2020cities

New blog on urban issues, now in Swedish

2011-01-30T16:46:00.000+01:00

I now have a new blog on modern urban development. This one is in Swedish, called Moderna Metropoler. You'll find it here.

Closing this blog, but I'll be back

2010-07-30T10:24:00.002+02:00

After a summer of thinking and planning I’ve decided to close this blog and start on a new project. In a few months I expect to be back with a new blog or website also dealing with modern urban development.
If you are interested, please check back in early November or so to find out more.
If you have any ideas or questions, or just want to get in touch, you can use the e-mail address in the column to the right.
Thanks for reading!

A festival for the built environment

2010-06-30T15:30:00.006+02:00

LONDON. The London Festival of Architecture (June 19 to July 4) is a gigantic event spanning time and space in this metropolis.
On a short visit I only had a chance to see fragments of this celebration of the built environment. This year’s festival, the fourth biennial event since 2004, looks forward towards 2012 when London hosts the Olympic Games as well as back at 50 years of architecture in the city.
The festival is also a showcase for the art of building in other cities and countries that have been invited to show their stuff during two weeks of events, exhibitions and activities. Over all there are over 300 events during the festival.
I liked the photo exhibition (above) of 50 Years of London Architecture 1960-2010 in the Mall Galleries (it ended June 27). Organised by the Architecture Club, the exhibition showed selected works illustrating a cross section of new architecture in London over the past five decades.

1966 Centre Point on New Oxford Street, one of the first tall buildings in London.

1986 The Lloyds Building, the City's most unusual office complex.

2007 New Wembley, the national stadium for England's disgraced footballers.

Danish government dismisses road tax plans

2010-06-24T06:52:00.002+02:00

COPENHAGEN. The leading party of the liberal-conservative Danish government will not allow the capital Copenhagen to introduce a system of congestion charges, a type of road tax aimed at lowering the number of cars on the city’s streets.
The local government of Copenhagen, lead by the social democrats, would like to introduce congestion charges as soon as possible as part of the city’s ambitious environmental policies.
But a representative of venstre, Denmark’s largest political party, says that the government will not allow this to happen, reports daily Berlingske Tidende.
The scheme will cost people who drive cars too much, according to venstre.
Swedish capital Stockholm introduced congestion charges on a permanent basis in 2007. License numbers are registered when cars pass unmanned control points (picture) at entrances to the city centre. Car owners are billed for the charges. Copenhagen would like to introduce a similar system.
The Danish capital seeks to profile itself as a global Climate Capital, but sometimes meets resistance from the national government. Copenhagen is knows as one the best cities in the world for bicycling and has ambitious plans improve public transportation further.

Green light for controversial Slussen revamp

2010-06-22T07:08:00.003+02:00

STOCKHOLM. The local council in Stockholm has adopted a controversial plan for revamping the Slussen transit hub near the city’s Old Town. A plan for the project that was presented early this year led to an uproar.
Now changes in the design have been made, but the debate is far from over. The future of Slussen is bound to be an issue in local elections to be held in September.
The struggle over Slussen’s future has been going on for at least 20 years. This important transit hub from 1935 is literally falling apart and a major restoration is long overdue.
The first competition for a new design was held as early as 1990, but nothing happened.
In 2004 a new winner was picked after a competition said to be final. Plans were presented, and a new debate began.
Then, in 2008, it was all of a sudden announced that yet another competition would take place. Prestigious foreign architect firms were invited to take part together with leading Swedish firms. In early 2010 a revamped proposition by Foster + Partners and Swedish Berg architects was presented as the future Slussen.
But now hell broke loose with widespread protest and a heated debate. The new proposals included new buildings and a design that would block part of the view the Södermalm district towards the Old Town.
Politicians hesitated again and planners went back to the drawing boards to make changes. Now plans for some buildings have been scrapped.

Part of the plans for the new Slussen, that now have been changed again.

A green tour of sewage pipes and poo bags

2010-06-21T06:52:00.000+02:00

STOCKHOLM. If a walking tour that takes you to the city’s first sewage pipe or lets you see how good Swedes are at picking up dog poo, Stockholm might be the place for you.
The city is European Green Capital 2010 and as a part of that, city authorities are handing out The Green Capital Map to visiting tourists.
The map guides visitors to spots in the city that one way or another explains why Stockholm was selected as the first Green Capital ever.
Another way to experience green features of the Swedish capital is to use the Gowalla gps-positioning application in your smart phone. A short tour has been prepared for Gowalla and city authorities have also announced a competition where you share your favourite green spots with the help of the application.

Munich back on top of the world

2010-06-18T07:07:00.005+02:00

RANKINGS. Some say they are meaningless, but I can’t help to like all those ranking lists of the best cities in the world.
Yesterday the summer issue of Monocle arrived in my mail with its yearly “Liveable cities index”. An old winner is back on top.
Munich, the well-connected and well-to-do modern metropolis of Bavaria, finished first in Monocle’s initial ranking in 2007 and is number one again this year.
From its excellent airport and public transportation (the metro, right) to the lovely summer beer gardens, Munich is a place to feel good about.
Copenhagen is in second place, just like three years ago. In the four Monocle rankings so far, the likeable Danish capital has finished 2-1-2-2.
The only new entry on Monocle’s top 25 list this year is Portland, the U.S. West Coast city that promotes bikes and public transportation ahead of cars. The Oregon city is in 22nd place.
Monocle’s top ten liveable cities 2010 (2009):
01. Munich, Germany (4)
02. Copenhagen, Denmark (2)
03. Zürich, Switzerland (1)
04. Tokyo, Japan (3)
05. Helsinki, Finland (5)
06. Stockholm, Sweden (6)
07. Paris, France (8)
08. Vienna, Austria (7)
09. Melbourne, Australia (9)
10. Madrid, Spain (12)

Danish architects wins landmark Swedish project

2010-06-17T19:00:00.002+02:00

STOCKHOLM. Danish architects 3XN will design a landmark building in a prestigious redevelopment in the Stockholm suburb of Vällingby. The proposal from 3XN, a softly shaped building said to symbolize the human values characterizing the revival of the suburb, was picked by a jury that had four entries to chose between. The other invited competitors were Danish firm BIG and Swedish Wingårdhs and Tham&Videgård.
The building will lead into a new suburban development called Vällingby Parkstad on a site where Swedish energy giant Vattenfall will relocate from its present headquarters.
Vällingby was a model suburb in western Stockholm the 1950’s and 60’s. It’s now planned to be a new type of suburban core as Stockholm develops for the future. Vällingby Parkstad is seen as an example of a new type of high quality suburban residential district.
The 14-floor building’s curved design embraces the area and the lively shaped balconies opens up the structure towards the surroundings thus raising the park up in the air. The dense city structure at the base adds activity at eye level and life thrives on active roof tops and flowering balconies, according to the description from 3XN.
Construction is planned to begin in 2011.

Copyright: 3XN
The winning proposal for the signature building at Vällingby Parkstad.

Green capital becomes city of love

2010-06-16T07:14:00.002+02:00

STOCKHOLM. The Swedish capital is buzzing with activity this week, as a two-week “festival of love” reaches its climax on Saturday with a royal wedding.
Stockholm is using the occasion – Crown Princess Victoria’s wedding – to promote itself through a packed program of activities, as hundreds of foreign journalists have come to the city to cover the royal festivities.
It is also the first time the city has used its status as European Green Capital 2010 for marketing purposes on a wider scale. In a big pavilion in the centrally located Kungsträdgården (King’s Garden) opposite the Royal Palace, the city is showing off its green ambitions with a full schedule of daily activities over the 14-day period of “Love 2010”.
When I dropped by there was a presentation of the recently adopted City Plan, which outlines the future development of Stockholm. Visitors can learn more about plans to promote electric vehicles (photo), take a sip of the city’s clean water and learn more about everything from recycling to investments in new infrastructure.

Study says bicycles won't reduce car traffic

2010-06-09T17:03:00.001+02:00

STOCKHOLM. Increased use of bicycles in the Swedish capital would only have a minor effect on car traffic in the city centre, according to a new study from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
The study, reported by the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter online, says that bicycling as a means of transportation of its own is gaining in importance in Stockholm. But most of the car traffic in the inner city, 84 percent according to the study, consists of vehicles that made a journey longer than 15 kilometres. This traffic is not likely to be replaced by increased use of bicycles, according to researchers from KTH.
The report, part of a larger study of travel habits of some 55,000 stockholmers, looked at what it would mean if half of all shorter car trips (less than 5, 10 or 15 kilometres) were done by bicycle instead. The researchers assume that few commuters who drive more than 15 kilometres one way would switch to bicycle.
Therefore bicycling cannot be expected to solve traffic congestion in central Stockholm.
But the study still points out the benefits of an increased use of bicycles. It’s healthy, inexpensive, fast and good for the environment.

Waterfront living, with neighbours on the web

2010-06-08T19:00:00.002+02:00

VÄSTERÅS. Summer is here and it’s the time of year when we really enjoy living in a waterfront development.
That is except for one thing, our neighbours.
We only see them in the summer, when they come in great numbers. They invade our balcony, where we want to sit and enjoy the view over the blue waters of Lake Mälaren. They usually come in the evening, when they are on the web for hours.
The spider web, that is.
Because I’m talking about spiders, which I have learned is a big problem in many waterfront developments like the one where we live in Västerås, an hour west of the Swedish capital Stockholm.
When we moved here I had heard that some spiders like new buildings close to the water. Now I know that for a fact.
I also know that we are not the only ones with this problem. When I visited Hamburg in Germany last year to see the giant waterfront development HafenCity I noticed the spider webs as I walked around at night.
I also happened to see a TV-interview on the German channel ZDF that gave some clarity to the issue.
Since HafenCity is the biggest waterfront development in Europe, they probably have the biggest spider problem as well. Therefore a researcher from Hamburg University called Anja Kleinteich had been hired to help find a solution to the problem.
In the ZDF-interview Kleinteich, an expert on spiders, explained that the main problem is the so called bridge spider (larinioides sclopetarius), which prefers to be near water. The bridge spider is also, unfortunately, probably “world champion of reproduction”, according to Kleinteich.
A female bridge spider can produce some 1,500 offsprings in just seven months, which explains a lot.
There is no simple solution to the problem, Kleinteich admits. One recommendation is to use types of lightning that attracts fewer insects. Covering holes where the spiders hide is another, as well as making it difficult for spiders to fasten their webs by having smooth surfaces and rounded “corners” on the building.

New bridges to connect cultural institutions

2010-06-07T17:04:00.004+02:00

COPENHAGEN. The regeneration of Copenhagen’s harbour inlet has been one of the successes of the 2000’s in the Danish capital.
Now things will become even better.
The city has decided to build a number of bridges that will connect the Opera house with the Royal Danish Playhouse, two of the city’s cultural institutions, near the popular tourist district Nyhavn.
Visitors to Nyhavn will also get improved access to the waterfront along the neglected Havnegade (Harbour Street). A new urban space will open up as traffic along the street will have to give way for a promenade, outdoor seating and activities for the public.
This will be a boost for a couple of restaurants and bars in one of Copenhagen’s small architectural gems, an old custom house (the place is actually called Custom House, in English) on Havnegade (above).
The project is expected to be completed in 2012 to coincide with the opening of the new harbour bridge.
Daily Politiken reports that there is an ongoing fight between the City of Copenhagen and the Danish Ministry of Culture over the bridge project. According to the Ministry the City has promised to build a direct bridge from The Royal Danish Playhouse to the Opera. The solution now chosen by the city is a less expensive one where the two cultural institutions are connected through a series of smaller bridges via the Christianshavn district.

In the future you will be able to walk over to the Opera house in Copenhagen.

Sustainable Olympics not making Britain greener

2010-06-04T06:28:00.003+02:00

LONDON. The 2012 Olympic Games in London were meant to inspire British industry and society to become more sustainable.
That is not happening, reports a green watchdog in its annual review on the games’ sustainability vision.
The Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 gives the Olympic Delivery Authority, which is responsible for construction of venues and infrastructure for the games, high grades for its standard of sustainable design. But in its report the watchdog says that the benefits for Britain’s wider green economy could be lost before the games even begin unless “the knowledge in people’s heads is captured before they leave”, according to a story in the Guardian.
“Our main area of concern lies in the wider commitments that were made during the bid or just afterwards. Broad promises have been made in official documents: ‘to make the Olympic Park a blueprint for sustainable living’ and ‘to be a catalyst for new waste management infrastructure in east London. With the exception of a few worthy initiatives, there is no comprehensive plan to make this happen”, it says in the report.
Many of the venues, like the main Olympic Stadium (picture), are seen as good examples of sustainable design.
But much more has been expected from the London 2012 Olympics.

Building on the blue with a green profile

2010-06-03T06:21:00.008+02:00

HELSINKI/DESIGNING THE FUTURE. Minimizing and improving efficiency in energy use is the latest trend in climate smart urban development.
Now Helsinki joins the race to be one of the world leaders in the field. Earlier this week, it was announced that the Kalasatama (Fiskehamnen in Swedish) waterfront development will be the testing ground for a large scale so called smart grid power network.
“We have the ambition to develop the new Kalasatama district into a global benchmark for smart cities and we look forward to implementing the best available technology together with our global partner”, says Seppo Ruohonen, CEO of Helsingin Energia, the public utility in the Finnish capital, in a statement as the news was announced.
Helsingin Energia will work in a joint development project with multinational power and automation technology giant ABB and the Nokia Siemens Networks to design and install a large-scale smart grid in the Kalasatama district (right, illustration copyright ALA Architects/City of Helsinki).
The project is part of a larger initiative to lift Helsinki’s environmental profile with focus on the sustainable and efficient distribution of power, according to a press release from ABB. The Swiss-Swedish company is involved in a similar project in the Stockholm Royal Seaport, an eco-profile development in the Swedish capital.
Kalasatama, “fishing harbour” in English, is one of several large ongoing or planned waterfront developments in Helsinki, where room for new residential districts have opened up since port facilities began moving to a location east of the city.
Eventually the district will have some 18,000 residents. Construction is expected to last well into the 2030’s. During the coming decades Helsinki will see major development projects on a scale few other cities in Europe can match. With a population near 600,000 (1.3 million in the metropolitan area), Helsinki expects to have built new homes for another 100,000 residents by 2040.
However, in the wake of the global economic crisis of the past two years, city authorities recently decided to temporarily put part of the development projects on hold. Investment plans will be re-evaluated and new decisions by City Hall are expected after the summer.
When things begin to move again, there will be several interesting projects to follow in Helsinki:
● Kalasatama, already mentioned above, will expand Helsinki’s city centre eastwards. A new metro station taken into use in 2007 will be the hub for the new district, where plans call for a diversity of housing types. New kinds of terrace buildings are planned to built where a power station stands today, representing a more daring architecture what has been the case so far in new Helsinki developments.
The waterfront of the district will be developed into new recreational areas.
● In the south western corner of central Helsinki, work is already under way to start construction in what used to be the Western Harbour. A district called Jätkäsaari (Busholmen in Swedish) will eventually provide homes for 16,000 residents and greatly expand the area of the city centre.
Jätkäsaari will be a continuation of the Ruoholahti (Gräsviken) district, developed in the 1990’s. With a canal running through it, this is a pleasant but un-spectacular district with excellent metro and tram connections with the rest of the city (above, left).
● Keski-Pasila (Central Pasila in english, Mellersta Böle in Swedish) is a planned as a new, or expanded, city centre three kilometers north of the present city centre. This is where Helsinki is making room for business expansion. A new high rise office complex is planned to be built on derelict railway yards and central Pasila will be developed as a new transportation hub.
● Two public transit projects will be of great importance to Helsinki in the future. The metro will be extended to the west, connecting Helsinki with neighbouring Espoo (Esbo), the capital’s most important suburb that has grown into the second largest municipality in Finland.
There are some delays in the project, and the new metro line is not expected to open for traffic until 2015.
At the same time a new Ring Rail Line is under construction. The line, expected to open for traffic in 2014, will provide important new commuter routes as well as rail connections to the Helsinki-Vantaa international airport.

This is the fourth and final article in a series of reports from Helsinki.

The Kalasatama district will expand Helsinki's city centre eastwards.

A new metro line will connect Helsinki with neighbouring Espoo.

Copyright: Cino Zucchi Architetti/City of Helsinki

A new city centre for Helsinki; high rises in Central Pasila.

