In the dreary climes of Norway, the advantages of being able to move your city are countless: following the salmon upstream, chasing after a herd of sheep, eluding a viking raid, perhaps parking it in a more temperate fjord? The Swedish architecture firm Jägnefält Milton‘s entry for an international redesign contest is not too far off, making use of the existing railroad infrastructure in the small Norwegian town of Åndalsnes.
The project, named “Rolling Masterplan,” involves mobile buildings and structures that can be rolled back and forth along the old tracks, allowing the city to be constantly rearranged and reconfigured. In addition to 100 individual homes, the innovative plan includes a hotel, public baths, a park, and a concert hall.
Rolling Masterplan is an experiment in urban infrastructure, challenging the role of static space in city-planning and architectural design. Real life infrastructure redesign projects, such as New York’s High Line (and the proposed Lowline), as well as the so-called temporary urbanism associated with food trucks and pop-up restaurants have enjoyed notable popularity in recent years. Although Rolling Masterplan may remain a conceptual fantasy, it does suggest that architects have become increasingly unafraid to question basic assumptions about the role of space and the shifting functions of city planning. What do you think of the results?
[via It’s Nice That]