Gathering key players on Stokkøya

Photo: Next Hero

About the pilot

Over the past 20 years, Stokkøya has transformed from a community threatened by displacement to an attractive destination that attracts both international guests and holidaymakers. An important premise for the development has been to establish jobs, housing and housing for an increased number of permanent residents.

Central to this development are the Strandhotellet and the Strandbaren, which have almost become architectural landmarks that combine architecture, local food and nature experiences.

The Bygdeboksen houses a bakery, office space, gallery and concert stage. Together, the bar, bakery and sauna down on the iconic Hosnastranda create the foundation for a vibrant local community all year round.

The holiday home area on the island is characterized by low land use, where the holiday homes were largely adapted to the terrain through architecture and alternative infrastructure - and not the other way around. The Stokkøya environment shows good examples of how to make use of grey land. In a large area that was left behind by a major road development, both homes and holiday homes are now being built.

Relevance for SOURCE

The development of holiday home areas raises important questions about land use, natural values, local value creation and resource use. To succeed in restructuring the industry, one must both challenge current practices and find new forms of collaboration across disciplines and actors. The Stokkøya pilot provides inspiration and knowledge to test and develop such approaches elsewhere.

Ambitions

To develop areas and concepts for housing and holiday homes that

• takes into account nature and preserves biodiversity

• creates ripple effects and values ​​in the local community

• keeps resources in the loop longer through circular use of materials and energy

The process

In November 2023, SOURCE invited stakeholders from Åfjord and Osen municipalities to a professional gathering on Stokkøya. The participants came from the municipality, business and the knowledge community. During the gathering, both the previous development of the site and the ongoing plans for new residential and recreational areas were used as a framework for inspection, discussions and a working session. This gave the participants a concrete starting point for exploring how interdisciplinary collaboration can contribute to more sustainable and regenerative solutions.

In the workshop, participants were placed in groups across disciplines and backgrounds. The goal of the session was to uncover any barriers and challenges that exist when starting to plan an area for development. How easy or difficult is it to develop plans, ideas and solutions - more sustainable than the "usual", classic method? And how difficult is it to take a development project beyond sustainability and to the regenerative level?

Result

The workshop made it clear that: 

• development must be based on early dialogue and interaction between stakeholders

• The local community must be actively involved to ensure identity, ownership and balance between permanent and temporary residents.

• nature and resource use must be seen in context, with solutions that reduce intervention, promote reuse and open up new business models

This provides important input to both municipalities and developers who want to raise ambitions from current practices towards sustainable and regenerative development.

Next step

The work from Stokkøya forms the basis for the development of the digital toolbox in SOURCE. The themes and questions from the workshop will be further processed by the professional partners, so that they can be used by municipalities, developers and other actors in future projects.