The beautiful old town of Borgarnes
Since 2021, SMOTIES Team Iceland has been working in Borgarnes, a town in the Borgarbyggð municipality with a history that dates back to Viking Ages. The team paid particular attention to the historical part where are important archaeological remains related to the famous Egil’s Saga, e.g. the graves of his father Skallagrímur and son Böðvar in Skallagrímsgarður (Garden of Skallagrímur).
If the first settlers arrived in the area by boat during the colonisation times (9 century AD), the small town only began to emerge in the second half of the 19th century when it became a place for trading goods. For most of its history, Borgarnes was indeed mainly connected by sea to the rest of the country. The town grew around the harbour which was the town‘ center of gravity. Many small wooden houses and concrete buildings are a testament of this history.
In the 1980s, the construction of a new centre town along the national road 1 changed the situation drastically. Many activities and shops that were in the old center moved away, endangering the archaeological and architectural heritage of Borgarnes.
The goal of our SMOTIES project is to create activities in public spaces to revitalize the historic center. It‘s to support/help local residents to create a new vision for it, to make it lively and useful again.
The identification of strategic sites
In 2022, the team undertook research to identify key public spaces with development potential in the old town. Planning students from the Agricultural University of Iceland, located in the municipality of Borgarbyggð, participated in this multidisciplinary research combining human sciences (history, geography and environmental psychology), planning and architecture. Discussions have gone on with local heroes. An extended research has also been done at the request of local authorities.
And three public spaces were finally selected to create activities: two emblematic spaces in the history of Borgarnes (one near Skallagrímsgarður; and the other one where the town emerged in the 19th century) and the street connecting them.
Topics, locations and first prototypes
Using the different tools developed by SMOTIES partners, we decided to focus on the following “Windows on the Future“: Project Communities and Beyond Tourism.
The team is now being mandated by the authorities for a pre design architectural project in collaboration with the local community (citizen-centered design/participatory design). The objective is to improve the streetscape of the selected public places in collaboration with citizens.
The main focus in summer 2023 will be on implementing a co-designed prototype using augmented reality for human centered public spaces.
Contact person: Astrid Lelarge
http://www.alternance.is/urban
#smoties #smallandremoteplaces #codesign #humancentereddesign
