Rail town
Gorka Markuerkiaga (ES)
Nicolás Markuerkiaga (ES)
Cristian Suau (ES)
Carmelo Zappulla (IT)
architects
Alberto Teixidó (CL)
architect
Europan 8 Hamar
runner-up
The “Railway Bridge” is the urban prosthesis. Its aim is to restore and improve the existing dysfunctional connectivity, allowing the combination and overlapping of several activities, both permanent and temporary. It offers a compact programmatic menu, by providing a broad menu of uses in areas such as transport, commerce and culture. The “Railway dwellings”: this residential tissue is an elastic prefab system, which is organized in clusters. It performs like a sponge with its porosity and density varying according to the climate. Every prefab unit can easily be stored, fixed or refurnished according to the stock or season, and if some residents own the units, they can freely move out with them to somewhere along the railway!
Site informations
Hamar
Synthetic site file EN
This project is connected to the following themes
Mobility - Urban Generator
The collective bridge and railway housing programmes reflect the two infrastructural elements in their respective scales: whereas the bridge links the shoreline to the town's local grid, the “railway dwellings” link the residential scale to the territorial scale of the train network.
Housing - Ways of life
The idea of “railway dwellings” forms the basis for a versatile development of housing over time, allowing flexibility in the introduction and densification of the dwelling units. The prefabricated organisation permits seasonal adaptation, combinatory variation and user customisation.