Tankefuld Svendborg

Enjoying the life of a ‘leisurely city’ has everything to do with balance. A balance between living efficiently and simultaneously creating a ‘slow’ time table. The ‘Citta Slow’ master plan by Karres en Brands for the Danish port town of Svendborg has to do with the use of authentic qualities and local possibilities—and finding a balance between the power of the landscape and the new inhabitants of the district expansion of Tankefuld.

For the master plan, the older villages surrounding Svendborg were analysed. In the villages, people live close together, yet still right in the middle of the landscape; a compact ‘deconcentration’. This compact way of village living forms the basis of the strategy for ‘Citta Slow’, yet interpreted in a contemporary manner. By deploying a green infrastructure and buildings using existing roads, a slow planning process begins by which a new landscape village can be built. A village that does not destroy contact between house and landscape, but increases it instead.

In the first phase, the framework for the Tankefuld landscape park is created. Later, new residents become gradually involved in the area. Within this robust and clear framework, various scenarios for density, housing typologies, and economic revenues can be tested. Flexibility is the main ingredient for sustainability, and one of the keywords of ‘Citta Slow’.