City planning with a passion for the human scale

2010-06-01T06:27:00.010+02:00

HELSINKI/DESIGNING THE FUTURE. If you have a hard time imagining a city planner as a passionate crusader, you haven’t met Mikael Sundman.
He is a recently retired senior planner from the Finnish capital Helsinki, where he helped shape the city’s development for more than 30 years. Sundman fought for the human scale in the urban landscape and his work made him a legendary planner.
“Urbanity means that opposites will meet; young and old, rich and poor and so on. When we build it has to be for everybody. That has been my main idea”, he says when we meet in Stockholm, a city he likes to spend time in.
I’m preparing a trip to Helsinki and Sundman (right) has promised to give me a background to recent and planned development in the Finnish capital.
As we unfold a big map of Helsinki, Sundman brings out a pen. He circles city districts on the map and scribbles down the years they were built. When I later come to Helsinki I just have follow Sundman’s directions on the map to get a picture of how Helsinki has developed over the past 30-40 years.
As I walk around in central Helsinki, I enter a second-hand bookshop where I’m glad to find an old copy of a small black-and-white book from 1970 that perhaps can be seen as the starting point of Mikael Sundman’s career as the passionate city planner.
As a young assistant at the Technical College’s architecture department, Sundman and another young colleague wrote a book called “Whose is Helsinki?”. In the book the young architects/planners describe how the residents of Helsinki are being run over by car-oriented city planning, and how the city centre is taken over by offices.
Already 40 years ago Sundman saw the dangers of a development that many cities still are just beginning to deal with.
He would soon get a chance to continue his struggle within the city planning system.
Sundman points at the map of Helsinki:
“Here you can see Magnitogorsk when you come to Helsinki”, he says, referring to a classic example of Soviet-Russian communist style city building in the Ural Mountains.
What he’s pointing at is a Helsinki district called Merihaka (Havshagen in Swedish), a 1970’s residential area dominated by grey, concrete housing blocks of a kind you would presumably find a lot of in Magnitogorsk.
“And this was our reaction to Magnitogorsk”, he says, pointing at Katajanokka (Skatudden) on the map, where he helped design the plans for his first residential district in the latter part of the 1970’s.
Beyond the famous Uspenski Cathedral, the harbour and some classic examples of Helsinki’s art nouveau (jugend) architecture, Sundman and his colleagues designed the winning plans for a residential district dominated by low rise houses in red brick. It was a clear contrast to the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s ideal of the modernist high rise suburbs.
“It was a return to the classic neighbourhood block. We wanted to have a mix of different social groups in the district. It’s a theme we continued on since then”, says Sundman.
He has worked on many district plans over the years. One of his favourite projects is clearly Arabianranta (Arabiastranden), a district famous for integrating art into the building process (I wrote about it last week, here).
Mikael Sundman comes from the Swedish-speaking minority in the bilingual Finland, and is therefore also proud of how the planning of Arabianranta helped create a small cluster of Swedish-language educational facilities and activities in the district.
As he continues to point out districts on the map, he encourages me to visit the suburb of Vuosaari (Nordsjö) on the eastern outskirts of Helsinki. Vousaari is the site for Helsinki’s new harbour, where cargo port activities are moving. This has opened possibilities for vast new waterfront developments in central Helsinki (more about that in a later report).
But that is not why I’m going there. Vousaari, at the end of the metro line, is a1960’s suburb that has had its share of social problems. Mikael Sundman now sees it as a good example of how you can turn things around through thoughtful urban planning.
“We wanted to lift the standard of the district through higher quality developments on the waterfront. It has had quite an impact”, he says.
On a warm and sunny early summer day, the impression is spectacular as I walk along the beach right in front of the new residential districts (right). The feeling is more Mediterranean than Nordic.
From a population of 14,000 in the late 1980’s the population of Vuosaari is expected to reach 40,000 in the coming decade.
“Helsinki has been allowed to develop at a pace that has been manageable. I think that has been essential. We have never felt pressure from politicians to speed things up”, says Sundman.
“And we as city planners have been given a lot of freedom in our work on the projects”, he adds.

This is the third in a series of reports from Helsinki.

Magnitogorsk in Helsinki; a 1970's development that inspired planners...

...to design a new residential district on Katajanokka/Skatudden.

Living on the beach in the Helsinki suburb Vuosaari/Nordsjö.

Top cities all have view of the Alps

2010-05-31T10:27:00.001+02:00

RANKINGS. At an interesting seminar on urban planning last week I learned that all ranking lists of cities and their ”liveability” are pointless, since they are based on such crude measurements.
True, of course. It’s like trying to decide what painting is most beautiful or what food tastes best.
At the same event a person told me that “you’re a journalist, so you must love these ranking lists”.
Also true.
So, here comes another one. London-based Mercer, an international consulting company, has published its 2010 Quality of Living Survey. Here are their top five cities in the world:
1) Vienna, Austria
2) Zürich, Switzerland
3) Geneva, Switzerland
4) Vancouver, Canada
5) Auckland, New Zealand
You could think that one criterion was “must be near the Alps or equivalent” (Munich comes in 7th and Bern, Switzerland, 10th).
Mercer’s survey is intended to help companies to fairly compensate employees depending on where they are based. The rankings take into account 39 factors, grouped into the following ten categories: political stability, economic environment, social freedoms, health and sanitation, schools and education, public services and transportation, recreational activities, availability of goods, housing, natural environment.
The four Nordic capitals in my ongoing study of their status as cities with a high standard of living finish a bit further down than on other lists; Copenhagen is 11th, Stockholm 20th, Oslo 24th and Helsinki 35th.
Baghdad finishes last among the 221 cities in the survey.

Expanding a city centre across mental barriers

2010-05-28T11:20:00.007+02:00

STOCKHOLM. In the Swedish capital, living in the “inner city” means everything to a lot of people.
There is no wall around the inner city (the water that surrounds most of it is enough), but the mental barrier that separates it from the “outer city” can be just as hard to penetrate. And remember, Stockholm is a small city by international standards. Only about 300,000 people live in the popular districts of the inner city.
Many more would like to live there and as Stockholm grows city planners are looking for an expansion of the inner city across the barriers separating it from the closest suburbs. The most important ongoing and planned urban development projects are all located on the fringes of the inner city, pushing its borders outwards.
The other day I spent a couple of hours walking around in one of those developments.
On a grey morning in an early summer drizzle there isn’t much going on along the waterfront in Liljeholmen just to the west of Södermalm, the latter being the preferred choice of address for many young professionals in the inner city districts.
Liljeholmen, one of Stockholm’s first suburbs, has been one of the most important regeneration projects in the city for some years. Old industrial sites are turned into office and residential districts, nicely located by the water.
The typical suburban centre is being rejuvenated. The old towering housing blocks of earlier decades overlook the new, modern Liljeholmen down by the water. When finished, thousands of new apartments and workplaces will draw people here. So far about 1,600 new apartments have been completed.
Liljeholmen has excellent public transit (above), with two metro lines connecting with the relatively new transverse light rail service running through a number of Stockholm’s suburbs.
The City of Stockholm has chosen the next phase of the area’s development, the western part of Liljeholmen, to be one of the city’s eco-profile districts. Exactly what this is going to mean is not clear yet, since planning is just getting underway. This new eco-district will be built on privately owned industrial land, which means that the project will not be under direct city control.
When you stand by the new residential buildings on the waterfront, you can see Södermalm a short walk or bicycle trip away (right). But mentally you are still far away from the inner city. Only time will tell if these barriers will crumble eventually.
Hammarby Sjöstad, the city’s first eco-profile district where construction began in the mid 1990’s, is located south of Södermalm on the same waters as Liljeholmen but further to the east. Administratively Hammarby Sjöstad is part of the inner city district Södermalm, despite the separating waters, and mentally feels more connected to the inner city than the suburbs.
The two most important development projects of the future will both expand what is now the inner city of Stockholm.
Stockholm Royal Seaport (called Norra Djurgårdsstaden in Swedish) will be a high profile eco-district adding new density to the eastern fringes of central Stockholm.
Norra Station (North Station) is a huge residential and research cluster development project straddling the wasteland between the northern parts of central Stockholm and the neighbouring municipality of Solna.
By 2020 or so, all these developments might have altered both the physical and the mental map of central Stockholm.

A new residential district on the waterfront in Liljeholmen.

The old housing blocks of Liljeholmen overlook new developments.

The art of building a new city district

2010-05-27T16:37:00.009+02:00

HELSINKI/DESIGNING THE FUTURE. Arabianranta on the outskirts of central Helsinki could be just another waterfront development, but it isn’t.
Residents here live in a hub of creativity where art and design has become an important part of everyday life. Courtyards, public spaces and building entrances are given distinct identities through an unusual program of art installations.
This is where Helsinki’s ambitions to be a design city comes together in one place.
“The idea was to have art as an integrated part of the building project. It has been a huge success,” says Mikael Sundman, a legendary Helsinki urban planner who was a driving force in designing the district.
You will hear more from Sundman, who recently retired, in my following reports from the Finnish capital.
I take the number 6 tram from the heart of Helsinki in front of Eliel Saarinen’s classic railway station from 1914 for a 20-minute ride to Arabianranta (the Swedish name – Finland is officially bilingual – is Arabiastranden).
As you might have guessed, this is where the Arabia tableware, a classic in Finnish design, was (and is) made. The first thing you see as you reach the district is the old Arabia factory building (left).
I’m greeted by Tuula Isohanni, a Doctor of Arts at the Aalto University School of Art and Design located here. She has been a key person in making Arabianranta what it is today, coordinating the art installations in the district over the past ten years.
“It has been important to keep everything together. I have tried to think about what we are building for the future here. We have used art to awaken and develop the things that are already here,” says Tuula Isohanni.
Before we tour the area (visitors can pick up a brochure with a map and explanation to the art installations) we visit the complex that has grown out of the original Arabia factory. Here several of the most well known Finnish brands are now under one roof. Arabia was taken over by Iittala (glass) and today both brands, together with several others, are part of the Fiskars (scissors, knives etc) Group.
The Arabia factory can be seen on pre-arranged tours, but the real heart of creativity is found a couple of floors above the intense heat of the huge kilns where the ceramics gets its final shape through 20 hours of firing.
In a long corridor a group of ceramic artists have been given work facilities by the Arabia Art Department Society. The idea is to boost ceramic art in Finland through these independent artists, who work on a freelance basis.
“This is really an ideal situation for us”, says Pekka Paikkari, a veteran artist we run into who has also contributed to Arabianranta’s art work.
When work on the Arabianranta district began in the late 1990's, builders weren’t too happy to put aside the 1-2 percent of building costs for art work as the City of Helsinki required.
“They were not keen on buying something they couldn’t see. And we also had to put limits on the artists. We were not going to have mammoth pieces that cost a lot of money,” says Tuula Isohanni (above, right).
From the beginning some architects and builders were allowed to make arrangements with artists they already had contact with. But as the project grew, Isohanni understood the importance of coordinating the art installations.
“It was really important to make everything fit together.”
Arabianranta is located on the shore of the old Helsinki Bay where some of the earliest settlements of the city were situated. The residential buildings stand on reclaimed land that had to be decontaminated before construction began.
In ten years this wasteland has been turned into a pleasant urban district near water and attractive nature.
The last part of Arabianranta is still under construction and will be completed within two years. By then the district will have some 7,000 inhabitants and be the workplace for 8,000.
The creative hub also houses six educational institutes, mostly focusing on creative arts and technology.
The residential district is heterogenic with different types of housing, from expensive apartments to rentals for lower income groups and students. There are also homes for different groups of people with special needs.
“One early idea was that every entrance should be different and given its own character through artwork,” says Isohanni as we walk around the area.
Some have small pieces of art in the brick walls outside, others have brightly coloured walls in the stairwells (left). The art comes in all shapes and forms. High up on a wall sits a balcony that looks like a birds nest (a cooling-off terrace for a rooftop sauna). Above the entrance to one house you’ll find a birdhouse stuck to a bronze branch that “grows” out of the wall.
Perhaps the most well-known piece of art is the “Arabia Carpet”, a huge oriental carpet made of ceramic tiles. It decorates one of the courtyards, and like most of the artwork has a connection to the history and nature of the place (in this case the name).
In the final part of Arabianranta, the five open courtyards will each have a theme expressed through its artwork; quietude, movement, growth, senses and reflection.
As we come to the end of our tour, Tuula Isohanni shows me a square where the crown jewel of Arabianranta’s artwork soon will be in place. The famous American artist Robert Wilson has designed an urban park with nine square “rooms” separated by vegetation and lit from below.
She fought long and hard for this one. In place, it’s bound to be the highlight of an unusual and successful urban development project.

This is the second in a series of reports from Helsinki.

The Arabia Carpet, designed by Elina Aalto, in an open courtyard.

A giant bird's nest or a balcony?

Arabianranta; a gateway to the sea through works of art.

To improve cities, keep an open mind

2010-05-26T16:17:00.008+02:00

STOCKHOLM. Put away visions of “world class” and don’t try to fit your city into a single brand. Welcome the changes brought in by new multiculturalism and be open to varying concepts of beauty.
Those were some of the messages during an interesting day of thoughts on modern urban development when Stockholm’s City Planning Administration organized a seminar with a group of free thinkers yesterday.
The seminar marked the beginning of a dialogue the City’s planners are asking for in the wake of the recently adopted new City Plan. One of the messages from the speakers was pretty clear:
Don’t let the planning get to rigid, be open for change.
Gerard Reinmuth (right), an Australian architect and a founding director of the architectural firm Terroir with offices in Australia and Denmark, warned of the dangers of grand visions and the constant chase for top positions on league tables ranking cities according to “liveability”.
Using Sydney as an example, Reinmuth argued that such ambitions can be “the greatest inhibitor of becoming a great city”.
“You just create the image of a new city. And those lists are based on incredibly crude measurements,” said Reinmuth, who is a visiting professor at the Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark and a frequent commentator on urban issues.
Instead Reinmuth encourages politicians and planners to ask themselves what’s wrong with their cities in order to make real progress. But raising the problems, he said as I spoke to him afterwards, might of course lead to cities losing their positions in the global rankings.
I asked him what he thinks about Copenhagen’s and Stockholm’s ambitions to brand themselves as “climate capitals”, or Helsinki as the “design capital” for that matter.
“I find it highly problematic when you try to brand a city around one word. In a way I think it was good when COP 15 (the United Nations Climate Conference) in Copenhagen (below, left) failed. It made everybody take a step back and think about this strategy.”
“Cities often cast themselves as brands. But cities are not Nike.”
“Sustainability” is one of the key words when cities proclaim their visions of “world class”. Reinmuth sees the issue of sustainability mostly as a “branding instrument”. The real issue is the reuse of the existing building stock, he argued, and showed some examples of work that his firm has done in that field.
Instead of aiming for “world class” and bringing in consultants to copy models from elsewhere, Reinmuth would like Stockholm and other cities to try to become “better versions of themselves”.
Do you have an example of a city that has managed to do that?
“I think Melbourne (in Australia) is an example of a city that has had the self confidence to build upon what it’s good at. It has been looking at itself, fixing what needs to be fixed instead of looking too much at other cities.”
Stockholm, like many other cities, is in the midst a big changes with huge urban development and infrastructure projects. There is a heated debate on how to preserve the beauty of the city in times of change.
This debate is often dominated by “nimbyism” and a reluctance to accept new ideas.
Several speakers at the seminar expressed a wish for more open mindedness. Thérèse Kristiansson and Annika Enqvist from a group called the New Beauty Council argued for an acceptance of varying concepts of beauty in the public realm.
Anders Wilhemson, a maverick architect who is no stranger to provocative ideas (he once presented an idea, see illustration below, where the housing shortage in Stockholm 2030 could be solved by placing 500 slim, 54-storey towers throughout the city), simply asked:
“Does the city have to be so huggable?”
Gerard Reinmuth also asked for a re-evaluation on what’s beautiful and what’s ugly, and put the issue in the interesting context of the multiculturalism that’s a fact of life in Stockholm and most other major cities today.
He urged everybody to stop “jamming people into your own model” as global migration changes the faces of cities. Instead Reinmuth suggested that cities help their people understand the added value migration brings, even when it changes the cityscape.
“Stockholm today is not like Stockholm 500 years ago. Should the clock have been stopped 500 years ago?” Reinmuth asked.
My mind wandered off to London, where I on a recent visit saw the famous mosque on Brick Lane (right). As the population of the district changed over the years, the building has been used as a Protestant chapel, a Methodist chapel, a synagogue and now it’s a mosque. The only controversy seems to be whether the new “minaret” attached to the building actually is a minaret or a “large steel art sculpture” as the local authorities see it.
Sweden and many other European countries may have a long way to go before accepting the multicultural urbanity Reinmuth advocates, which countries like Australia and Canada and cities like London and New York embraces.
“This fear of losing your own thing is just a lack of confidence. What you will get is an evolutionized version of Sweden”, said Reinmuth.
In a day full of thought-provoking ideas Jens Lanvin, a trend analyst from the Swedish communication consultancy Bodén & Co, put his finger on an important factor for the development of Stockholm’s future.
“Leadership is crucial for both the present and long term success of the city. This is difficult with the changes in politics that we regularly see. I wish we had a more long-term approach.”

