The closed shore
The Site One of the greatest benefits from living on an island - is a huge shore line. People usually are attracted by the waterfront and try to spend their time by the shore. Thats why my interest fell to the coastline starting from Mack site and along towards the Nestranda center. I see this area as one continuous coast line, in between big touristic and cultural landmarks - Polaria, Nordstjerne Museum, Kunst Museum, Nerstranda center and Tromsø city center. Today this area is not widelt used, because it mostly belongs to abandonned Mack industrial site.
Retrospective: How it looked in the past days
The site on the old map of Tromsø (end of XIX Century)
The site on the new map of Tromsø (XXI Century)
Land, taken from the Sea From the previous page you can notice, that the coast line has not always been the same. By ages, the coast line has spread towards the East, taking some land from the sea.
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Wind map Wind, channeled in street might gain stronger and cause bending of road signs and other forces.
Are is on the shoreline, but these two walls shelter it well and make it wind-protected. No wind between them at all.
On the molo is quite open to the main wind, but its not strong, due to big corridor. Could be easily covered.
Quite a windy spot
Normally mild, along the coast, covered with buildings’ walls Normally mild Almost no wind beyond the wall
The windiest point
Normally mild, may be strong
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Surfaces study
Here I tried to investigate, what kind of surfaces do we have in this area. The main shore line could be devided into three main parts in terms of land surface: Concrete on the north, near Nerstranda center, then asphalt on the second part of that shore. and finally we have ground and grass closer to Polaria center and Nortstjerne museum. We also have ground and grass area near around Kunstmuseet down to the road, it was supposed to be a public space and park, but is not oftently used like that. These two green areas are devided by the big road and a gravel spot of Mack industrial area parking. This makes me think, that these two areas - Kunstmuseet park and the Shore near Polaria and down to the molo, belong to one logical area.
Pavement
Concrete
Asphalt
Gravel
Ground & grass
Wood
Soundscape map
Here I tried to look at the sounds and noizes of the site. Of course, the noizest place appeared to be the road: lots of trafics, both cars and vehicles, running along, driving in and from the tunnel create a big amount of noize and the closer are is to the road, the noizier it is. Easter from the road, near the coast, the noize is not that strong already, and the dominant sound is sea and birds. The area along the coast, is also comparably quite: you can hear the sea, birds and a slight noize from buildings ventilating systems. Closer to Nerstranda, you already start getting noizes from the city center, Strandgata traffic and building sites nearby. The molo stands quite apart the shore and is mostly dominated by sea sounds and sometimes ships.
Noizie from the city center, the building site and close road.
Quite place, only the sea and air conditioners are being heared Noiziest place: the road
Low intense noize from the sea and birds, sometimes ships
To open the Coast
While visiting the sites, I got an impression, that these two parts: 1) park around Kunstmuseet, Polaria and its shore down the Mack industrial site, and 2) square near Nerstranda and its coast line along the street in the backyard; do belong to one continous space and have a great potential to be used by people as a common space. This area is attractive because of the seafront, and of its location: it connects several cultural, touristic and public spaces in both ends of it. During researching the area, i found that that natural conditions are also quite acceptable in terms of wind (potential) protection and soundproofness, and a great view, that is already there. Some infrastructure and replanning is required.