpid brightness shown, Upon the table bread and wine. A Winter Evening - Georg Trakl
At the table, men come together. It is the center.[...] In general, the inside, is a comprehensible world of things, where the life of ‘‘many’’ may take place[...] In the next two stanzas, the perspective is deepened. Here the meaning of places and things comes forth and man is presented as a ‘‘wanderer on darksome courses.” Rather than being placed safely within the house, he comes from the outside, from the path of life, which represents man’ s attempt at ‘‘orientating himself.’ Genius Loci - Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, Christian Norberg-Schulz
1916: view of east Møllendal, with the project site not yet existent. People enjoying Store Lungegårdsvannet
1960s: the new west Møllendal, a permanently enclosed area. Notice the lack of boats around its shore
2010s: still inaccesible and estranged from the rest of the neighbourhood
2015+: fully open to people, inviting them to get acquainted with the park, bathing area and to reinvent Møllendal’s identity
Møllendal made us think about Trakl‘s poem, along with Schulz’s analysis from a phenomenological point of view. So far, for the people of Bergen, this neighbourhood has been like a black hole on the city’s map. An unwelcoming, unknown space, much like a cold winter evening. Yet, just like the ‘inside’ that provides the warmth, where the ‘wandering ones’ end up while trying to orientate themselves, Møllendal has a lot of potential and just the right position: rather close to the city centre, in between neighbourhoods of very different atmospheres (Damsgårdssundet, Kronstad, Fløen). By opening it up, many would wander about. How will they perceive it? What will their attitude toward this once unreachable place be?
What if Møllendal stops being an ambiguity and opens itself up, with its shape marked clearly, to the people of Bergen?
The Black Pavement. The Water
Møllendal will be cleared from all the parasitic elements that currently occupy it, leaving only Belsen intact. Afterwards, the site shall be open, yet empty for a few months to arouse people’s curiosity and imagination while they slowly become familiar with it.
Møllendal‘s ground will be filled with a dark-coloured, almost black pavement that wraps up the entire area, enhancing its presence, while still gathering heat from the sun, to maintain it during the night. As a result, Møllendal will be a warm and welcoming place and its limits a clear threshold. The park emerges like moss on top of this dark rock, providing different sized green areas, the alleys and promenade resulting from the negative space between them. The once black hole in the people’s perception, a dense negative space, blends in only with the water - which is of a similar consistency - creating bathing areas, hills, unique landscapes. These hilly landscapes with pools trace their shape from that of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen, creating sunbathing spots and different typologies of pools: the deepest one, surrounded by Fløyen and Ulriken, reaches almost 3,5 meters, others are shallow, designed for children, or just deep enough to have a relaxing swim.
Belsen. The Sun. The kindergarten ‘The house is provided well’ and opens up to all, embracing them in the ‘limpid brightness’ - this is what we call ‘the Sun’ - a new valence of the old Belsen warehouse. Having the site all cleaned up, cleared of parasitic buildings, does leave Belsen as the only built mass in Møllendal for a while. Therefore, it becomes the community centre, a landmark for this newly reclaimed site. The old part remains intact, but its power of influence is emphesized by the addition of a new volume that brings light for the housing zone and becomes like a little sun, not only for the community, but for the entire neighbourhood. It is, in fact, a building full of life and dynamism during the day, that acts like a lighthouse during the night, winter or long rainy days, while also putting Møllendal back on Bergen’s map in people’s perception. Using a system of monofrequency white lights, reflective and projection panels, the Sun reflects existing natural light when not enough, or dimly projects it when dark. Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project Susanna Kajermo Törner artwork
Children bring life and freshness to a place, so placing the kindergarden in Belsen, in relation with the river park, is the best way to ensure a thorough community center. The kindergarden extends outdoor towards the park, yet it also opens towards Belsen’s core if needed, involving the children in the public space and the locals’ daily activities. The whole space becomes rather playful: having both furniture and partitions made out of 40cm cubes that can be stacked and moved any way, Belsen becomes really adaptable: one may sit on one cube, place two on top of each other to create a table, stack them to separate areas or even to transform the space into an enclosed meeting room the community may require. By placing the kindergarden inside the community center and designing it as an expandable space, we want to emphasize the importance of having the children among the community instead of isolating them, like the artist Susanna Kajermo Törner criticizes in her artwork Fem (Five), referencing the five free birds in contrast to the way children are enclosed.
Sun reflecting mirrors in Rjukan, Norway
Møllendal’s Sun The kindergarden within the Sun
The Map of Common Spaces. The App After reviving Møllendal and Belsen, the site is ready to host its future inhabitants. As many people move away from the rural regions, others look for more central apartments and immigrants join in Bergen's pulse, new housing quarters should be ready to offer ideal living conditions for everybody, fit for every custom, cultural background or particular needs, yet ensure the creation of a strong community, through collaboration, sharing and accepting its own diversity. To trigger these processes, flexibility and negotiation are the key words. Since the average norwegian apartment has around 60-70 sq.m, requires as much natural light as possible, has a prevalent affinity towards a two-story configuration, but should still be adaptable to any type of inhabitant, we propose a rather unusual element: a 6x6x6 meter cubicle - a spatial entity - which, through repetition, creates a structure which awaits to be filled in with apartments. The negotiation comes when people are provided with a map of different types of shared spaces large kitchens, saunas, gyms, common living rooms, children's play area, gardens etc. - which are placed within the structure. They have to choose their preffered shared space and link their apartment to it, while keeping in mind the neighbouring apartments' positions. Having to live among people with at least one similar interest - represented by the shared space - creates a compatible cluster of cubicles. They may also create and add new types of shared spaces. After minding the relationship with the neighbours, one may focus on personalising their own cubicle(s), which must also be filled in: future inhabitants have a large pallette of modules that make up the spaces of the apartment, choose their favourite and then, through the online application, place them to suit their own needs and create their own personalised apartment. The essence is the process before the construction of the apartments: future neighbours get acquainted, they have to discuss, to imagine the filled-up structure together, to share, so that, in time, even before being built, the housing in Møllendal becomes a place that takes so much space in thought, that everyone starts seeing it.
Forget headphones! Blast your favourite music in your cubicle - the neighbours won’t hear it!
The Structure
2017 - Phase I
2019 - Phase II
2024 - Phase III
Each cubicle is completely independent, so rest assure that when you water your plants you don’t drown your neighbour!
2032 - Phase IV
2 cubicle halves/ 1 level apartment for a family
Hang a swing by the beam and have fun!
2 cubicle/ 2 story apartment for a family 2 story apartment for a couple
2 story apartment for a couple
half a cubicle apartment for singles 2 cubicle halves/ 1 story apartment for the disabled