Architect Anders Wilhelmson's idea of solving Stockholm's housing shortage.

Design and development, hand in hand

2010-05-25T06:20:00.002+02:00

HELSINKI/DESIGNING THE FUTURE. When the international magazine Monocle, a barometer of coolness, names Helsinki as one of the top five cities in the world the live in it’s a sign of the dramatic changes the Finnish capital has gone through.
Go back to the early 90’s and the image of the city was people lining up at soup kitchens for a free meal as Finland suffered through a deep economic crisis with a whopping 20 percent unemployment rate.
That’s when things began to change. City authorities forged a strategy where the strong Finnish traditions in design would be used as a lever to raise the city from the economic ruins.
Now Helsinki is getting ready to be World Design Capital (WDC) in 2012 and the international media is already focusing attention on this Finnish miracle (Monocle was said to be in town when I visited Helsinki last week).
“In 1994 the city decided on a strategy where creativity and culture would be worked into the city brand. Something new came into our thinking. And it has simply continued since then”, says Pekka Timonen, the City’s Director of Culture who now heads preparations for WDC 2012.
“Branding can sometimes be seen as controversial. But we have quite openly said that we aim to be one of the leading design cities of the world, and not only when we are World Design Capital but also after that year”, says Timonen.
Being World Design Capital is not an award, but a designation for a city chosen by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design biennially. Helsinki will be the third WDC, after Turin (2008) and Seoul (2010).
Pekka Timonen already has a busy schedule, not only with Helsinki’s own preparations but also with visiting delegations from cities that want to learn from the Finnish capital. Beijing and Kobe are just two of those, with their own ambitions to be chosen design capitals.
Visitors to Helsinki enjoy classic design products from companies like Iittala (glass), Arabia (china) and Marimekko (textiles), mobile phones from Nokia or architecture by giants like Alvar Aalto.
A part of the capital with plenty of small, independent shops now calls itself Design District Helsinki.
“The Design District is a grass roots movement”, says Timonen, and mentions it as one example of how the WDC-designatiion “didn’t come out of nowhere”.
Many leading Finnish companies, like Nokia, depend on good design for their success. And design is very much part of daily life in Finland. The theme for Helsinki’s bid for the WDC was “embedding design in life”.
“One reason why we were chosen was that we have a long background and tradition as a design city. Another was that design is so much a part of our identity. We have a way of finding sustainable, aesthetic, enjoyable and high quality solutions from often scarce and poor sources”, says Pekka Timonen (left).
“And this is not so easy to copy.”
But Finnish design is not only about a beautiful vase or a slick mobile phone. Helsinki has what Timonen calls a “holistic approach” towards design. Everything from a major urban development project to the little doorknob can be improved through design.
“Design is about creating a better city for the end user. There are design challenges everywhere. Traffic solutions, energy solutions and many other functions can be improved by design”, says Timonen.
In my following reports from Helsinki we will see how design has played an important role in Helsinki’s urban development.
This city with some 600,000 inhabitants is small by international standards. The extended metropolitan region has a population of about 1.3 million. Neighbouring cities Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and Lahti share the WDC-designation with Helsinki.
The region has experienced a dramatic geopolitical change that came when the Soviet empire crumbled in the early 90’s. All of a sudden Finland wasn’t an isolated island between east and west, carefully watched by the rulers in the Kremlin.
New markets opened up in the independent Baltic States, with Estonian capital Tallinn just a two hour ferry ride from Helsinki. And the Finnish capital became a gateway to the east. The national airline Finnair’s excellent connections to the booming urban giants of the Far East have become a success.
And these developments are far from over. By the end of this year, Helsinki will get a new high speed train connection with St. Petersburg in Russia. Travel time will be cut to three and a half hours, down from nearly six hours today, and formalities will be eased.
This is set to become another boost for Helsinki’s economy. St. Petersburg is the often forgotten sleeping giant of Europe, with nearly 5 million inhabitants the fourth largest city on the continent.
Pekka Timonen underlines that being World Design Capital 2012 will not be seen as a celebration of what Helsinki has achieved, but rather as a beginning of a new era.
“This designation is not only about what you are, but what you are capable of becoming. This is an operation for the future.”

This is the first in a series of reports from Helsinki. In the following stories we will look at ongoing and planned urban development on a massive scale.

Classic design; Helsinki Railway Station by Eliel Saarinen.

Design comes in all shapes and forms in the capital's Design District.

Politicians vie for "bicycle helmet liberals"

2010-05-24T18:17:00.001+02:00

STOCKHOLM. We’ve heard of “latte liberals”, those modern urbanites with a keen eye on the trend of the day.
I hadn’t heard of “bicycle helmet liberals” before I read Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter this morning, where the culture editor used the term to describe an urban class with an interest in making minimal ecological footprints.
These people, constantly growing in numbers as the Swedish capital becomes more like its bicycle crazy Danish counterpart Copenhagen, are becoming an important group in Stockholm as Sweden heads towards national and municipal elections later this year.
Svenska Dagbladet, the other Stockholm morning paper, ran a big story this weekend on how the city’s politicians are beginning to look for votes from the bicyclist with promises of improvements in biking conditions.
The number of bicyclists on Stockholm’s street have grown rapidly in the last couple of years and almost doubled in the past ten years. City authorities encourage this and would very much like Stockholm to have Copenhagen’s reputation as a bicycle capital.
But the bicycle scene in Stockholm is much more chaotic. The paper interviews Lena Maria Hagensen, a Stockholm resident who lived ten years in Copenhagen and can compare the two cities.
In the Danish capital, Hagensen says, the bicycle is a form of transport equal to cars.
“As a bicyclist in Stockholm you are downgraded. Car driver’s awareness of bicyclist is non-existent. In Copenhagen bicyclists and drivers communicate”, says Hagensen to Svenska Dagbladet.
Bicycle planning in Stockholm has many deficiencies that are pointed out in the story. Politicians from the opposition leftist and green parties promise more money for investments in bicycle lanes and other improvements.
When Swedes go to the polls in September we’ll see if this is enough to attract the “bicycle helmet liberals”.

Iconic stadium gets a facelift

2010-05-21T14:15:00.008+02:00

HELSINKI. It’s a classic stadium and one of the landmarks of this pleasant city. Now the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, used for the 1952 Summer Games, is getting a facelift to keep it up to date as a sports venue and preserve it as a symbol of elegant Finnish design.
Helsinki is beginning preparations for what might be the city’s biggest event since the Olympics when it becomes the World Design Capital in 2012. The Finnish capital has gone through a remarkable development since the gloomy days of the deep economic crisis of the early 1990s.
I just got back from a trip to Helsinki. Beginning next week, I will write a series of reports on how design has become a driving force in the development of the new Helsinki.
The Olympic Stadium is a must for every visitor to Helsinki. The stadium was originally built to host the 1940 Olympics, games that were never held due to World War II. It was designed by Finnish architects Yrjö Lindegren and Toivo Jäntti in a sleek, functionalistic style.
The 72-metre tower (above) ha become the symbol of the stadium. From the top of the tower visitors get a nice view of the city.
The Olympic Stadium has hosted two World Championships in athletics (track & field), in 1983 and 2005. This being a national sport of Finland, it’s only natural that a statue of former running giant Paavo Nurmi stands outside the stadium.
Right now the stadium is a bit of a construction site, as a new football pitch and a new running track are laid out. Later this year the tower will be renovated. The stadium will be back in use in August with a two-night concert with rock giants U2.
Helsinki is already full of old style posters advertising another milestone event that will take place in the stadium in February 2011, when the two local ice hockey clubs Jokerit and HIFK will meet in an outdoor game in front a of an expected capacity crowd of over 40,000 spectators.

Running giant Paavo Nurmi in front of the classic Olympic Stadium.

Water as an inspiration for architecture

2010-05-20T06:38:00.012+02:00

COPENHAGEN/CITY OF ARCHITECTURE. Kim Herforth Nielsen (below) only has to look out his office windows to see a source of inspiration for his architecture.
“The water in itself adds quality to this city”, he says of the extensive harbour front of Copenhagen that houses a lot of the city’s new architecture.
Danish architecture has risen to new heights over the past decade. Kim Herforth Nielsen’s firm 3XN is one of the standard-bearers in this wave of success that has reached far beyond the borders of tiny Denmark.
Copenhagen has become a center of creativity. Next to 3XN’s office in the pleasant Christianshavn district lies Noma, recently named the world’s best restaurant. The two are working together as the research department of 3XN is developing a food laboratory for Noma, to be placed on a house boat.
The connection to water is present in many 3XN projects. It’s definitely the theme for what is bound to be one of the firm’s signature buildings – the new Danish Aquarium called The Blue Planet (Den Blå Planet in Danish) that is being built just outside Copenhagen near Kastrup Airport.
In The Blue Planet water is the inspiration for everything, not least the shape of the building. Passengers on approaching flights will see a building that looks like swirling water when it’s finished in 2013.
Another of Copenhagen’s major building projects designed by 3XN will also define the city’s new waterfront. A new “UN City” that will house six United Nations local offices under one roof will be part of a spectacular development of Marmormolen on the inlet to Copenhagen’s harbour.
The star-shaped office complex is set to become one of the more significant buildings in a part of Copenhagen where the future is being shaped. Next door planning is under way to create a model for sustainable urban development at Nordhavnen (Northern Harbour) where eventually 40,000 people will live in a district that is meant to shape the future of city life.
“Nordhavnen clearly has qualities that can make it special”, says Kim Herforth Nielsen, whose visions for architecture have been in focus in Copenhagen the past months with a big exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre (left).
Titled “Mind Your Behaviour”, the exhibition (which closed May 13, but continues online here) deals with 3XN’s idea that architecture can shape people’s behaviour. In a number of projects on display the viewer gets a demonstration of how architecture affects behaviour.
One prominent example is the Ørestad College in the new Copenhagen city district with the same name. With open, flexible spaces permitting easy interaction, the building helps students work in line with the intentions of the Danish school system. A huge central staircase dominates the interior of the building, which is seen as revolutionary solution to the design of modern educational institutions.
Nearby a new 3XN-designed hotel complex, to be called Bella Sky (below, right) , is nearing completion. In an example of playful architecture, the two leaning towers of the hotel can be seen as a dancing couple.
3XN was originally founded as Nielsen, Nielsen and Nielson in Århus in Jutland in the Western part of Denmark. Now the firm under the leadership of Kim Herforth Nielsen has offices in Copenhagen and Århus.
Their work is described as “based on the Scandinavian tradition of functionality and aesthetics, although not bound by tradition”.
Kim Herforth Nielsen agrees with outgoing Copenhagen City Architect Jan Christiansen, interviewed earlier in this series of reports, in his view that Danish architecture has developed rapidly lately.
Ten years ago, when foreign architects were lured to Copenhagen through international competitions for prestigious projects, it gave inspiration to a Danish architecture that Kim Herforth Nielsen says was “frozen” to a standstill.
“Since then a lot of good things have been done here. Of course, some things have not been that good. Here at our office we have really seen a lot of development the past six years or so”, says Kim Herforth Nielsen.
He thinks the city’s high ambitions to be “world class” when it comes to architecture, outlined in a new architectural policy document, has helped the development of Danish architecture.
“After all, the talk of world class isn’t such a bad idea. Same thing goes for the architectural policy. Just the fact that we are talking about it is a good thing”, says Nielsen.

This is the fourth and final in a series of reports on architecture in Copenhagen.

The Blue Planet aquarium looks like swirling water from above.

The open spaces of the revolutionary Ørestad College.

The Saxo Bank headquarters, designed by 3XN, in Hellerup north of Copenhagen.

The "UN City" office complex will be a signature building on Copenhagen's waterfront.

A touch of Amsterdam in a Danish harbour

2010-05-19T07:11:00.012+02:00

COPENHAGEN/CITY OF ARCHITECTURE. When I ask outgoing Copenhagen City Architect Jan Christiansen to give an example of a successful new development in the Danish capital, he points enthusiastically at a series of photos.
The pictures show houses on canals with apartments that have direct access to the water and small boats tied to jetties. It could have been in Amsterdam, but this is Sluseholmen in the southern part of Copenhagen’s inner harbour.
“It’s like a modern version of Amsterdam, with the canals and blocks where the houses have different facades and scale that is Copenhagen. I think it turned out really well”, says Christiansen.
Others would beg to differ. Sluseholmen is one those new Copenhagen developments that have been accused of lacking life and deemed a failure. Many of the new apartments have remained unsold as they reached the market in the midst of a global financial crisis. When some were turned into rental flats instead, people have moved in and the area seems well populated.
As I tour Sluseholmen on a gloomy early spring day, with grey skies overhead, the place isn’t exactly full of life. But it’s easy to imagine the pleasant atmosphere on a warm summer day. And when you consider that this used to be an industrial wasteland, you can’t argue with the improvement the Sluseholmen development started in this part of the Danish capital.
When Sluseholmen was planned the City of Copenhagen brought in Dutch architects Soeters Van Eldonk from Amsterdam to create a master plan for their version of a new city on the water, together with Danish firm Arkitema. The model resembles the Java Island development in Amsterdam, also designed by Soeters van Eldonk, but Sluseholmen and its future surroundings are much bigger.
Most houses have direct contact with water. Manmade canals separate the blocks, which in turn are connected by several bridges. Twenty different architects were brought in to design the individual houses with varying facades reminiscent of old Copenhagen traditions.
Sluseholmen has some 1,300 apartments. In 2007 the first residents moved in. Now neighbouring Teglholmen is under construction as this part of Copenhagen expands.
A new bridge connecting the two developments is due to open early next year, which will improve communications for Sluseholmen. Now residents can take a ferry bus through the harbour to central Copenhagen, or walk to a regular bus stop that feels a little bit too far away for comfort.
As a further attraction next to Sluseholmen you can see an unusual residential building called Metropolis, described as a “futuristic fantasy”. The 40 metre tall building stands alone, surrounded by water as example of architectural playfulness with its round form, unusual balconies and windows. But not everybody likes it, since it’s a radical departure from Sluseholmen’s general architectural idea.
When Sluseholmen last year won a prestigious Danish urban design award, there was renewed debate on whether the development was a success or a failure. It led a resident who had lived there from the beginning to defend his new neighbourhood in an op-ed piece in daily Politiken.
“On Sluseholmen life and water join in a higher entity, as there are plenty of both”, concludes Troels Brücker, a librarian, his article.
City Architect Jan Christiansen, who leaves office in a few weeks after his ten-year tenure, sees Sluseholmen as a good example of the benefits of bringing in foreign architects to enrich the local urban landscape.
He doesn’t agree with those who fear that cities will all look the same as local leaders aspire after “world class” architecture for their cities.
“On the contrary. The foreign architects that have come here have been inspired by our city and are often better at reading the place than the domestic architects. You can skip the term world class, but when local and international goes hand in hand, that’s when it becomes interesting”, says Christiansen.

This is the second in a series of reports on architecture in Copenhagen. Tomorrow we’ll meet one of Denmark’s star architects.

Amsterdam of the north; the canals of Sluseholmen in Copenhagen.

Metropolis, a "futuristic fantasy" on the water.

The courtyards of Sluseholmen are open to enter.

