Levanger - Europan 16

Levanger municipality wants to use Europan 16 to explore how its cultural heritage can be a resource for a social, architectural and cultural acceleration into the future. The original town plan from 1846 was founded on ideals of equitable access to common goods such as daylight, air and green spaces. Since then, these qualities have gradually been lost in a car-based shift that has displaced our perception of these timeless qualities. 

When the entire town centre of Levanger gained protection as a listed cultural heritage site because of its preserved wooden architecture and city plan, it was not supposed to curb development. Nevertheless, the loss of retailers and activity from the town centre continues, and the main street remains clogged with intense traffic. Can the solution for revitalizing the centre and protecting its heritage be found amongst the ideals of the past? 

There is a sense of urgency to find overall strategies to create a climate-friendly, inclusive and vibrant town. The challenge is to find solutions to the town's traffic problems, make interventions that can infuse the centre with new types of activity and to test the tolerance of the protected environment's character while exploring the different possibilities that the new library can offer.

Through participating in Europan 16, Levanger municipality is looking to determine how the town’s cultural heritage and unique historical setting can serve as an engine and resource for the future town of Levanger. The aim is to find strategic measures to preserve the town centre’s historical identity while staking out a path forward to create a sustainable and attractive town centre also in the future.

The task is to develop a strategy to revitalize the town centre, and to visualize the chosen strategy with architectural and urban space designs for the park axis and adjoining blocks. A wide range of methodologies and processes can be explored; The park axis and adjoining blocks allow the participants to explore infill, transformations and newbuilds as well as urban programming and street design. The local authority has decided to investigate the scope for a new library in Levanger, and wants to use Europan for ideas on how a new library can sit with the urban development strategy.

The strategy should be built on forward-looking and feasible ideas and invite citizen participation. How can the strategy create a roadmap to add qualities to Levanger over time through both temporary interventions and major investments? The centre of Levanger should be given both new qualities and attractions, and reinforcements of the existing qualities, in a way that make the residents proud of their town.

In short, the participants should: 

Develop a strategy for the future town of Levanger, with these four highlighted themes: 

1. Conservation and development of a listed cultural heritage site
2. Green and climate-friendly mobility
3. Land use
4. Citizen participation

Visualize and objectify the strategy through urban interventions and experimental architecture in the park axis and central library plots. The solutions must advocate for climate and environmentally friendly infrastructure for ‘humans and non-humans’.

Levanger municipality will award the winning team(s) with commissions valued at least NOK 500 000 through one or more of these potential assignments: Further study for urban development strategy for the Wooden Town Levanger

• Study project for design and vitalization of the historical park axes

• Study project for design of a new library and cultural house

• Study project for sustainable use and design of the streets

The exact assignment will be decided by the municipality in response to their needs and qualities of the received winning proposal(s).

Levanger municipality retains the option to award further work beyond the initial NOK 500 000 frame.

Dear architects, landscape architects and urban planners in Europe!

Levanger municipality invites you to help us use the protected cultural heritage in the Wooden Town Levanger as a resource to develop an attractive, inclusive and sustainable future town. 

Our ambition is that the Wooden Town Levanger in the future is one of a kind and visible in Europe, where you can still feel the sense of place, the history and the identity. The protection should not be an obstacle to development, and it will be an exciting challenge to study how protection and innovative architecture can be balanced. 

We offer exciting challenges. To realize good ideas, we have put several projects on hold waiting for the results from Europan 16. The preparations for Europan has rekindled the idea for a new library and cultural centre in Levanger. How can innovative of architecture and cultural programming go hand in hand with an overall urban development strategy? We hope your contributions can help revitalize our central urban spaces and give insight into how the new library and culture house can be built, programmed and integrated within the city. 

The car age has for decades taken over the town and displaced the people. How can we through innovative solutions create town centre more for suited for people and less suited for the 12 000 cars which daily drive through the town center and occupies valuable areas?  

How can we build a bridge between the current and the future cultural heritages, and balance the need for growth and development with preservation and activation of the historical urban environment?

Europan16 offers us the opportunity for innovative thinking that promotes good lives and a safe, inclusive town where the people are most important. How can we develop the new and exciting town through equal dialog, mobilization, bottom-up-processes and co-creation with our inhabitants? 

Welcome to Levanger!

Kind regards, 

Anita Ravlo Sand 

Mayor

Read more about Levanger in the competition brief. Download it here:

Register for Europan 16 here and access the complete site folder with maps and images so you can start making your designs: