Standing on the quayside, opposite the house of Jules Verne, one would not be surprised to see the mechanical Nautilus or its accompanying giant squid breaking the green waters of the Loire. One almost also expects to see estuary dolphins jump through Daniel Buren’s giant loops along the new promenade of the harbourfront transformation area, designating it as a public urban space through signature art (In the case of Buren: always striped).
In Tasiilaq on Greenland’s East Coast infrastructure and the urban support systems are present and highly visible in the town. This provides a contrast to modern cities in other parts of the world—in which infrastructure is often both visually and geographically removed from the everyday lives of the inhabitants.
The Future North Team conducted a participatory mapping workshop with partners in Vardø in July 2014. http://www.finnmarken.no/nyheter/article7533684.ece
Architecture is instrumentally applied in place development strategies. But how does this play out in Vardø in Northern Norway?
It’s a rather mild June afternoon in Vardø. This once Arctic city is at the northeast of Norway. I am resting right underneath the boardwalks in Vestervågen, among poles that were for a large part put down after WWII. You’ll recall that the German Nazis blew up most of the facilities on this side of the harbourfront. It looked quite different back in even 2014.