Preserving character in times of change

2010-05-18T05:51:00.008+02:00

COPENHAGEN/CITY OF ARCHITECTURE. If you go to denmark.dk, the official website of the Danish state, and click on the “at a glance” presentation of the country you’ll find architecture as one of the first subjects (followed by design).
This is a place where architecture has risen to become a leading asset for the country, and nowhere is that more visible than in the capital Copenhagen.
The past ten years has seen a spectacular transformation of the Danish capital and Jan Christiansen (below right) has had the time of his life overseeing it all. In a few weeks, Christiansen’s ten-year appointment as Copenhagen’s City Architect comes to an end.
He leaves office with a recently approved new architectural policy for the city in place and a long list of interesting projects either completed or under way.
“The past ten years have been remarkable, not because of me but because of all the things that have happened here”, says Christiansen when I meet him for an interview in his office near the city’s regenerated inner harbour.
Copenhagen has in the past ten years seen the rise of a number of prominent new cultural buildings, new city districts, a transformed waterfront and pleasant urban spaces. Not everything has been a success and there is a lively debate on the quality of some of the projects. The financial crisis has also put some developments on hold and left many new apartments unsold.
But it has also given architecture and urban development in general a prominent position on the local and national agenda.
Three years ago the Danish government adopted a national architectural policy. The aim was to give governmental support to architectural quality in a broad perspective, from the small suburban house to urban planning, education and global marketing.
One result of this can be seen at the ongoing Expo 2010 in Shanghai, where the Danish pavilion designed by young starchitect Bjarke Ingels is one the most frequently mentioned in the reports from the fair.
Ingels and his BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) is one of the 20 leading Danish architecture firms presented on denmark.dk, many of whom have risen to international fame in the past decade. Stars of the past like Arne Jacobsen and Jørn Utzon have many followers as Denmark seems to strengthen its position in international architecture.
“In Bjarke Ingels we now have a young architect who is revolutionizing the art of building. Architecture has definitely developed. The top 10-20 firms in Denmark are becoming sharper and sharper”, says Jan Christiansen.
The new architectural policy (Arkitekturby København – Archictecture City Copenhagen) is part of Christiansen’s legacy as he now prepares to leave office. The policy, adopted by the City Council late last year, has four main themes – character, architecture, urban spaces and processes.
“This policy is more thorough than the one we had before, but in my opinion it’s not thorough enough. Therefore we will continue to develop methods for analysis that we can use in our work with detailed plans”, says Christiansen.
The idea is not to have a legally binding document that demands certain things from developers. Christiansen points out that architecture is a form of art and you can’t have a law determining what art is good or not.
It’s more about giving architects a chance to make a difference in the creation of the future Copenhagen.
“My goal has been to have good architecture in Copenhagen. You only get that if you use the best architects, either through competitions or workshops. Ten years ago we hade three or four architecture competitions a year, now we have 50 competitions and workshops”, says Christiansen.
Part of the policy has also been to promote young architects, which probably has added to the rise of new talents in Copenhagen.
Jan Christiansen and the policy document talks a lot about Copenhagen’s character as something that shall be strengthened trough both preservation and development. That character is defined by the small scale of the city, the towers rising above the generally low-rise cityscape and the extensive harbour front.
A number of new urban spaces have been created, most notably along the old harbour front
on Islands Brygge outside Christiansen’s office. On a sunny summer day hundreds of Copenhageners flock here to enjoy the sun and swim in the harbour waters.
“The urban spaces are very much part of Copenhagen’s character. It’s fantastic that we now can swim in the harbour”, says Christiansen.
The clean water is such a source of pride for Copenhagen that enough of it to fill a large pool was shipped to Shanghai as part of the Danish pavilion.
As we look at photos of new developments Christiansen points out how modern architecture delivers new versions of traditional Copenhagen features, like the pointed balconies on BIG’s hailed VM-houses (above left) in the otherwise often criticized Ørestad development (read more here and here).
Ørestad was planned to become the “new European city” with excellent public transportation, cutting-edge architecture and closeness to green parklands. But a giant shopping mall has been blamed for killing street life and the master plan left buildings standing too far away from each other. The feeling of desolation has been enhanced by the halt of construction due to the financial crisis.
“I understand the debate and I often take part in it myself. Parts of Ørestad need to be densified. But I think part of the criticism is unfair. Ørestad has only been around for ten years. Building a great city takes great architects, good land and 200-300 years. Give it time and I think Ørestad will become a great city district”, says Jan Christiansen.
He now packs his bags and moves on to teaching and research. Ten years in the center of Copenhagen’s architectural scene has given him material for a lifetime.

This is the first in series of reports on architecture in Copenhagen. Tomorrow we’ll look at how foreign influences are brought in and given a Danish touch.

Cultural gems; the Royal Danish Playhouse (2008), left, and the Opera (2004).

Creative architecture; the 8-houses by Bjarke Ingels Group.

Enjoying a summer day in the old harbour on Islands Brygge.

Danish bikes at Expo a security risk

2010-05-17T15:41:00.002+02:00

COPENHAGEN. The Danish pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai was meant to demonstrate how pleasant life can be in a green, sustainable city like Copenhagen.
Fresh water from the city’s harbour was shipped to Shanghai to show the Chinese that it’s clean enough to swim in. And 250 of the famous Copenhagen city bikes, that visitors to the Danish Capital can use for free to explore the city, were brought in as a central feature of the pavilion.
But the bicycles remain locked up since they turned out to be a security risk for the Chinese visitors, reports the Ritzau news agency in the Danish newspaper Information. Several visitors have crashed with the bikes that have no hand brakes, just foot brakes which the Chinese are not used to.
A 56-year-old Chinese man who broke his leg is considering suing the Danish pavilion, according to the report.
Except for bike-problem, the high profile Danish pavilion designed by young architect Bjarke Ingels has been a success with 20,000 visitors daily and a lot of coverage in international press.

Debate over public transit investments

2010-05-14T12:01:00.005+02:00

STOCKHOLM-COPENHAGEN. A new tram/streetcar network and a significant expansion of the metro system are signs of visionary investments in public transportation in the Swedish and Danish capitals.
But these are expensive investments and now fears of cost overruns are raised in both cities.
In Stockholm the new Spårväg City (Streetcar City) is taking shape in front of prestigious department store NK on Hamngatan (left), one of the main shopping streets. Rails are in place and in August traffic is expected to begin between Hamngatan and the popular recreational area on Djurgården.
Spårväg City will mark the return of tram/streetcars in central Stockholm. The old network was dismantled in the late 1960’s when the first parts of an extensive metro system were opened.
The Social Democrats, who are in opposition in Stockholm’s City Hall, have called the streetcars a waste of tax payer’s money. According to daily Dagens Nyheter, the Social Democrats now claim that the project is already costing more than expected and that new money has been set aside for the cost overruns.
Spårväg City is planned to eventually connect the western edges of inner Stockholm to a new development on the eastern edge of the city.
In Copenhagen the relatively new metro system is being expanding with a new ring line expected to be opened in 2018. The modern, driver-less metro (right) has been a success and was earlier this year named the best metro in the world.
But according to daily Politiken, experts now see sign that there is a risk for delays and cost overruns in the project. A representative of the Danish construction industry says that an old-fashioned bidding model for the project will lead to conflicts with higher costs and delays as a result.

The changing face of American cities

2010-05-13T07:13:00.000+02:00

URBAN TRENDS. Cities in the United States are usually grouped together geographically. We have East Coast or West Coast Cities, Sun Belt or Rust Belt cities, Midwest or New England cities.
Now the Brookings Institution has found a new way to look at this. In its new State of Metropolitan America report, released yesterday, Brookings identifies seven categories of metropolitan areas based on their population growth rates, their levels of racial and ethnic diversity, and the rates at which their adults have earned college degrees.
Together these indicators say more about the metropolitan areas than their geographic location.
These are the categories of metro areas found in the study:
Next frontier: Cities like Seattle, Dallas, Houston and Washington, D.C., where population growth, diversity, and educational attainment exceed national averages.
New Heartland: Also fast growing with high education levels, but lower shares of immigrant populations. Examples: Atlanta, Columbus (Ohio), Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Portland (Oregon).
Diverse giants: Features some of the largest metro areas in the country, like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami, with above-average diversity and educational attainment, but below-average population growth.
Border growth: Mostly in the southwestern border states, cities like Phoenix, San Antonio and Las Vegas, with a significant presence of Hispanic immigrants, many less skilled.
Mid-Sized Magnet: Similar to the Border Growth centers, but with lower shares of ethnic minorities. Examples: Tampa, Oklahoma City, Chattanooga (Tennessee).
Skilled Anchor: Slow-growing, less diverse metro areas with higher-than average levels of educational attainment, cities like Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore and Cincinnati.
Industrial Core: Largely older industrial center that are seen as demographically disadvantaged, cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland.
After the tumultuous 2000s decade, the United States now faces a series of “new realities”, according to the Brookings study. Major cities are at the front lines of these dynamics and Brookings new way of looking at the metropolitan map of America shows how these challenges affect the country’s major cities.

A touch of Sweden on classic English territory

2010-05-12T06:57:00.002+02:00

LONDON/SNAPSHOTS OF CHANGE. Standing in the courtyard of Forum House, the first in a series of new residential buildings next to Wembley Stadium, things feel distinctly familiar.
The balconies of the building, the bike sheds and the portals to the high-tech waste management system, it all looks very much like the Hammarby Sjöstad district just outside of central Stockholm.
And that’s why I’m here, of course.
I wanted to see an example of ideas that have spread from the Swedish showcase of modern urban development, through the many study groups that have visited Hammarby Sjöstad over the past decade.
Representatives of Quintain Estates and Developers, a British developer with a strong interest in sustainability, made the trips on several occasions during the planning process of Wembley City, one of London’s most modern residential districts now under construction next to the iconic Wembley Stadium.
“There were many lessons that we have learned from trips to Stockholm, and other cities as well,” says Julian Tollast, Head of Design Development at Quintain, when I meet him later at the company headquarters in central London.
“What’s interesting with Hammarby Sjöstad is trying to get an understanding of what has worked both in public realm design and in building design, and also the management of public realm buildings and how that is then explained to the wider audience,” says Julian Tollast.
One of the things that caught the interest of the visiting Quintain delegation in Hammarby Sjöstad was the vacuum waste disposal system designed and installed by the Swedish company Envac. I’ll get back to that.
Tollast shows me a series of photos from his visits to Stockholm; front doors, mail boxes, balconies, more balconies (“I get sadly obsessed”, he admits with laughter).
“Design development can add value, and not just financial value, but also social, economic and environmental value at all scales from district to doorknob”, he explains.
It’s a beautiful spring day when I take the Bakerloo line tube westwards to Wembley Central, a 20 minute ride from central London. A ten minute walk through this ethnically mixed neighbourhood takes me to the giant, new Wembley Stadium, opened in 2007 with seats for 90,000 spectators.
The arch above the stadium is a new landmark that the world will learn to know in the summer of 2012, when parts of the Olympic Games will be held here. Wembley Stadium could also be the scene for the 2018 football (soccer) World Cup, if the English bid is successful.
The new stadium is just one part of the regeneration of Wembley. Quintain’s project covers the area around the stadium and the new Wembley City will ultimately hold over 4,000 homes, hotels, shops, restaurants, offices and new public spaces like the Arena Square between the stadium and the refurbished indoor Wembley Arena.
Forum House, the first of the residential buildings, was completed in 2008. Quadrant Court (right), the second building, is nearing completion. Next in line is a student home, a hotel and a designer outlet. The project might run another 15-20 years before it’s completed.
The symbol of Quintain’s sustainability ambitions is the Envac waste management system, the first to be installed in the United Kingdom. The system allows Quintain to maximise space use and minimise carbon emission through unnecessary traditional waste collection.
Rubbish is now collected at one central collection station, which through underground pipes receives waste from the buildings in the neighbourhood.
Julian Tollast and his colleagues were inspired by what they saw as “clever touches” when they visited Hammarby Sjöstad.
“The Envac portals are part of the public realm, together with the bike sheds. It’s a simple detail. You walk out in the morning with your rubbish, little and often, and then you hop on your bike”, says Tollast.
The Envac scheme fits well with Quintain’s environmental profile. CEO Adrian Wyatt pushed for the waste management system, wanting to look beyond the initial costs for the investment. Now people choose Wembley City partly because of the environmental profile.
Julian Tollast sees Hammarby Sjöstad as an inspiration, and now ideas will spread further through the Wembley City development.
“Yes, I think so. Because now Wembley City is becoming a place that people want to come and see.”

This is the fourth and final glimpse at the ongoing regeneration of London.

Classic territory; living next to Wembley Stadium.

Copyright: Quintain Estates and Development
Wembley City as it might look in the future. Forum House to the far right.

Forum House and the waste management system from Envac.

Housing shortage hampers Stockholm's growth

2010-05-11T07:04:00.002+02:00

STOCKHOLM. In a new regional development plan expected to be adopted by the County Council assembly today, Stockholm sets the ambitious goal to become Europe’s most attractive metropolitan region.
But the plan, called RUFS 2010, lists a number of challenges on the way to realizing that vision. One of the big obstacles will be the acute shortage of housing that hampers the growth of Sweden’s capital region.
There are plenty of statistics that illustrate the problem. RUFS 2010 expects Stockholm County, which today has just over 2 million inhabitants, to grow with more than 22,000 inhabitants yearly up to 2030. That’s probably a low estimate, considering that the population of Stockholm County grew by almost 38,000 in 2009.
In an exhibition in central Stockholm (right), visitors can view a model of the City of Stockholm (one of 26 municipalities in Stockholm County). The model shows plans for new development projects. A lot of new housing is in the pipeline, but far from what is needed especially if you look at it on the regional level.
An estimated 13,200 new homes per year are needed in Stockholm County (for a population growth of 22,000). Last year construction began on 5,100 homes, according to the Stockholm County Administration Board. This year the figure is expected to be 7,400.
The Property Federation (Fastighetsägarna) in Stockholm released a study a few months ago that illustrates the problem in a different manner. The study compares how long it takes to find and sign a contract for a small (40 square meters) rental apartment in eight European capitals.
In six of the cities in the study – Oslo, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Brussels, Madrid and Berlin – you could find an apartment immediately. In Amsterdam it would take you one to five week.
For Stockholm the figure was a shocking 307 weeks.
When OECD did a study of Stockholm in its Territorial Reviews series four years ago the housing shortage was pointed out as one of the main problems for the continued growth of the region. Not much has changed since then
Depending on whom you ask, the slow pace of construction in the Stockholm region is explained by a number of reasons from complicated planning processes and high costs to lack of competition in the building sector.
The political blame game is gaining speed as Sweden heads for national and municipal elections in September. The housing shortage will, as usual, be a hot issue in Stockholm.

Turning grey elephants into bright castles

2010-05-10T06:30:00.009+02:00

LONDON/SNAPSHOTS OF CHANGE. When you exit the Elephant & Castle tube station south of river Thames in London you have a choice of interesting views.
If you like grey, there are some of the ugliest buildings anywhere right here. Right outside the exit you’ll see a hideous shopping centre. Across the street is a huge, Communist style apartment building. Both are going to be demolished, the apartment building soon and the shopping centre later.
As you turn around you’ll see the future in the shape of a skyscraper that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Further down the street there are some new buildings, shockingly colourful compared to the initial greyness.
Elephant & Castle is one of many London neighbourhoods that will never win an urban beauty contest.
But Elephant & Castle is also the name used for a widespread regeneration scheme set in motion by the Southwark council in 2004 aimed at making this area the urban hub of inner south London.
The project shot to fame a year ago when former U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that Elephant & Castle would be one of 17 development projects worldwide in a new Climate Positive Development Program supported by his foundation. The project was hailed as a global example for sustainable growth by the former president.
Unlike most other redevelopment projects, the Elephant & Castle scheme is scattered over a rather large area and comes in all shapes and forms. It will create a new urban centre with pedestrian streets, boulevards, squares and green spaces as well thousands of new homes.
The plans calls for completion of the project by 2014, but as far as I understand there will be delays due to the troubled economy.
I began my walking tour of the area at the Heygate Estate, a now empty apartment building of gigantic proportions that soon will be torn down to give way for new housing. This social housing project will be replaced by a mix of social and private-sector housing.
On Wansey Street, a short walk from Heygate Estate, stands a colourful new residential building in sharp contrast the old, grey giants next to it. Other new residential developments along the raised railroad tracks have added new life to the area.
But wherever you turn, you end up looking at the 148-metre skyscraper that will symbolize the climate-friendly initiatives of the Elephant & Castle regeneration program. “The Razor”, or the Strata tower (left) as the building is officially known, is crowned by three giant holes where 9-metre wind turbines will provide energy for the building’s 400-plus apartments.
The wind turbines will contribute eight percent of the building’s energy needs and could be seen as a symbolic feature on an energy-efficient construction where energy costs are expected to be 40 percent lower than Britain’s typical housing average.
The Strata is also in line with the British government’s new regulations that demand that all new buildings be zero-carbon by 2019.
By then, Elephant & Castle could stand as an example of how an old, failed urban landscape can be turned into a model for modern, smart city living.

This is the third in a series of glimpses at the ongoing regeneration of London.

The Strata towers over Elephant & Castle as a symbol of sustainable ambitions.

The economy has slowed down construction at Elephant & Castle.

Grey giants like the Heygate Estate will be demolished and...

...replaced by colourful houses like these on Wansey Street.

