Diplomaproject Odda

 

The project focus on the Old smelting plant in Odda. In Norway many new towns was developed around industry like this during the industrial revolution because of the easy access to power. Today this kind of industry is closing down. Leaving large areas of the towns empty.

The smelting plant in Odda is being preserved by the Directorate of cultural heritage because of its importance for Norwegian industry. It is also a candidate for UNESCO world heritage because of its authenticity and its international relevance.

The melting plant was closed down in 2003 and has been empty ever since because of conflicts between the developers and the heritage comity.


There has been a set of proposals on how this area could be developed, but they were all on an urban scale and not focusing on how to preserve the structures.

In this project we believe that in order to successfully transform these structures we need to truly understand the site trough its history, structure, material, spacial qualities and its current condition.



At first we made a study of each of the preserved structures located on site.The buildings are large and have all been part of the production line.

In order to get into the details of a structure we needed to scale the whole project down and chose the cyanamide plant. This is because it consists of a number of diverse buildings and we where interested in the different approaches that each building required. All the while the plant clearly depicts the historical development of the site.

These structures have different preservation concerns where some buildings have a stronger restriction than others. This is evident in our final result where we have chosen different strategies according to the restrictions imposed by ourself and the directorate of cultural heritage.


We have used the conclusions from the technical regulation to investigate and discuss how to upgrade the old structures in the best possible way. And how these new modern elements are integrated along with the preservation regulation.

the whole process has therefore been a compromise between the esthetic qualities and the technical requirements. And how the new elements can help enhance the experience of the old structure.