The Swedish building standard has been praised since the twentieth century for its planning, function and quality. Strict building regulations which were built up on scientific researchers and a conservative view on certain aesthetics gave Sweden one of the world finest housings in terms of quality but also turned it into one of the world’s most conservative, homogeneous and slow shifting building sector. Today we see a growing heterogeneous world that needs shifting, youngness and creativity.
Bifrost, situated in the township of Mölndal, can be seen as one of the footprints which Swedish standard left us with. Although I experienced emptiness with no movement coming to Bifrost, I have to admit that its housings close up have a secure impression and warm details in trees and walls. On the other hand I can’t avoid feeling that Bifrost lacks some essential parts which usually forms a flourish district. I see almost no urban spaces for procrastination; because what can the habitant do in Bifrost besides walking back and forth between home and work. The apartment buildings lacks ground floor spaces for example local shops, cafés or studios for companies or artists. Such intervention which could create local enterprise would give the habitants something new to do besides siting in the modernist’s reiterative gardens which is all that has been left to do for over fifty years.
This alarming fact is easily reviled and visualized if one takes a look on a map over Bifrost on Google. The map-browser centers at Bifrost bus station; around we can notice icons which describe certain local facilities such as schools, churches and enterprises. The closest enterprises on the map consist of a driving school, a pizza restaurant and a travel agency. In some ways do these facts give us an urban diagnosis of what is happening in Bifrost. The cultural scene is rather manifested in the car than in the contemporary, the gastronomy is pizza and at the travel agency habitants are planning their escape from this prison to a more voluntary one.
I propose row house #8, one of sixteen houses which should be hired to or bought by customers who intend to cultivate culture and bring any sort of recreation to this neighborhood. Think-Tanks, studios, art collectives, alternate education, restaurants, recreation centers or maybe even a Maison de la culture. Bifrost needs to shout an invitation for innovation.
Bifrost, situated in the township of Mölndal, can be seen as one of the footprints which Swedish standard left us with. Although I experienced emptiness with no movement coming to Bifrost, I have to admit that its housings close up have a secure impression and warm details in trees and walls. On the other hand I can’t avoid feeling that Bifrost lacks some essential parts which usually forms a flourish district. I see almost no urban spaces for procrastination; because what can the habitant do in Bifrost besides walking back and forth between home and work. The apartment buildings lacks ground floor spaces for example local shops, cafés or studios for companies or artists. Such intervention which could create local enterprise would give the habitants something new to do besides siting in the modernist’s reiterative gardens which is all that has been left to do for over fifty years.
This alarming fact is easily reviled and visualized if one takes a look on a map over Bifrost on Google. The map-browser centers at Bifrost bus station; around we can notice icons which describe certain local facilities such as schools, churches and enterprises. The closest enterprises on the map consist of a driving school, a pizza restaurant and a travel agency. In some ways do these facts give us an urban diagnosis of what is happening in Bifrost. The cultural scene is rather manifested in the car than in the contemporary, the gastronomy is pizza and at the travel agency habitants are planning their escape from this prison to a more voluntary one.
I propose row house #8, one of sixteen houses which should be hired to or bought by customers who intend to cultivate culture and bring any sort of recreation to this neighborhood. Think-Tanks, studios, art collectives, alternate education, restaurants, recreation centers or maybe even a Maison de la culture. Bifrost needs to shout an invitation for innovation.