Gasworks to become cluster for culture

2010-05-07T09:53:00.005+02:00

STOCKHOLM. Sweden’s next showcase for sustainable urban development, the Stockholm Royal Seaport in the outskirts of the capital, will also become a cluster for culture and entertainment.
The plans have been discussed for several years, but yesterday it was announced that the City of Stockholm will invest some 170 million Swedish Crowns (17 million Euro) in the project. An old gasworks (right) designed by famous architect Ferdinand Boberg more than a hundred years ago will be turned into a centre for culture and entertainment. The main stage will host international events in several art forms, from opera and ballet to concerts and contemporary circus.
The scene is expected to be opened in 2013, but there have been delays in the prestigious development.
Stockholm Royal Seaport (called Norra Djurgårdstaden in Swedish) is one of only 17 urban development projects world wide to be part of a new Climate Positive Development Program set up by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his foundation (read more here).
Work is beginning on the first part of the development. When it is finished it will house 30,000 residents just a few minutes away from central Stockholm.

From gasworks to artworks; a new scene for culture in the Swedish capital.

A "dysfunctional" valley comes to life

2010-05-06T07:16:00.008+02:00

LONDON/SNAPSHOTS OF CHANGE. The Lower Lea Valley might sound like a nice place, at least if you picture it as a green landscape with a quiet river flowing through it.
It’s nothing like that.
This part of east London is about as ugly as urban landscape can get. Industrial sites, dull housing, roads and railroads cover the “valley” leading south towards the Thames River. Not even a footpath called the Greenway will lift your spirits.
Things don’t improve much when you come to Canning Town, one of the urban centres of this forgotten stretch of the vast metropolis called London.
But all this is about to change.
The Lower Lea Valley is one of the focal points for the regeneration of east London. And thanks to the London Olympic Games 2012, things are done at a quicker pace than would have been the case otherwise.
I boarded the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) at Bank station in central London for a tour of parts of the city that is expected to see much development in the decades to come. This is where city authorities see the potential for future growth of London within existing borders.
In 2004 the government established London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC) to tackle what it called the “dysfunctional areas” in the Lower Lea Valley and London Riverside that were unlikely to realise their potential without significant intervention.
A year later London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games and many plans had their timelines drastically shortened.
Some 35,000 new homes are now being planned for the Lower Lea Valley, which stretches south from the Olympic Park in Stratford. Another 33,000 homes are planned for locations further east along the Thames.
First stop of my tour is Canning Town, where work is under way in making way for a new town centre opposite the transport interchange with the DLR, underground and buses. Retail, leisure, office and community space, and more than 1,200 residential units, will change the place completely.
Later this year a new stretch of the DLR (left) between Canning Town and Stratford will open, adding further to the improvement of this part of London.
A short walk from Canning Town you can find one of many examples of the ongoing development of old harbour front and riverside locations at the Royal Victoria Dock, with residences, hotels and a huge convention centre.
I see more of that as I make a side trip to the London City Airport, where business travellers from Canary Wharf in the Docklands are whisked out of London.
I finish my excursion with a trip up and down the Lower Lea Valley to Stratford and back. There isn’t much to see yet of the green landscape this will be when the stretches along the waterways have been cleaned and landscaped in time for the Olympics.
But the plans look nice as this part of London moves towards dramatic changes.

This is the second in a series of glimpses at the ongoing regeneration of London.

Needs fixing; landscape in the Lower Lea Valley.

Tearing down the old to build a new Canning Town.

Modern housing on the old docks at Royal Victoria.

Stratford gets ready to welcome the world

2010-05-05T13:49:00.009+02:00

LONDON/SNAPSHOTS OF CHANGE. You take the Docklands Light Railway to Pudding Mill Lane, follow the signs through the outskirts of the construction site and after a short walk the panoramic view opens up.
This is the place that three years from now will be the centre of the universe, at least for 17 days while the 2012 Summer Olympic Games are held here at Stratford in the long forgotten eastern part of London.
It took us a while to get here. We went to Stratford expecting signs that would take us to The View Tube, a recently opened outlook where you can see the future Olympic Park that will host the main events of the 2012 Games.
Nobody seemed to have heard about the The View Tube, but after some wandering we found the place. The view is excellent. There is a small café in the building and a little exhibition outside.
The Olympic Park with its sports facilities, the Olympic Village and a huge shopping centre will be the symbol of a massive regeneration of parts of east London, now being done at a hectic pace to be ready by the summer of 2012. It is also the starting point of wider regeneration that will go on for many years beyond the Olympics mostly eastwards along the Thames River.
Construction at the Olympic Park is said to be on schedule. The Olympic Stadium will seat 80,000 during the Games. Afterwards it will be scaled down to a sports stadium seating 25,000 spectators. There has been talk of the stadium as the future home of the West Ham football club.
The other main building to be seen from The View Tube is the Aquatics Centre, design by Zaha Hadid. After some cutbacks in the original plans, the Aquatics Centre is also on schedule.
In the distance you can the ongoing construction of the Olympic Village that will house some 23,000 athletes and officials during the Games. After the Games the dormitories will be converted into 2,800 homes.
Next to the Olympic Stadium construction will soon begin on the ArcelorMittal Orbit, artist Anish Kapoor’s 115-metre twisting steel sculpture/tower that is expected the future attraction of th Olympic Park.
At Stratford centre the new Stratford International train station will be the hub for communications during the Olympics and part of great improvements of public transportation in the part of London.
This will also be home of the new Westfield shopping centre, one of the main components of the new Stratford.
Leading up to the Olympic site, Stratford High Street is the scene for a lot of ongoing and residential development (left). The final six kilometres of the Olympic marathon will be run along this street, which today has a lot of traffic running through nondescript neighbourhoods.
Some new residential buildings are already up and more are under way. Proposals for construction along Stratford High Street could lead to the arrival of 20,000 new residents to this part of London in the future.
There has been discussion on the qualities of the ongoing regeneration of east London. In a recent report to the London Assembly it was said that the 2012 Olympics may not live up to its promised legacy.
The report warned that the Olympic Park may become “an island of prosperity, cut off from the surrounding community”.
Future will tell.

This is the first of a series of glimpses of the ongoing regeneration of London.

On schedule; the Olympic Stadium seen from The View Tube.

Viewing the future of Stratford; the Olympic Park as it will look in 2012.

Ongoing construction along Stratford High Street in east London.

New Metro line hailed, despite messy streets

2010-05-04T06:50:00.008+02:00

COPENHAGEN. People in the Danish capital will have to endure some messy streets the next eight years, while a new circular Metro line is being constructed. Work is now under way in several locations and visitors to the city will have to expect disturbances.
Guests at luxury Hotel D’Angleterre, the city’s premier hotel, will have a view of a construction site on Kongens Nytorv in front of the hotel for quite some time.
To compensate for this, they can visit at a new multimedia installation called “The Wall” on Kongens Nytorv, where you take an interactive tour through the history of Copenhagen on a giant plasma screen.
At “The Wall” results of the ongoing extensive archaeological excavations in connection with construction of the new Metro will also be presented. Visitors to “The Wall” are also invited to write comments and upload their own photos and films of Copenhagen.
This diversion might help people forget some of the construction mess, but the Copenhageners in general seem to take the disturbances in stride. They are happy for the new Metro and even voted it “Plan of the Year” in daily newspaper Politiken recently.
“A step closer to an underground like in big cities like London or Paris! A brilliant plan with an extension of public transportation in the midst of all talk of climate change and environmental consciousness. Now both nature and people will be happier”, wrote one reader in a comment to the Metro plan.
Copenhagen is, however, a long way from having a big city Metro system. The Copenhagen Metro, which first opened in 2002, now consists of only two lines and 22 stations. The new circular Metro line, which actually will consist of two lines, will add another 17 stations and great improvements in Copenhagen public transportation.
The new Metro will improve connections at the Central Station and along popular tourist routes. It will also make travel much easier between several parts of the city when it opens in 2018.
There have been some protests against locations of some of the new stations, for instance on the outskirts of the famous Assistens cemetery where some graves are being moved to give place for a new station.
The Copenhagen Metro is clean and has a fleet of modern, driver-less trains. It was recently awarded the title “World’s Best Metro” at an international event for the underground travel industry.

Messy streets, a price Copenhagen pays for a extended Metro service.

Viewing Copenhagen's history on "The Wall".

Bicycle parking given high priority

2010-05-03T10:04:00.004+02:00

COPENHAGEN. A lot of cities would like to be like Danish capital Copenhagen, where more than a third of all commuting to and from work and school is done on bicycle. The city even has more bicycles than inhabitants, according to estimates.
But the success for bicycling in Copenhagen and other cities like Amsterdam for instance, creates a challenge for city planners.
Where to find parking spaces for all those bikes?
A couple of months ago I wrote about a report in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, where the situation for bicycle parking in Amsterdam and other cities in the Netherlands was described as a mess. In Amsterdam new bicycle parking spaces near the Central Station will be constructed in the coming years, enough to accommodate 10,000 bikes. But authorities estimate that 16,000 spaces will be needed by 2020.
Walking around in Copenhagen, as I did last week, you see bicycles everywhere. Near the Central Station and other important communication hubs there are bikes piled on top of each other.
Along sidewalks parked bikes, often leaning against signs saying that bike-parking is forbidden, create problems for pedestrians and shop keepers.
Copenhagen is known as the best city in the world for bicycling, and city planners are of course aware of the bike parking problem.
In the new City Plan, adopted late last year, ambitions for improvement are spelled out. Here is what’s required at all new developments:
At least 50 percent of all bicycle parking spaces should be covered, either in sheds or as an integrated part of the building.
Housing: 2.5 bike parking spaces are required for every 100 square metres of living area, or alternatively 2.5 parking spaces per housing unit. At student dorms 4 spaces per 100 square metres of housing is required.
Work places: 0.5 bike parking spaces per employee at offices, or 1.5 spaces per 100 square metres of office space.
Educational institutions: 0.5 bike parking spaces per student and employee.
Shops etc: 3 bike parking spaces per 100 square metres of shop area plus 0.5 spaces per employee.
At the same time the City has the ambition to make parking spaces for cars less available in the city centre and at new developments with good public transportation, in order to reduce commuting by car.

Parking garage, Copenhagen style.

Russian president gets green welcome

2010-04-30T15:14:00.004+02:00

COPENHAGEN. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Danish capital Copenhagen earlier this week, and as usual the Danes took the opportunity to demonstrate their ambition to be the climate capital of the world.
President Medvedev was taken on a tour of the city’s first public carbon neutral building, the so called Green Lighthouse on the University of Copenhagen campus.
I also spent the week in Copenhagen, doing interviews for my project on the Nordic capitals. I will write a series of blog reports from the Danish capital in the next couple of weeks.
On my way from one new development to another, I jumped off the buss to get a glimpse of the Green Lighthouse (right) on a quiet backyard near the busy Tagensvej. The CO2-neutral building, which opened late last year in time for the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen, has become one of the symbols of the city’s green ambitions.
The round building stands as an example of what sustainable construction of the future can look like. When it was opened last year, a representative of the university said that the building isn’t an example of “rocket science” but rather of “common sense”.
Three quarters of the energy savings in the building are obtained by its design, for instance an optimal use of sun light. The building is positioned for maximum use of the sun for heating and light. Automatic systems for heating, cooling and ventilation keep energy use at a minimum.
The Green Lighthouse is a public-private venture meant to serve as an example for Danish developers of how they can contribute to Copenhagen’s ambition to become the world’s first carbon neutral capital.
The building is used as a student service center.

President Dmitry Medvedev (right) on a tour of the Green Lighthouse.

Iconic buildings in the shadow of each other

2010-04-29T06:12:00.000+02:00

LONDON. Every city wants an iconic building that becomes a well-known trademark around the world. A big city usually has several, many of them historical buildings that have been around for ages.
For the past 10-20 years architects have, with the assistance of new computer technology, been able to outdo each other in their ambition to secure the iconic label with buildings that twist and turn in mindboggling ways.
On the way back to my hotel in London recently, I stopped to look at a big hole in the ground where one such building is under way.
It’s called The Pinnacle and it will spiral 287 meters towards the sky in London’s financial district, a few blocks from Liverpool Street Station.
This is how the architect, Kohn Pedersen Fox, describes the project:
“The tower’s complex tapered geometry – resolved through advanced computational parametric modelling – comprises inwardly planar surfaces, which are linked by conical surfaces.”
Looking at images (see below) of the future tower, you could also describe it like this:
Take a piece of thick, triangular paper, roll it tightly together and raise it like an imaginary tower.
The Pinnacle will dominate the skyline and overshadow what is now the symbol of London’s financial district – Norman Foster’s “the Gherkin” (right) from 2004. That is of course not the real name of the building, which is usually known as 30 St Mary Axe after its address.
This 180-metre circular tower must be one the most beautiful tall buildings in the world, but it now runs the risk of being dwarfed by other, taller buildings.
These are, by the way, interesting streets to walk around if you like to see unusual buildings. Just a short stroll from “the Gherkin” you’ll find the Lloyd’s Building (left) from 1986, one these “inside-out” buildings (think Pompidou Centre in Paris).
It’s hard to take your eyes off this building, designed by Richard Rogers. Like a shining factory in the midst of strict office buildings it stands out not because of height but because its peculiarity.
Pipes, tubes, ladders and lifts run on the outside of the building. It shows the anatomy of a building deprived of its protective skin.
The Pinnacle will face tough competition in these neighbourhoods. Size will not guarantee victory in the coming architectural beauty contest.

30 St Mary Axe will be dwarfed by taller neighbours.

The Pinnacle, swirling towards the sky, will dominate London's skyline.

The Lloyd's Building is one of the most unusual in London.

US cities getting ready for streetcars

2010-04-28T07:04:00.004+02:00

TRANSPORTATION. On Wikipedia it’s called The Great American streetcar scandal (a k a The General Motors streetcar conspiracy), the history of how many American cities lost there streetcars some 50 years ago.
According to these theories it was a scheme by General Motors together with a tire company and two oil companies, all with interests in an expanded dependency on automobiles, that brought down public transportation in many American cities.
With the American automobile industry in crisis, streetcars now seem ready for a comeback in cities across the United States. New Urban News reports that 22 cities around the country now have plans for streetcar lines that could go into construction within two years, all thanks to new policies introduced by the Obama Administration.
This will of course not happen without discussions and political fights.
The Washington Post writes about protests against plans for an extensive streetcar network in the U.S. capital. Work has already begun on parts of the system and streetcars made in the Czech Republic (left) have been bought.
But protesters claim that wires and poles for the streetcars would be ugly intrusions to the grand vistas of this magnificent center of power. To their support they have an 1889 law that bans overhead wires in the historic city, according to the Washington Post.
This could slow the implementation of the streetcar network and increase its cost.
But the Post argues that this is the time for Washington, D.C., to take the lead and inspire other American cities to introduce quiet and pollution-free public transportation like streetcars.
“But the deeper issue here is Washington’s relation to the nation. Do we want to preserve the early 20th-century sense of ourselves as a grand, imperial city that overawes tourists? Or do we want to be a model city for the 21st century, a place where visitors from across the country and around the world can be inspired by innovative experiments in sustainable urban life?”, asks the newspaper.
The plans in Washington call for so called “hybrid” streetcars that run on batteries through sensitive areas where there would be no overhead wires that interfere with the views. But most of the 60-km network would have the wires.
Portland, Oregon, has long been a leader in sustainable urban development in the United States and has an extensive streetcar network. Now major cities like Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta are planning for streetcars, as well as smaller cities like Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Tracks on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1962, the year streetcar service stopped in Washington.

