Every day, 35,000 cars cross Thomas B. Thriges Gade, which has divided Odense City Centre in two since the 1960s. Now, the street will be transformed into a new city quarter featuring different types of dwellings, shops, offices, urban spaces and cafes. The vision is to develop a consistent and sustainable city with a focus on an active urban life.
The Realdania Foundation, which is behind the project together with the Odense Municipality, explains that ”instead of four lanes of asphalt, the city will get a diverse urban quarter attractive to stay, shop and live in”. “The visionary urban planning project will join back together the eastern and western parts of Odense across the barrier constituted by Thomas B. Thriges Gade since the end of the 1960s”, Realdania writes in a press release.
The 25 teams which have applied for participating in the competition include several international companies. Seven teams have now been selected to submit their suggestion for a transformation of the area, including Henning Larsen Architects and Polyform Architects, 3XN, Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects, smidthammerlassen architects, Alectia and Adept. To see the complete list, please go to www.realdania.dk.
”The seven selected teams constitute a strong group of participants. I am looking forward to receiving some very exciting suggestions for how to join together the different parts of Odense and create a diverse and sustainable city with a focus on urban life and life quality”, says Hans Peter Svendler, Executive Director of Realdania.
The result of the competition is expected to be announced in November 2011.