SUB URBAN : Resurrection of a non-place

Abstract: The starting point of the project was threat that commercial forces pose to the identity of today’s suburban centers. The value of a square or a non-commercial space to meet seems somehow forgotten since shopping malls and internet are our new meeting spaces. In the anonymous suburb Barkarby northwest of Stockholm the project aims to question the barrier often dividing commuter railway suburbs. The project realizes the urban values that the train inhabits and embraces the very artery that supplies the city with people. It is a first step towards a dense development enhancing the identity and status of the suburb, not trying to imitate the inner city core. Instead it competes with big scale commercial activities by suggesting qualities extracted from the suburb itself. An amphitheatre which questions the space between the highway and train, an activity path with more or less spontaneous activities and an multihall under the train tracks  altogether enriches each other and through visual guidance attracts people on a piece of ground otherwise difficult to exploit.