Celebrating 100 – with a few questions

2010-04-27T06:52:00.009+02:00

This blog saw first light a hundred days ago. It began as a spin-off from a project I’m working on where I look at the Nordic capitals and their ambitions to be leaders in modern urban development.
Now I’m getting obsessed. We are in the midst of an era of dramatic development in many cities around the world, and I hadn’t fully realized the proportions of this. One expert described these changes as the biggest since the end of World War II.
I just got back from London, where I saw some of the huge regeneration projects going on as the city gets ready for the Olympic Games 2012 (the person to the right is me in front of the Olympic stadium in Stratford).
There will be a series of reports on this in the blog later on.
Stockholm and Copenhagen, two of the cities in my project, compete to be known as the most climate-friendly and liveable cities in the world. Oslo is working on a facelift of historic proportions and in Helsinki they say the city is going through the biggest changes in a hundred years.
I was supposed to have spent last week in the Finnish capital, but all flights were cancelled due to the ash cloud from Iceland. Perhaps I was being punished for not including Reykjavik in my project. I’ll go to Helsinki a few weeks from now instead.
Old harbour fronts and derelict industrial sites are being redeveloped as many cities grow within their present borders. Ambitions are raised when it comes to urban planning and architecture, with mixed results.
No project is presented without the word sustainable included in its description.
This trend can be seen all over Europe. In some places it’s done on a huge scale, like in Hamburg where the HafenCity development will be crowned by an iconic new concert hall (left). Some times it’s on a smaller scale, like the harbour front development where I live west of Stockholm.
In the United States the debate is growing over how to end suburban sprawl and create lively, sustainable urban centres instead.
During a trip to the American Midwest in October last year I saw this going on even in places like Fort Wayne, Indiana, where spent a year as an exchange student a long time ago. It was very encouraging.
Writing this blog has just been an experiment to see if anybody would read it. I haven’t done much to spread the word about it.
When I go to Google Analytics (a great tool for bloggers!) for the statistics, I’ve been encouraged to see that I have a small but rather steady group of readers spread out in some 60 countries in all parts of the world.
I’ve had a little over 1,000 unique visitors, which isn’t a lot. But more interesting is that many of these visitors seem to come back regularly and spend enough time on blog to read my stories.
So now I’m getting curious. Who are you?
Who’s the regular visitor(s) in Virginia that spend an average of more than five minutes on the blog each visit? Who in Cambridge, that great English centre of knowledge, finds it worthwhile to spend an average of 19 minutes on each visit?
Who reads this in Canada, Chile, Serbia or the United Arab Emirates?
If you have a minute, I would really appreciate some feedback.
What makes you read this? What could I do differently? What should be the focus of this blog?Anybody interested in some form of cooperation?
You can write a comment below or send me an e-mail (see e-mail address in the column to the right).
Soon my project will be finished and I’ll have to make a decision on the future of the blog.
Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Urban ambitions: Plans for greener streets in downtown Fort Wayne...

...and silos converted into modern residences in the old harbour of Copenhagen.

"World class cities: bling and banality"

2010-04-26T06:10:00.002+02:00

ARCHITECTURE. With many cities going through rapid growth, there are worries that identity and beauty will be lost to bland modernity in identical developments from Hamburg to Helsinki.
In Stockholm and elsewhere, local politicians want to create “world class cities”.
What’s wrong with that?
“A great deal is wrong. Why? Because it’s yet another manifestation of ways in which cities are beginning to resemble one another all too closely, whether rising from Scandinavian archipelagos, tidal Cockney rivers or great plains remote from the sea”, writes Jonathan Glancey, well-known architecture critic of the Guardian, in a column in BD online, “the architects’ website”.
Glancey has been invited to participate in an international discussion on the subject in Stockholm in early May. He sets the tone in his column, where he stresses that the joy of great cities lies in their differences.
He warns that cities run the risk of being harmed by globalised architecture and planning, when politicians and planners aim for the “world class” label.
“World class cities”, writes Glancey, “spells architectural bombast, bling and banality”.

More "copenhagenizing" in New York

2010-04-23T15:04:00.004+02:00

URBAN PLANNING. When New York mayor Michael Bloomberg hired Danish “urban quality consultants” Gehl Architects three years ago he started a small revolution in the city’s streetscape.
Cars were banned from parts of Broadway and Times Square was taken over by pedestrians. The metropolis on the Hudson wanted to be more like Copenhagen, a city where bicyclists and pedestrians are given priority.
Bloomberg and the city’s Department of Transportation have listened carefully to Jan Gehl, the well known Danish urban design consultant, and his colleagues.
The pilot project on Times Square has been made permanent. The amount of bicycle lanes in New York has been doubled and the work to make the city more pleasant for its inhabitants and visitors continues.
New York Times reports that the Bloomberg administration now is ready to move ahead with radical measures on another major traffic corridor – 34th Street (above) in Midtown Manhattan. Plans call for this congested street to be cut off in the middle.
A new pedestrian plaza will be created between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, right in front of the Empire State Building and near Macy’s department store.
Buses will be allowed through the plaza in a special bus lane. All other traffic will be stopped.
Gehl Architects are involved in urban improvement projects all over the world, from Mexico City where they are introducing bicycling to the celebrated regeneration of central Melbourne in Australia. Gehl often refer to their work as “copenhagenizing” cities.
The project on Manhattan’s 34th Street is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.

An old master brings out the paint box

2010-04-22T06:39:00.010+02:00

LONDON/DESIGN: RENZO PIANO. For a place so full of life and energy, with such a stimulating mix of cultures, the impression of London can sometimes feel rather drab. Grey skies are common, so are grey buildings.
If that is the way you see this metropolis, be prepared for a minor shock if you accidently end up on Saint Giles High Street just a block away from the crowds at Tottenham Court Road tube station.
As you turn the corner you will run into a block of new buildings painted in such bright colours that you’ll think you’re in the middle of a giant fruit basket. It is lime green, apple red, orange and lemon yellow.
Somebody brought out the paint box, and that somebody is none the less than the famous Italian architect Renzo Piano who wanted to create a “joyful heart” in the centre of London.
A local returning after a few years abroad wouldn’t believe his eyes. Five years ago the site was still occupied by a dull office complex housing staff of the Ministry of Defence. Nobody took their eyes off the street back then.
Rowan Moore in the Observer described Central Saint Giles, as the development is called, like this a few weeks ago:
“It’s like a script of a B-movie (which never made it to production, for obvious reasons) in which giant mutant chewy sweets have, following a radioactive accident, invaded the world.”
That might be interpreted as a bit negative, but Moore actually seems to like the buildings as you’ll see later on.
The old office complex was torn down to give way for the new project and its buildings of mixed sizes and colours. After some controversy over the design of the new complex where the mayor of London (Ken Livingstone at the time) wanted something big and the Borough of Camden (where Saint Giles is located) wanted something not so big, the compromise turned out to be these buildings that are modest in size but make a big impression with its colours.
The new buildings will be mixed-use with homes, offices and retail. A courtyard, described as a piazza by Piano, that will be open to the public creates a new urban space where people can take a break to relax, eat or drink coffee.
Constructing is near completion and the contrast between new and old is striking. This area, just a short walk from the madness of Oxford Street shopping, is typical of the London that is an urban mix of medieval streets and modern offices.
Across the street lies St Giles-in-the-Fields, a parish church from 1734.
Central Saint Giles is one of many examples of the ongoing regeneration of London. Another can be seen at the nearby Tottenham Court Road station.
In his review of the project, Rowan Moore of the Observer becomes more positive after the initial shock.
“Central Saint Giles will be one of a number of commercial-civic places that have sprung up over the past decade, and one of the better of them. It is dignified and refined, and the talk of transparency and openness is genuine.”
The colours, he writes, can probably be explained by Piano’s ambition to “draw attention to the overlooked location by making a bit of a splash”.

Central Saint Giles adds a splash of colour to an old London street.

The colours even rub off on the side streets.

St Giles-in-the-Fields; eternity in the midst of modernity.

The largest shard of glass you'll ever see

2010-04-21T06:03:00.008+02:00

LONDON/DESIGN: RENZO PIANO. This is not a city of skyscrapers, and it never will be.
Italian architect master Renzo Piano knew this, of course, when he set out to design one of Europe’s tallest buildings right in the center of London. Soon this building will dominate the skyline of this huge city, but not merely by its height.
It’s the shape that will make the Shard of Glass, the popular name for Piano’s 305-meter tower, so special.
Like a slender, extremely tall pyramid the building will reach for the sky right next to London Bridge Station, one of the city’s busiest spots just south of the Thames River. The glass exterior, in the form of eight huge “shards” as Piano calls them, will define the shape and visual image of the 72-floor tower.
The concrete core of the building is now some 20 stories high. The Shard of Glass is expected to be completed in 2012, just in time for the Olympic Games in London. It will be one of many new symbols of a great metropolis reclaiming center stage.
In a couple of weeks I will come back with a series of reports on the regeneration of London.
Even the critics of skyscrapers in London seem to like Piano’s addition to the cityscape.
“While generally suspicious of skyscraper incursions in London, this one is going to work for me: shiny, sparkly, cheeky, original and a bit kitsch”, wrote the Guardian’s sharp London blogger Dave Hill a few weeks ago.
“I’m planning to visit on day one. Will wave”, wrote Hill.
London’s boisterous mayor Boris Johnson uses the Shard of Glass in his speeches as an example of the city’s resurgence.
“I’m thinking of moving in just for the view of France”, he is often heard saying.
The tower will be a mixed-use building with offices in the wide base at the bottom, a hotel further up and residences at the top. The public will have access to the building and a viewing gallery near the top is expected to become one of London’s top attractions.
In an interview presenting the project, Renzo Piano underlines the special circumstances for a tall building like this in London.
“I don’t believe it is possible to build in London a tall building by extruding the same shape from the top to bottom. It would be too small at the bottom and too big at the top…the shape of (this) tower is generous at the bottom without arrogantly touching the ground, and narrow at the top, disappearing into the air like a 16th century ship’s pinnacle of the mast top of a very tall ship.”
The Shard is described as one of the most technologically advanced towers ever built. Its sustainable features include a triple-skin glass façade containing computer-controlled venetian blinds the will shield occupants from sun and reduce the need for air-conditioning.
Heat generated by computers in the offices will be used to help heat the hotel and apartments above. It is said that the building will use 30 percent less energy than other comparable buildings.
“Fractures” between the “shards” will provide ventilation for winter gardens throughout the building.
But the main sustainable feature of the “vertical city”, as Piano calls it, is its location. Occupants are expected to use public transportation and the huge building will only have room for 47 cars.
The project includes redevelopment of the train station concourse and bus station, and a new public square that will improve a neglected urban space where some 200,000 people pass through every day.
Renzo Piano, who has his workshop in Genua, is one the world’s most respected architects. He rose to fame with the Pompidou Center in Paris in the late 70’s. One of his latest achievements is the hailed Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.
He is presently working on, among other things, a spectacular new art museum in Oslo, Norway.
Tomorrow we will look at another Piano project in London, a colourful addition to the city nearing completion.

The Shard of Glass will dominate London's skyline just south of River Thames.

Construction of the tower's core is well underway near London Bridge Station.

Danish capital puts focus on pedestrians

2010-04-20T11:40:00.004+02:00

COPENHAGEN. The city known as the bicycling capital of the world will now aim to become a pedestrian’s paradise as well.
Not that Copenhagen is a bad place to walk around. Here you will find the famous Strøget (below), one of the original pedestrian streets of the world, nice parks and regenerated harbour fronts perfect for a pleasant stroll.
But now politicians in Copenhagen’s City Hall want to take walking in the Danish capital a step further by introducing a Pedestrian Strategy with the goal to increase walking with 20 percent by 2015.
“Copenhagen has long had a strategy for the bicyclists, public transportation and car traffic. But pedestrian traffic has been overlooked and therefore it is now necessary to have a strategy that will get more Copenhageners to walk more. It is both healthy to walk and it doesn’t pollute, but it also helps create more urban life”, says Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard, Mayor of the City’s technical and environmental administration to daily Berlingske Tidende.
The Pedestrian Strategy will be completed by this summer and City Hall expects that concrete measures to improve walking could be introduced in 2011.
Some of the things that could be expected are improved conditions for pedestrians going to and from public transit stops and more connected walking routes and short cuts throughout the city. Tunnels with inadequate lighting, and increased security for pedestrians are other areas that could see improvement in the future.
The new Pedestrian Strategy will also be part of the planning for all new developments in the city.
Since this blog puts some focus on the friendly battle between Copenhagen and Swedish capital Stockholm over which city is the most liveable and eco-friendly, we note that the new comprehensive plan for Stockholm that was adopted recently was headlined “The Walkable City”.

Pod cars to connect Swedish universities

2010-04-19T07:02:00.005+02:00

STOCKHOLM. A few years from now visitors to Stockholm may be able to travel like they did in old science fiction movies, in driver-less so called pod cars on elevated tracks.
If you can’t wait that long, you might be able to try it at London’s Heathrow Airport later this year when a small personal rapid transit system will be in operation.
About 50 years ago, enthusiastic proponents of eco-friendly futuristic travel saw the personal rapid transit (PRT) as the way to replace the polluting cars of modern cities. The idea never caught on, the main reason being the high cost of investing in something that was untested and by many seen as an unrealistic idea.
But now the world might be ready for PRT and its small, light, electric vehicles (the pod cars) that run on elevated tracks.
Proponents of the system in Stockholm are hoping for a green light and funding from the Swedish government later this year to build a pilot project called Via Academica that will connect the University of Stockholm with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, two leading research and educational institutions both located in the north eastern part of he city.
The system would be provided by the U.K.-registered South Korean company Vectus that has a test track in Uppsala north of Stockholm.
The pod cars would seat four passengers. Instead of taking a taxi, you just enter your destination at one of the PRT-stops and a vehicle will arrive shortly, with your destination on a display. The pod cars run on elevated tracks four to five meters above the ground.
The system at Heathrow airport will be run by a Welsh company called ULTra. It will connect the new Terminal 5 with a business car park just north of the airport. The 3.9 km system is planned for 21 vehicles.
Another system is underway in South Korean city Suncheon. Transit advocates in Boston, Massachusetts, are trying to generate interest for a system to connect local universities, an idea similar to the plans in Stockholm.
Nobody expects pod cars to replace the automobiles we now have on our streets anytime soon. But PRT systems could provide an interesting option for private travel in public transit style.

Pod cars, seating four passengers, provide pivate travel in a public transit system.

An architect's homage to African cities

2010-04-16T07:09:00.002+02:00

LONDON. Africa is the only continent I haven’t visited and like many other I know little about most of its major cities.
Earlier this week in London I got a chance to take a quick tour of more than 50 African capitals, from Tunis in the north to Maseru in the south. My gratitude goes to the Africa-born and London-based architect David Adjaye and his herculean effort to document buildings in all African capitals.
The result is on display at the London Design Museum in the form of hundreds of snapshots showing all types of buildings in African cities. The exhibit Urban Africa, which opened March 31 and ends September 5, is Adjaye’s way of letting us get a taste of some of the most unknown major cities of the world.
The 43-year-old David Adjaye is an established star on the world architecture scene, with his fame enhanced when he last year won the commission to design the National Museum of African History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
The exhibit aims to give an overview of the urban environment of the African city. For Adjaye, born in Tanzania where his father was a Ghanaian diplomat, the project has also been a return to his roots. Moving around with his family, he lived in several African countries during his childhood.
Over the past ten years, Adjaye has tried to visit every one of the 53 African capitals. He missed one, Somalia’s chaotic and dangerous capital Mogadishu, due to security reasons. The project began as an exercise, as he puts it in the presentation of the exhibit, “to piece together fragments of memories, documenting where I was born and grew up as a child”.
The exhibit starts with a bright, yellow room with maps and facts of Africa. The visitor can then choose to see Adjaye’s images either in a slide-show on multiple screens, or in the form of hundreds of snapshot-sized photos pinned to the walls.
His trips were not planned in detail and he didn’t look for certain buildings to record. Adjaye would approach each city without preconceptions and just jump into a local taxi and criss-cross the city for days with the digital camera as his sketchbook, as he puts it.
With his pictures Adjaye wants to “depict the overlooked and understudied African city as a complex, dynamic and successful environment where people live and work”.
Despite the problems African cities face, Adjaye sees the rapid urbanization of the continent as an opportunity rather than a humanitarian crisis.
“In the next 10 years, people are going to be shocked by what they see coming out of Africa. There’s a renewed sense of modernity gripping the continent”, Adjaye says in an interview in this weeks issue of Newsweek.

Urban Africa/David Adjaye, 31 March-5 September, Design Museum, Shad Thames, London. www.designmuseum.org

Asmara in Eritrea, with its old Italian architecture, is one of the unknown capitals of Africa.

Touring Africa with the help of David Adjaye's snapshots of the continent's capitals.

Danish researchers warn of rising sea levels

2010-04-15T13:42:00.005+02:00

ENVIRONMENT. Coastal cities around the world will have to prepare for sea levels that will rise more and quicker than previously expected. Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, together with Chinese and British colleagues, warn that sea levels will rise with up to 1,2 meters in the next 100 years, reports Danish daily Politiken.
That is considerably more than earlier estimates by the United Nations panel of climate experts (which in turn has been accused of exaggerating figures, and has admitted mistakes, in the constant controversies over climate change).
The Danish researchers have used other methods to come to their findings. A quick and sharp reduction of CO2-emissions is the only way to limit the rise of sea levels, according to the researchers.
Copenhagen (left) is one city that could be affected by a sharp rise in sea levels. Larger coastal cities in Asia could fare much worse, and the island nation of the Maldives is under threat of disappearing under rising sea waters.
An OECD-report (Competitive Cities and Climate Change) from 2008 gives examples of how U.S. coastal states could be affected by higher sea levels. A 0.3 sea level rise would erode approximately 15 to 30 meters of shoreline in New Jersey and Maryland, 30 to 60 meters in South Carolina and 60 to 120 meters in California.
In popular waterfront developments around the world, measures are taken avoid damage by floods. In the HafenCity development in Hamburg, for instance, bottom floors of residential buildings are occupied by garages.
But rising sea levels cause all kinds of concerns. In Stockholm, another example, there are fears that the important underground station in the Old Town could be flooded.

