Reclaiming a public square: contextual sensitivity as a design strategy

This thesis explores and develops a design proposal for a neglected public square in Alesund, Norway. The square is the Queen Sonja's square, and is the topic of an architectural controversy that revolves around its future. As the result of an long ongoing master planning process, the local authorities has decided to sell the square to private developers in order to facilitate construction on the site, in accordance with the masterplan. The masterplan prescribes a building placed in the middle of the square, with a volume much greater than the surrounding historic buildings, predominantly all constructed in the years 1904-1910 with strong influences from the Art-Nouveu movement. When the lot was put out for sale, the sales listing required bidders to propose a design concept along with the bid, and three proposals were received. The proposals were met with criticism and the city council decided to postpone the sale as the proposals weren't found satisfactory. As a consequence the progress of the development came to a halt. The thesis design proposal has been developed by looking into the controversy to identify which factors in terms of architectural and urban form could be resolved differently in order to allow realization of the transformation. This is performed in two steps; a simple, but fundamental reconfiguration of the urban morphology as it is dictated by the masterplan, and an architectural design that is developed with a strong sensitivity to the surrounding urban fabric. The latter is both a matter of designing at the architectural scale, with the form of the city in the front seat, as well as developing an architectural expression that is rooted in the characteristic surroundings of important architectural heritage.