Brattøra Sky Reflections

Location: Trondheim, Norway
Client: Trondheim Municipality
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Katrine Sandstrøm, Salka Kudsk, Christian Kuczynski, Sofie Kjærsgaard Dybro
Design period: 2010
Realization: 2011-
Area: 43.000 m2

Type: 1. prize

Brattørkaia is the place where Trondheim meets the water. A place with a magnificent view across the bay. Here one ex-periences the water, the sky and the horizon all bathed in the distinctive ‘Trondheim-light’ that changes color and intensity as the day draws to a close. The four seasons, which in Trond-heim can be experienced during a single day, makes the place unique.

These characteristics are the basis of SLA’s design and identity of Trondheim's new urban spaces in Brat-tøra. Sea, sky and reflection are the key words for these spaces. Through SLA’s design, Brattørkaia will become Trondheim's new 'blue city', where the blue not only refers to the water, but also to the sky. The expression of the urban spaces is ever changing. It is a mirror of the weather, the wind, the sun, the clouds and the ripples of the water.

Crystal-shaped reliefs in the urban terrain gather rainwater and create angular puddles that reflect the sky. Elsewhere the terrain is drawn up into crystal-line shapes with mirroring sur-faces.

With Brattørkaia, SLA creates a space which invites visitors to linger, play, and meet other people. Water, light and terrain are the basis for the experience, and the realization that the urban space is a common plat-form where we communicate with our fellow human beings, whe-ther we are just passing through, sitting in a café, watching the children playing or observing the continual shifts of flickering light.

It is the natural water and the weather that creates the area’s attraction and amenity. An inter-play between playing people, weather, light, water and colors.

The expression of the Brattørkaia-area contains both urban and nature-oriented spaces. Inside the city the urban spaces are more refined and controlled. Here the distance between people, furnishings and activities are short. The design of the area towards the fjord is more raw, simple, and open.

Inwards toward the city you can find places of shelter and refuge from Trondheim’s powerful nature. Out on the pier one is left completely unprotected on the edge of nature. The pier is maintained as a flat landscape so as not to disturb the view of the fjord from Brattørkaia.

The urban spaces in town are made smaller and more intimate by the use of trees, terrain, light poles, and street furniture. In this way a human scale is cre-ated in town, while the great ex-perience of nature can be found out on the pier.

Instead of using the entire basin as harbor, SLA suggests that the water closest to the stairs is kept free of boats. In that way the water is opened up as a recre-ational space. A space with room for a to floating theater scene, light art, water art, games, etc.

This 'blue water space' will be the new, unifying public space for the entire Brattør area and host many different activities and events. The habour will, in SLA’s design, become an integral part of Trondheim’s urban space.

In the existing asphalt, concrete reliefs will be cast. These reliefs will sometimes form large con-tinuous surfaces, other times they will glide from each other and appear as scattered com-ponents in the asphalt. This will give the urban spaces a common identity while still being differen-tiated from each other.

The concrete reliefs also ensure a floating transition into the ad-jacent area where ordinary as-phalt is dominant. This creates a flexible design with a high de-gree of adaptability to new conditions.

Concrete and asphalt are conventional materials that fit well into the harbor environment. The concrete is cast with different texture in the surface which can be coarse, acid-treated, glazed, exposed or completely smooth and polished. The concrete sur-faces of the coating will provide a framework for various activities such as playgrounds, pavilions, and installations.

For specific requirements, such as appropriate surface for a playground, the concrete can be replaced with rubber coating.

The most distinctive inventory of the new urban spaces is the 'sky reflections’. They are constructed in smooth, light concrete, with one or more sides of stainless steel. The sides act as a celestial mirror that forms an integral part of pavement design. The mirrors create different feelings of space, and can be used for everything: from normal seats and lounge chairs to places of play for kids, bmx riders and skateboarders.

The sunken reliefs collect rainwater and thus also act as sky reflections.

In nature, a rainbow occurs when rays of sunlight are refracted in the water-saturated atmosphere. We see this phenomenon when we find ourselves in a certain angle to the sun. If we move, the rainbow changes or disap-pears.

In Brattøra SLA suggests creating artificial rainbows. These will be constructed by using one or more heliostats in combination with mirrors to control sunlight into the water haze created by nozzles in the basin.

When it's cloudy, or on days when there is a natural haze over the fjord, artificial lighting is used to create the rainbows.

At Brattøra, natural climate phenomenas mix with new tech-nology to create an enchanted atmosphere of the new urban spaces.