The Thames Barrier protects London from floods.

Swedish capital promotes electric vehicles

2010-04-14T17:16:00.003+02:00

STOCKHOLM. The City of Stockholm together with Swedish energy giant Vattenfall has presented a joint effort to introduce electric vehicles in the Swedish capital. A number of producers are ready to have their electric vehicles on the Swedish market early next year.
“Electric cars are a very important component in Stockholm’s ambitions to continue to be a strong and dynamic growth region at the same time as we lower our impact on the climate”, says Ulla Hamilton, vice mayor for environment and traffic.
The City of Stockholm and Vattenfall are taking the initiative for a joint procurement framework for both businesses and municipalities in the larger Stockholm region. The idea is to put pressure on distributers of electric vehicles by offering them a large number of potential buyers.
At a presentation earlier this week a number car manufacturers, Volvo was one of them, demonstrated cars that would ready for market introduction during 2011.
The City of Stockholm has a goal to be free of fossil fuels by 2050 and the vision “Electric Vehicle City 2030” is a way to reach that target. By the end of 2011 there are plans for some 250 charging points for electric vehicles in the city.
By 2030 Stockholm wants to set an international example in both the number of electric vehicles in the city as well as in the number of charging points.
Danish capital Copenhagen presented similar ambitions late last year as the friendly Nordic rivalry in eco-friendliness continues.

Three winners in Oslo museum competition

2010-04-13T07:13:00.005+02:00

OSLO. It will be one of the signature buildings dominating the new face of the Norwegian capital, but we will have to wait a few more months before we know what it will look like.
The jury of an international architecture competition to choose the design for Norway's new National Museum yesterday picked three winners in a race that initially had 237 participants.
The three winners are invited to take part in a continued phase of competition and negotiations with the governments building agency Statsbygg. The final winner well be chosen by August 2010.
The new National Museum will be one of several cultural institutions that will line the Oslo Fjord, where a huge redevelopment is going on along the waterfront. You can read an earlier report from Oslo about that here.
As the first winner of three, the jury named the entry Forum Artis by German architechts Kleihuis + Schuwerk. The main element in their concept is a long, horisontal bright hall that, according to the jury, will form a contrast to the vertical mark of the area.
The second winner was a design called Urban Transition by Danish firm JAJA Architects consisting of five conneced, rectangular building of different sizes.
The third winner was long established Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects with Trylleesken, a design dominated by a huge cube in line with the Oslo City Hall right next to the future spot of the National Museum.
The new museum will be located behind an old railway station that is home of the Nobel Peace Center, between the popular waterfront development Aker Brygge and Oslo's City Hall.

Copyright: DiizGroup/Statsbygg
The new National Museum in Oslo could be a bright horisontal line in the cityscape.

More Americans prefer urban living

2010-04-12T06:58:00.003+02:00

URBAN TRENDS. A house in the suburbs and two or more cars in the garage has for decades been the preferred way of life for many Americans.

But more and more US cities, and citizens, now seem to listen to proponents of so called smart growth as interest for urban living is rising sharply across the country.

Builder magazine, that covers the home building industry in the U.S., reports that residential permits in downtown and close-in suburbs more than doubled since 2000 in 26 of the nations largest metropolitan regions.

The trend is very visible in major cities like New York and Chicago, but also in smaller cities like Portland, Denver and Sacramento, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency qouted by Builder magazine.

Many U.S. cities are putting more emphasis on smart growth measures like increased walkability, bicycle paths, investments in public transit and residential developments in attractive locations near city centres.

There is also an increased demand for urban-style neighbourhoods. Changing lifestyles, economic factors and smaller households are some of the factors behind this trend.

Laboratories for the urban age

2010-04-09T07:47:00.008+02:00

URBAN TRENDS. Urbanization is a must for economic growth and social development, according to a new UN report on the state of the cities of the world.
With cities growing faster than ever before and in some places generating growth at a pace hard to imagine, one of the great challenges of the future will be to plan and design rapidly expanding metropolitan areas around the world.
That future is already here in many major cities.
The best example is probably Shanghai, a city that has gone through monumental changes over the last 10-20 years.
“It is a city moving so fast that it is possible to see the impact of theory on practice like nowhere else in the world”, writes Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum in London, in “The Endless City”.
The book documents “The Urban Age Project”, a look at urban development through the examples of six global cities by the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society.
Shanghai is getting ready for its moment of glory – the Expo 2010 that begins next month with its giant exhibition on the theme “Better City, Better Life”. In some 200 pavilions, countries and cities from around the world will showcase their best examples of life in the Urban Age.
In “The Endless City” Shanghai is called “the urban laboratory”. Change has been so fast that things that were built ten years ago are already ancient history. Shanghai is also the symbol of China’s new wealth, with its skyscrapers telling the story.
Shanghai has gone through the greatest transformation of a piece of earth in history, according to an American architect who is quoted in “The Endless City”. Since the early 90’s, the city has experienced a yearly growth averaging about 15 percent per year.
The city is now a major player in every aspect.
Not all cities in the developing world are as blessed as Shanghai, something underlined in UN Habitat’s report “State of the World Cities 2010/11: Bridging the Urban Divide” which was released recently.
But many cities have become more important than the country they are located in. According to UN Habitat, the top 25 cities in the world accounted for roughly 15 percent of the world’s GDP in 2005. This share increases to 25 percent of the world’s GDP when the top 100 cities are included.
Tokyo alone accounts for almost two percent of the world’s GDP, while London’s GDP is higher than that of Sweden or Switzerland.
Major cities in smaller countries often dominate their country’s economy completely. Seoul, for instance, accounts for over 48 percent of South Koreas GDP.
This will continue to draw people to the world’s cities and by 2050 three out of four human beings will live in cities.
In dense places like Shanghai, a city that in particularly crowded places has a density nearly ten times that of London, this will be a challenge.
“The question is this: how do we create cities that are not just containers for tightly-packed populations, but pleasant and equitable places to live?”, writes Justin McGuirk in an interesting piece on the subject in the Guardian. Part of his answer is this:
“Now that city-making has become a priority, politicians need to have faith in designers.”
Perhaps urban planning is the answer to many problems of the future.

Photos from Shanghai by Hanna Steinvall

Imagine if you could take a crowded, run-down city like this...

...just clean it up a little bit and then transform it into a spectacular...

...modern metropolis like the Pudong district that symbolizes the new Shanghai.

No end in sight for sprawling cities

2010-04-08T07:16:00.001+02:00

URBAN TRENDS. While sustainable urban development has become trendy and politically correct in many countries, sprawling cities remain a big problem in parts of the world where urbanisation is most intense.
In a recent report a United Nation agency points out that urban sprawl has become an issue in many developing countries. UN Habitat names cities like Johannesburg, Cairo and Mexico City as examples of major metropolitan areas where sprawl has become a cause for concern.
In its report “State of the World Cities 2010/11: Bridging the Urban Divide”, the UN agency says that urban sprawl in many developing countries comprises two main, contrasting types of development in the same city.
One is characterised by large areas with informal and illegal patterns of land use. This is combined with a lack of infrastructure, public facilities and basic services, and often is accompanied by little or no public transportation and bad roads.
Mexico City is an example of this. In a study done by the London School of Economics a few years ago, it was said that 60 percent of the nearly 20 million inhabitants of Mexico City live in illegal and informal housing.
The other pattern is a form of “suburban sprawl” with residential zones for middle- and high-income groups in search of a better lifestyle where the car is the main means of transportation.
This type of suburban sprawl has long been associated with North American cities. But with Barack Obama in the White House, urban sprawl has become a political issue in the United States.
Obama is seen as an “urban president” advocating denser cities and public transit over car-oriented suburban sprawl. His opponents call this an attack on the American way of life.
With the rapid urbanization in many parts of the world, UN Habitat sees risks with continued sprawl in growing urban regions.
Sprawl will add to urban divide causing social segregation along economic lines. Various parts of cities will differ in wealth and quality of life, as the poor move in one direction and the better-off in another.
“In a nutshell: sprawl is a symptom of a divided city”, the report says.
UN Habitat writes that urban sprawl in developing countries occurs because authorities pay little attention to slums, land, services and transport. Authorities often lack the ability to predict urban growth and therefore fail to provide land for the urbanizing poor. This drives people to makeshift homes in the periphery of cities.
While urban sprawl is a growing problem in the developing world and seems to become more and more of a political issue in the United States, many European cities are now growing within their existing borders through densification and development of derelict industrial and harbour sites.
Cities like Hamburg and Oslo, just to give two examples, are going through transformations of their city centres through huge waterfront developments.
London, another example, is one of the world’s most dispersed major cities. But now the city is growing within its borders, primarily in eastern parts of the city where the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics is generating growth.
That will be an example to follow for other major cities as they move into the Urban Age at full speed.

Johannesburg, an example of a sprawling city.

Forget big cities, think endless cities

2010-04-07T06:47:00.006+02:00

URBAN TRENDS. When UN Habitat recently released its report on major trends in the rapid urbanisation of the world, there was one figure that underlined the scale of things.
While we are getting used to the thought of major metropolitan regions with 20 or even 30 million inhabitants, the United Nations agency for human settlements is now talking about mega-regions with populations of up to 120 million people.
This mind-boggling figure reminds us of the pace of development of what has been called The Urban Age. More than 50 percent of the world’s population now lives in cities – by 2050 that figure is expected to be 75 percent.
In its “State of the World Cities 2010/2011: Bridging the Urban Divide”, UN Habitat talks of huge urban corridors of cities pushing beyond their original boundaries and merging into massive new conurbations.
These are the new mega-regions and the best example – or perhaps worst? – can be found in Southern China.
The Hong Kong-Shenzen-Guangzhou mega-region is, according to UN Habitat, home to some 120 million people in a continuous, seemingly endless city.
“When you travel there you can’t tell when you go from one city to another”, says Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, an urban issues expert at OECD who is now leading a study of the region.
She spoke recently at a seminar in Stockholm on the growth of the Swedish capital. Just to remind her hosts of what they are up against, Kamal-Chaoui mentioned the development in the Hong Kong-Shenzen-Guangzhou mega-region (using a population figure of “only” 50 million).
Stockholm wants to be a world leader in fields like information technology, life sciences and environmental issues. But Kamal-Chaoui told the audience not to underestimate the competition from regions in countries like China.
“They have high skills, and they put a lot of focus on research and development. In the southern China region I have seen a number of clusters for environmental research, for instance”, says Lamia Kamal-Chaoui.
The endless cities of the new mega-regions will be a driving force in future development. But they will also hold all sorts of challenges.
UN Habitat mentions one new urban corridor that raises issues. In West Africa, from Ibadan and Lagos in Nigeria to Accra in Ghana, spanning roughly 600 kilometres through four countries, a cross-border endless city is rapidly developing.
The UN report points out that while these mega-regions, urban corridors and city-regions reflect the emerging links between city growth and new patterns of economic activity, they are in danger of creating a new urban hierarchy and further patterns of economic and social exclusion.
The endless city is not a new phenomenon. The corridor stretching through Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington on the American east coast has long been an example of large cities forming an even larger unit.
The same has been seen in Japan for many years where for instance Nagoya-Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe forms one mega-region likely to hold 60 million people by 2015.
In Europe, we often think of Berlin as the largest metropolitan region in Germany with some five million people. But the polycentric Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region in North Rhine-Westphalia has some 12 million inhabitants, if you count all cities from the old Ruhr industrial area to Düsseldorf and Cologne on the Rhine.
And in the Netherlands more than half the country’s population lives in the conurbation known as Randstad (“Rim City”), which consists of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and a number of smaller cities.
When I was a schoolboy, geography was my favourite subject and I took great pride in knowing all cities with more than a million inhabitants.
That knowledge is obsolete today. The big city as we new it is part of history.
The future belongs to the endless city.

A market i Accra, Ghana, part of a new mega-region stretching to Nigeria.

Tower? Sculpture? Iconic attraction?

2010-04-06T10:51:00.003+02:00

DESIGN. The design story of the Easter weekend was undoubtedly the unveiling of Anish Kapoor’s twisted tower that is expected to become the symbol of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
“A big vertical invitation to London”, said London Mayor Boris Johnson in a promotional video announcing the decision to choose Anish Kapoor’s tower for the Olympic Park.
In the presentation of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, as the official name will be, the 115 metre-tall structure is called a sculpture.
Kapoor’s says that the closest comparison would be the Eiffel Tower in Paris. You just have to imagine the Eiffel Tower painted in red and its steel structure twisted into an enormous knot rising towards the sky (right, image copyright: Arup).
“He (Kapoor) has taken the idea of a tower, and transformed it into a piece of modern British art”, says Mayor Johnson in a personal reflection over the £19 million project.
“Of course some people are saying that we are nuts in the depths of a recession to be building Britain’s biggest ever piece of public art.”
The project’s main sponsor is the international steel company ArcelorMittal. CEO Lakshmi Mittal was introduced to the idea at a chance meeting with Boris Johnson in a cloakroom at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Anish Kapoor, born in Bombay but based in London since the early 70’s, won an international competition for the commission with the structure he designed together with famous structural engineer Cecil Balmond.
The idea behind the project is to build an attraction in East London that will last beyond the 2012 Games.
“With £ 9.3 billion going into the Games, we need to do everything we can to regenerate the area and to ensure the crowds are still coming here in 2013 and beyond. Our ambition is to turn the Stratford site into a place of destination, a must-see item of the tourist itinerary and we believe the ArcelorMittal Orbit will help us achieve that aim”, says Mayor Johnson in his personal reflection.
Anish Kapoor says that the ambition with the design has been to convey a sense of instability and a tower that could be viewed differently from different parts of the city.
The idea is getting generally favourable reviews in the British press.
Jonathan Glancey, the Guardian’s architecture critic, calls it a genuine eyecatcher.
“What an extraordinary thing this is: a strange and enticing marriage of sorts between the Eiffel Tower and Tatlin’s Tower (an unbuilt Soviet Russian monument designed in 1920 that would have dwarfed Eiffel’s), with the Tower of Babel as best man”, writes Glancey.
“It’s anti-bling, and its brusque form will be either loved or hated”, writes The Independent in a comment.
Rowan Moore in the Observer voices some concern over the project.
“It is the most extravagant example yet of the idea that a big, strange object can lift tens of thousands of people out of deprivation. This idea has had some successes, but the Orbit could mark the point at which it overreaches itself and we decide to try something different in the future”.
Anyone who has seen the public affection for Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate-sculpture in Chicago will recommend you to wait until the tangled steel of the Orbit is in place before passing judgment.

Oslo's Opera House wins another award

2010-03-31T13:31:00.005+02:00

ARCHITECTURE. It’s a celebrated building, but also a popular urban space. Now Oslo’s spectacular Opera House has won yet another award.
The white marble building rising up from the Oslo Fjord has been chosen as joint winner of the 2010 European Prize for Urban Public Space. It shares the honours with an experimental Open-Air-Library in the German city Magdeburg.
The price is awarded by the Centre of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona (CCCB) with the aim to “recognise and foster the public character of urban spaces and their capacity for fostering social cohesion”.
The prize is the second in a short period of time that Norwegian architects Snøhetta has won for its Opera House that was completed in 2008. Earlier this year they were given the Mies van der Rohe Award 2009, which is the European Union prize for contemporary architecture.
The Opera House marks the beginning of a transformation of the Oslo waterfront that will completely change the face of the city. Construction has begun on new office and residential buildings near a part of the Fjord called Bjørvika.
Later this year a highway that now separates the area from the city centre will be torn down and moved into a tunnel. That will open the way for a new residential district and a couple of high-profile cultural buildings near the Opera House.
The architects of Snøhetta have pointed out that the dual use of the Opera building was one of the main ideas behind the project. The sloping roof of the building, which rises out of the water like an iceberg, is open to the public and has become a popular meeting place.
Open air shows have been held on the white Carrara marble and the top of the building offers a good view of central Oslo and the Fjord.
The co-winning project from Magdeburg in Eastern Germany represents the opposite of the monumental architecture of the Opera House.
The Open-Air-Library is a citizen’s initiative in a run-down part of Magdeburg. Some twenty thousand books were collected and with help from the federal government an unusual library was built.
The books are kept in shelves in a thick wall where visitors freely take and return books without any monitoring.
The wall shelters a green space where people can read in the open air and a scene for small concerts.
This innovative meeting place is seen as an emblem for a more promising future for this part of the city.

