Places within a small town: Halden, Norway

Abstract

The thesis addresses how the town of Halden in Norway will be effected by a planned new station and other infrastructure projects to serve the anticipated high speed rail link between Oslo and Gothenburg . It does so by examining how the structure of the town will be affected using a variety of analytical tools. Besides the station other infrastructure projects are planned and these too are critically reviewed especially from the perspective of the pedestrian experience. The thesis is concerned with city form and the role of different urban design methodologies to help restructure and improve the town whilst accommodating the new railway infrastructure.The research underpinning the thesis follows from the authors design project undertaken as part of the Diploma in Architecture in 1994 and subsequently at Masters level. Earlier work concentrated on understanding the characteristics and opportunity for urban change in the town, the need for infrastructure improvement, and the capacity for change concerning the town in general and the area around the station in particular.As a starting point for this thesis, a detailed examination was undertaken of the physical situation using tools such as space syntax analysis. This was then extended into the analysis of different possible future restructuring possibilities beyond those anticipated using tools beyond space syntax. The thesis argues that it is important to examine how different future infrastructure possibilities could influence physical change in different geographical areas of the town.The main issue of the PhD thesis is how to direct possible future changes in order to create a better movement pattern in the town (especially for pedestrians) and how this in turn will help improve the town's most vulnerable places. In order to examine in detail the attitude of the town's people to the future, a questionnaire was used to elucidate criticism of the existing town, its places and comment on the needs and potential opportunities for the future. One of the products of the thesis is to shed light on the public perception of the most relevant and valuable places in the town and to clarify the function and usage of the past in order to guide future change. Each of these places was identified and examined in terms of how they interact with the town's new structure and how through urban design analysis they could be integrated to create a town with an improved physical environment.The use of the questionnaire survey and space syntax together made it test the hypothesis that "A people- friendly town is not just a collection of people - friendly places but a linked network of these so integrated into a coherent whole that the overall settlement can readily perceived and effectively planned ". This was confirmed and allowed answers to the following research questions: • How is integration achieved in the context of the whole town? • What are the indicators of overall quality in the context of public places in Halden? • What lessons can be learned from Halden that have wider application?The lesson learned from Halden which has a wider application, is that the smallest need of change can create the greatest opportunity to achieve better integration in the context of the whole town. This can then create the opportunity for improvement of the overall quality in the context of public places in the town.