Grorud
Studio
23.08.01—23.12.15
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Emily Soung Ngoc Nguyen / Isabela Louise Ariem Ramirez

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Eskil Selmer

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Eskil Selmer

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Markus Haugli Hystad

Urban freight concerns the flow of materials and goods in cities, and has been forecast to increase significantly within the next years. Despite its importance, urban freight has not been subjected to all the same technological advances as passenger transportation. In recent decades, electrification, automation, and shared mobility, the “three revolutions” of urban mobility have in different ways impacted the movement of people, but these breakthroughs have only had a limited impact on the transportation of goods. Consequently, urban freight is a research area that is growing. A solution to the demand for more sustainable cargo transport is what has been named the two-tier distribution system: here freight is divided up into a long haul system, using transportation methods with a large capacity (freight ships, trucks on highways, etc.) to transport goods across great distances; and an urban freight system (UFS – also called a last mile system), where materials and goods are brought to consumers, package boxes, building sites etc. by means of small-scale, green mobility. The practice is intended to limit the emission of green house gases from transport within urban areas, and to give greater consideration to the liveability of urban neighbourhoods by limiting the number of large vehicles passing through. It also corresponds to policies that promote micro-mobility and pedestrianism in the city: granting more space to these within existing streets usually means that larger transportation vehicles are no longer able to pass through all the same areas as before. The studio will speculate into various futures for a development area by Grorud train station. The goal is to plan a new type of neighbourhood based on novel systems of transportation.