Uniting everyone from toddlers to senior citizens
published in sb 4/2020
The Municipality of Kongsvinger is home to one of the first next-generation urban sports parks in Norway. On the banks of the Glomma, Norway’s largest river, the so called “Strandpromenaden” have been revitalized and are now offering public realm for physical activity and relaxation for users of any age. The Kongsvinger Skateboard Association yielded stimulus when requesting the Municipality of Kongsvinger to build a skatepark.
Strandpromenaden, next to Konsvinger Ungdomskole (Kongsvinger secondary school), provided a well placed and scenic location, on the riverside path of the municipality. This choice of site clearly demonstrates the high value that the municipality shows towards the younger inhabitants and towards active spaces.
Photos
Aktiv Park AS
Facts
Photos
Aktiv Park AS
Location
Kongsvinger, Norway
Client/operator
Municipality of Kongsvinger
Architects
Aktiv Park AS
NO - 3126 Tønsberg
www.aktivpark.no
Author
Emily Smith
Photos
Aktiv Park AS
Official opening
2019
Construction costs
NOK 20.8 million
(EUR 1.9 million)
The project was awarded a grant of almost NOK 4 million from the Ministry of Culture for an Innovative Active Facility. The Innovative Active Facility scheme promotes innovation and creativity in the design of facility for self-organized activities, with the aim of increasing physical activity in the wider population.
The project’s strong contextual response fosters the hidden complexities of the site - rights of way, flooding issues, underground utilities - along with existing trees and complex funding issues.
Meandering pathways
Gentle pathways lead through the site thus creating activity zones and increasing connectivity. Their layout manages changing ground levels, protects existing trees and flood zones, and ensures the space to be sustainable and accessible. Inspired by the water lapping at the river’s edge, the discrete activity areas were drawn out along the site and allowed to flow past each other, creating large shared thresholds, to promote social interaction.
Photos
Aktiv Park AS
A place to play and stay for everybody
Photos
Aktiv Park AS
The understanding of spatial and social interactions between the different user groups was a vital consideration in developing the layout of the park, underpinning the entire process from inception to detail design.
Parkour, for example, combines running and climbing movement, together with a skateboarding’s approach to urban forms. Situated between the climbing and the skatepark areas, the parkour area seeks to draw participants from different disciplines together, increasing social interaction and diversity. Its form appeal to both climbers and skaters, and it provides a great vantage point over the climbing boulders and back into the skatepark.
The material choices reinforce the social ambitions of the project, providing a diversity of feeling and multitude of ways to use the space - the smooth manmade concrete waves and steel structures interwoven with natural granite and soft landscaping – a place to play, to relax and watch; for those who just pass by or stay all day.
