My Volvo Archipelago Concept is based on a few assumptions that are fundamental for the modern society we are living in.
The origins for every popular modern city are to be found in three different reasons; they were built around:
-Religious sites
-Crossing of trade routes
-Strategic waterways
Based on the last factor I chose to take a further look at the functionality of boats and the rituals that come with them.
Furthermore, while beingt on a trip in Stockholm, I found inspiration in its beautifull Archipelago. Dreaming about living on the islands, I combined this with my study philosophy and saw an elaborating factor.
Living on these wonderfull islands near Stockholm made it possible to create a microtopia; a place to make your dreams come true and team up with people that think in the same way you do. Politics and personal beliefs become way more practical and your society becomes a real democracy. Nevertheless is democracy as invented by the ancient Greeks meant for small societies to function in an optimal way.
You as a person are forced to live on certain locations since politics have divided the available land in that manner. Can you imagine how it is like to be able to make this choice independent of all restrictions and rules set by others? Another factor is coping with physical barriers.
The places to live are based on the assumption you need to get there by car, although lots of people love to live on a mountain top, islands or on the bottom of the sea. Physical barriers tend to keep us away from our dreams. Only the assumption that they are not easy to overcome makes us live the way we do right now.
I need to clarify my last point about the rise of cities near strategic waterways. A last look at the analysis of the reasons behind the reason of being for these cities made it clear for me that it is very contradicting to enter a city through the backdoor. Cities like Amsterdam and Stockholm are designed to enter via their waterways, so why do we get there by car?
The Volvo Archipelago Concept deliberates us and takes a deeper look into the assumptions that cause us to live on places we live right now and the way we live there. It is a bridging factor between regular society and my own concept of a so-called microtopia.
