Borgarnes

Remote place Iceland Borgarfjörður

Borgarnes is a beautiful town with 2108 inhabitants, about an hour‘s drive from Reykjavík and is located on a peninsula in a Fjord (Borgarfjörður). The first settlers arrived in the area by boat in the 9th century, but the small town only began to emerge in the second half of the 19th century when it became a place for trading goods. The main park is named after the first settler (Skallagrímur) and there you can also find his burial mound.

For most of its history, Borgarnes was mainly connected by sea to the rest of the country. The town grew around the harbour which was the town‘s center of gravity.
In the 80‘s, the construction of a bridge on the main highway around Iceland changed the situation drastically. On the outskirts of the town, a new town center developed where this bridge lands on the shore, drawing away the activities and shops that were in the old center. The architectural and natural landscape of the old center is unique. Today, there is an important heritage at risk that deserves to be preserved and valued.

The project:

The small town of Borgarnes is located on the Borgarfjörðurfjord and is home to 2,108 inhabitants. The fi rst settlement was established as early as the 9th century and Borgarnes later evolved into a trading centre in the 19th century. The harbour as the hub of the town had a major infl uence on its architectural development.
The SMOTIES team has been working on site since 2021. In 2022, they conducted an interdisciplinary study to identify potential public spaces. This included humanities, planning, and architecture, as well as discussions with community members. The project aims to redesign the streetscape of selected public spaces together with the residents in citizen-centred and participatory design. In the summer of 2023, the focus was on the implementation of a co-designed prototype using augmented reality for citizen-friendly public spaces.

https://www.sogutorgin.is/

Windows on the Future selected

Windows on the Future are thematic lenses through which we can look into the future to start regenerating remote places into more liveable environments. Discover more about it.

WoF1 - Citizenship and Governance
WoF3 - Beyond Tourism
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