“City to the Water” will open up the centre of Randers towards the water. The historical old Medieval town will become better integrated with the Gudenåen river and Randers Fjord, opening up new residential, recreational and activity opportunities in the Jutlandic town. Randers Municipality and Realdania have therefore launched a preliminary survey as the first step in realising the visions for the town’s future.
C.F. Møller was assigned the task of finding and communicating the potential and synergy effects in the tension field between urban life, climate adjustment, traffic and overall finances. There is a clear vision for “City to the Water”, since in the centre of Randers, around the Gudenåen river, the port and Randers Fjord, there is vast untapped potential to make the Randers of the future an even more attractive town, since Randers holds a lot of potential from the meeting between the town, the countryside and the water.
In future, the town centre will be supplemented with many different nature experiences and activities, binding the town closely to the water. The countryside and the water must no longer be a barrier in Randers, but be turned into a unique resource that can bind the town and the municipality together. To achieve this, seven possible scenarios have been set up with infrastructural measures that are studied individually and from many angles in the preliminary survey.
The preliminary survey for “City to the Water” considers the Randers of the future from a holistic and financially sustainable approach, with focus on combining the town and countryside’s visual and spatial expression with Randers’ vital infrastructural and climate-adjustment challenges. The preliminary survey thus paves the way for a more targeted planning process, with focus on the financially optimum scenarios, minimising the risk of expensive wrong decisions.
Far-reaching potential
“City to the Water’ is a significant milestone for Randers, but this potential also extends beyond the town, as the methodology behind the preliminary survey might be used in many contexts where it is vital to take the right decisions prior to e.g. an urban planning report or an architectural competition. This perfectly complements our vision of a holistic approach to sustainable urban development,” says Julian Weyer, architect and partner at C.F. Møller.
After the summer holidays, the preliminary survey will be the basis for a citizen involvement process to which Randers’ citizens and business community will be able to contribute. After this, Randers Town Council will take a decision on which scenario will set the direction for the ongoing work of fulfilling the vision of the “City to the Water”.
“We now have a strong basis for a debate on how we wish Randers town centre to develop. On a convincing and ambitious basis, the preliminary survey has analysed how climate adjustment, combined with the countryside and the infrastructure, can create completely new opportunities for Randers town centre,” says Hans Nikolaisen, municipal director of Randers Municipality. Source by C.F. Møller.
Location: Randers, Denmark
Architect: C.F. Møller
Partner: Orbicon, Habitats, Smith Innovation and Sadolin & Albæk
Year: 2015
Images: Courtesy of C.F. Møller