The roof of the Opera House is one Oslo's best public spaces.

Copyright: CCCB/KARO* with Architektur+Netzwerk

The Open-Air-Library in Magdeburg, an innovative meeting place.

Probably the best master plan in the world

2010-03-30T14:53:00.009+02:00

COPENHAGEN. Most old industrial sites ready for conversion into modern city districts are unwelcoming places, sometimes hard to imagine as fit for human life.
But there are exceptions.
Near Copenhagen’s city centre lies 33 hectares of Danish industrial heritage full of intriguing buildings and fascinating history. This is where Carlsberg brew its world famous beer for more than 160 years before relocating two years ago.
Now the Carlsberg brewery grounds are ready to become Copenhagen’s most pleasant new city district.
And let me correct the headline: The master plan for the new Carlsberg city district has already been picked as a category winner for Future Projects at the prestigious World Architecture Festival 2009 in Barcelona.
There is only one problem. The development project is on hold due to the financial crisis and no decision has been made on a starting date for construction. But there is some progress in the area, with work on public spaces going on and some activities moving into existing houses.
The small Copenhagen architecture firm Entasis won an international competition with over 200 entries with a master plan called “Our City” in 2007.
The plan was adopted by City Hall a year ago. Some 2,000 apartments will be built in the area over the next 20 years, if things get underway according to plans. The vision for the Carlsberg district is focused on public spaces with many activities creating a vibrant urban atmosphere.
Carlsberg will be very different from other new developments in Copenhagen, like the often criticised Ørestad.
“Our Carlsberg project can in some ways be seen as an indirect criticism of Ørestad. The urban spaces out there are on a scale that makes the planned architecture of Eastern Europe turn pale with shame”, said Entasis managing director Christian Cold in interview with the Copenhagen magazine KBH last year.
He describes the Carlsberg plan as the opposite; moving down in scale. This is also what won “Our City” first prize at the World Architecture Festival. The urban spaces of Carlsberg are described as a network of publicly accessible spaces in the form of gardens, squares, streets, alleys and a number of privately owned but publicly accessible buildings.
The plan emphasises “public space first, buildings second” as it says in the presentation of Entasis’ winning entry.
The project is based on “sustainability in all aspects”. The ambition is to make the dense, public-transit oriented district CO2-neutral. But Christian Cold of Entasis puts just as much emphasis on economical and social sustainability for the dense urban district he envisions.
There has to be a mix of prize-levels for the homes in the area, to ensure a mix of residents. Cold underlines that he doesn’t want the Carlsberg district to become another enclave for “Mr and Mrs Weber Grill”, as he puts it.
“There has to be more normal people here, and it’s super important that all kinds of people will have a possibility to move to the area. Otherwise it will be a dead city district”, Christian Cold said in the interview with KBH magazine.
If you are in Copenhagen and happen get a chance to join one of the occasional architecture tours (left) of the Carlsberg grounds – don’t miss it.
This place is full of fascinating history that is hard to match when it comes to family intrigues, entrepreneurial skills, success, philanthropy and megalomania. Even if you are only interested in the beer, you’ll get carried away by the rest.
J.C. Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg, began brewing beer on this spot in 1847. The brewery was named after his son Carl and the modest hill it was located on, overlooking central Copenhagen.
The beer became a monumental success and the most famous Danish brand. It made Jacobsen a very rich man, but it also led to a bitter conflict between father and son. The story of this family feud is full of unlikely details.
The young Carl Jacobsen eventually set up his own brewery next to his father’s, naming it New Carlsberg. His father renamed his brewery Old Carlsberg and the fight went on.
Luckily, father and son Jacobsen spent much of their money on architecture and art, trying to overtrump each other.
This heritage is part of what will make the Carlsberg area so special – when it eventually will be built.

A view over the future Carlsberg city district near central Copenhagen.

The famous Elephant Gate at Carl Jacobsen's New Carlsberg brewery.

Copyright: Carlsbergs byudviklingsprojekt/Utopian Cityscape

"Brewer's Place" in the future; full of urban life in a vibrant new city district.

A capital in search of visionary architecture

2010-03-29T15:30:00.009+02:00

STOCKHOLM. Copenhagen has its celebrated new architecture in modern city districts deemed as urban planning failures.
Stockholm represents the opposite – new city districts seen as models for successful modern planning but lacking visionary architecture.
Recently I spent an evening in a packed auditorium in the Swedish capital to get a taste of the public debate on the city’s architecture.
On stage was a leading local politician arguing for more daring architecture, a famous architect ready to provide it and an architectural historian urging caution as new buildings are planned for Stockholm’s precious inner-city.
Listening was a crowd of some 300 residents anxious to voice their criticism of a number of buildings not seem fit for their beloved city.
“We need an architectural policy for Stockholm, a policy that not only says where the city can grow but also how”, says Kristina Alvendal, vice mayor for city planning for the ruling liberal-conservative coalition in Stockholm’s City Hall.
She has ordered work to begin on an architectural policy for the city. Perhaps she will find inspiration in the Danish capital Copenhagen, where a new and ambitious architectural policy was adopted late last year.
The initiative is applauded by Gert Wingårdh (above right, with Alvendal), one of Sweden’s leading architects, who was invited to defend his profession in the discussion.
“The City of Stockholm now wants world class architecture. But what is world class? That’s a difficult question. But just the fact the issue has been raised is a big step forward”, says Wingårdh.
The theme of the discussion was supposed to be tall buildings, following a heated local debate over two planned skyscrapers in a new district that will be built on the northern fringe of central Stockholm (I have written about the project here).
Any plan for a tall building casting a shadow over old neighbourhoods will stir emotions in Stockholm, where people are proud of an un-dramatic skyline dominated by church towers.
“Stockholm is completely dominated by church spires that has nothing to do with a secular society”, says Wingårdh in an attempt to get the debate going.
He also presents a couple of tall buildings his office is designing in the Stockholm area, but since they are located outside the city center there are no protests. But when Wingårdh shows pictures of a beautiful but modest residential building, 13 stories at its highest point, in an inner-city neighbourhood, critics raise their voices.
“Architecture must make a statement”, argues Wingårdh.
When the audience gets their chance to speak, there is criticism against a number of new buildings deemed too ugly for Stockholm. One such building now stands at Östermalm’s Square (above left) in a classy part of the city. With its glass façade it seems completely out of place in the old surroundings, claim the critics, and vice mayor Alvendal’s response is that other plans had been even worse.
Another hotly debated project has been a new office, hotel and congress complex (pictured below) next to the railroad tracks at Stockholm’s Central Station. The complex called Stockholm Waterfront, to be completed later this year, is considered to be an ugly intruder blocking the view of Stockholm’s beautiful City Hall (right).
“Please wait until it’s finished before you judge it. And remember that it stands at a place where there was nothing but traffic”, says Kristina Alvendal.
Martin Rörby, a well-known local architecture historian, is applauded when he criticises the Stockholm Waterfront complex, but at the same time he reminds the audience that they have to keep an open mind towards change.
“A dynamic city is a mix of old and new, high and low, of contrasts. The essence of a living city is to shed its skin now and then”, says Rörby.
Stockholm is doing that now, in a big way. But the new skin still needs visions for its design.

The office and hotel complex near Stockholm's Central Station.

Construction of Stockholm Waterfront will be completed later this year.

Copyright: White Arkitekter AB/Jarl Asset Management AB

The Stockholm Waterfront complex as it will look at night from City Hall.

Green means money, builders are told

2010-03-26T16:09:00.003+01:00

STOCKHOLM. As cities around the world plan their sustainable development for the future, energy efficiency in buildings and retrofitting old houses are added to common themes like densification and public transit.
Builders and developers face tougher demands as new city districts are planned, and are sometimes seen to take their own initiatives to earn attractive green labels for their buildings. Owners of the older housing stock are being convinced that retrofitting for higher energy efficiency makes sense –and money in the long run.
To get a taste of the “green vibes” of the construction industry in Northern Europe, I spent a day at the Nordbygg (North Build) fair in Stockholm. The fair, which ends today, is described as the most important meeting in the Nordic countries for the construction industry. Some 850 exhibitors, a new record, from 18 countries took part this year.
This is not my home turf, I must admit, and as a layman I’m sure I missed a lot of interesting news on show.
But at a time when there is so much talk of green buildings and sustainable development, I was a bit surprised that relatively few of the exhibitors were marketing themselves with a green profile.
Then again, this is perhaps not the place where they need to do that.
But there were a number of seminars on energy efficiency, and the organizers had made it an important theme at the fair by setting up a special section on building automation. Energy efficiency in both new and existing buildings has become one of the most important issues for the construction and property sector, organizers said.
Siemens, a leader in building automation, was one of the companies with a significant presence in this section.
I sat down to listen as Jon Leo Rikhardsson, a representative of Siemens, held a presentation aimed at owners of older properties looking at ways to cut high energy costs.
“We have always said that it costs money to be environmentally friendly. But now it makes sense to invest in energy renovation. Energy costs are rising, and the value of your properties will rise if you can cut those costs”, says Rikhardsson.
Instead of fixing small problems as they arise, he recommends property owners to look at the big picture. Do the whole thing – isolation, ventilation, water – and save a lot of money in the long run, up to 30 percent of energy costs according to Rikhardsson.
Sweden, as well as other countries, has a lot of older buildings from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s that are now energy hogs and responsible for a sizeable part of CO2-emissions. Municipalities around the country are getting ready to start big programs for retrofitting public housing.
“We are looking at a boom in this field. Municipalities want to be energy efficient, and they are all getting in to this now”, says Rikhardsson when I talk to him after his presentation.
New technology open the way for smarter solutions. With economic incentives and political pressure, energy efficiency is set to be a main theme in sustainable urban development in the decade to come.
The speciality magazines presented at the fair write a lot about low-energy buildings and passive houses. New EU-regulations are set to give energy smart buildings a boost.
In the next generation of high-profile urban developments, like Stockholm Royal Seaport, energy efficient buildings will be a must. As I walk around the fair, I see a couple of exhibitors marketing solutions for passive houses.
Sweden aims to be a world leader in sustainable urban development. Stockholm and Malmö get a lot of international visitors looking at leading examples of new city districts from the past decade.
But when it comes to energy solutions for buildings, like solar power or green roofs, other countries have taken the lead.
My day at the fair gives me no clear indication if Swedish companies are catching up.

Copenhagen Metro "the world's best"

2010-03-25T08:24:00.002+01:00

TRANSPORTATION. Copenhagen’s sleek, driverless Metro has been chosen the best in the world at the leading international event for the industry.
The Danish capital got two to prizes at the MetroRail 2010, held in London. Besides being picked as the best Metro overall, before London, Madrid, São Paulo and Seoul, Copenhagen also got a first price in the “Best Driverless Metro” category.
“This Metro has delivered incredibly high levels of passenger satisfaction; with 2009 being a record year in terms of service availability. The technological innovation demonstrated with regard to safety and security, as well as the ambitious plans for future expansion ensures this Metro is truly a world leader”, says the motivation for the winner.
Copenhagen’s Metro is a relatively small and new service opened in 2002. It consists of only two lines, connecting new developments and the international airport on the island Amager with the rest of the city. It has 22 stations.
A new city circle line will be built, serving 17 stations. It is scheduled for opening in 2018.

Norwegians prefer the old T to a new M

2010-03-25T07:00:00.003+01:00

OSLO. It’s often the smallest things that cause the biggest debates. Like the idea to replace the T with an M in Oslo.
Ruter AS, the company running public transit in the Norwegian capital, is looking over its information strategy and has come up with the idea of changing the name of the city’s underground/subway/metro (pick the one you prefer!) from T-bane in Norwegian to the more international Metro.
Changing all the T-signs at stations in Oslo to an M, and all the rest that would come with a change of name, will cost 95 million Norwegian crowns.
The change would be part of an overhaul to improve information to passengers, not only to make it easier for foreign visitors to find their way.
Marketing experts question what Ruter AS would gain from a name change from T-bane to Metro.
A representative of Ruter’s management says to daily Aftenposten that the term Metro “puts us under an obligation to deliver quality” and that it gives the company’s product “a new dimension”.
Oslo’s residents, at least those who posted their comments on Aftenposten’s web site, seem to argue with that, to put it mildly.
“It’s exciting to see what Ruter’s management actually is working on while we are waiting for trains that never arrive”, writes one reader.
“This is the stupidest proposal of the decade”, argues another.

No decision on the name change has been made.

Homes for the rich, urban space for the rest

2010-03-24T06:10:00.000+01:00

OSLO/RECLAIMING THE SEA. When Norwegians look for words to describe their sentiments they often turn to their own cultural icon, 19th century playwright Henrik Ibsen.
Therefore I’m not surprised to find a wooden sign with a quotation from Ibsen welcoming me as I enter the elegant new waterfront development Tjuvholmen in Oslo.
“Night and day, winter and summer, it weighs upon me – this irresistible longing for the sea”, says Ibsen’s words from “The Lady from the Sea”.
The Norwegian capital is now reclaiming its seafront in a huge project called Fjord City, where urban life will replace derelict port facilities and noisy highways in the next decade or two.
As I wrote in my first report from Oslo, this is perhaps the biggest ongoing facelift of any major European city.
Oslo residents are getting a first taste of what the future might look like at Tjuvholmen (Thief’s Inlet in English), a tiny city district consisting of three small islands separated by narrow canals. The Tjuvholmen development, which has come more than halfway towards its completion in 2013/2014, will consist of some 900 apartments, offices, a hotel, shops and restaurants.
The main attraction will be a new art museum and park designed by world famous Italian architect Renzo Piano (read more about that here).
I walk around on Tjuvholmen on a rather gloomy winter morning, trying to imagine what the place will look like on a bright sunny summer day a few years from now. Renzo Piano predicts that it will be one of the most beautiful places in the world.
I’m sure many will argue with that, but Tjuvholmen will definitely do its part in improving life in the Norwegian capital.
It is also an interesting model for modern urban development.
Tjuvholmen represents a new way of securing the economy for a project like this. A private investor bought the whole area from the city-owned Port Authority. The money from the sale is used to build a new cargo terminal further east in the Oslo Fjord, and the sales contract clearly stipulates how Tjuvholmen will be developed.
“There are a number of things the developer is committed to do, like streets, bridges, squares, parks, a waterfront promenade and the new art museum”, explains Stein Kolstø, the City of Oslo’s project manager for the Fjord City.
The same method will, basically, be used as work on the Fjord City now continues in the area around Oslo’s new Opera House at Bjørvika. Money from the developers will continue to finance the new port facility.
The history of the sale of Tjuvholmen, and the tough competition for choosing the master plan for the area, is a drama in itself involving the giants of real estate and architecture in Norway.
In December 2002 a master plan designed by veteran Norwegian architect Niels Torp, famous for his British Airways headquarters at Heathrow among other things, was picked as the winner by the City Council. The decision followed a bitter fight between Torp and his backers and a proposal by Snøhetta, another giant of Norwegian architecture and designers of the Oslo Opera House.
In the spring of 2003, a grouping called Tjuvholmen KS, buys the area and begins planning the development according to Torp’s master plan. The price tag was set at nearly 900 million Norwegian crowns (145 million US dollars, 108 million Euros).
Almost half the money is set to be used for developing urban spaces, and the art museum, for the public.
The first homes on Tjuvholmen where completed in 2007. These are no ordinary Oslo homes. Prices for apartments are almost twice as high as in other central Oslo locations.
Buyers get ultra-modern apartments, most with a view of the sea, in what is set to become the city’s most prestigious neighbourhood. The area will be more or less free of motor vehicles, as cars will be driven straight into underwater garages.
As I walk into the developer’s sales office, I get a taste of what’s on offer. For close to 8 million Norwegian crowns I could buy a 3-room apartment on the third floor of a rounded apartment building right on the waterfront.
Like in other cities with modern waterfront developments like this, there has been a debate in Oslo about these “enclaves for the rich”.
The same debate followed the development of Aker Brygge, right next to Tjuvholmen, in the 80’s and early 90’s. Aker Brygge, once home to a shipyard, is now a popular meeting place for Oslo residents.
“I think you can say that some are a bit provoked by the prices in these developments. These homes are not for the general public”, says Stein Kolstø, the project manager for the Fjord City.
“Homes in Aker Brygge were considered very expensive when it was built. I’m 52 years old and I have never been inside an apartment in Aker Brygge. But I have spent a lot of time on Aker Brygge, enjoying the waterfront, going to restaurants, having a beer or going to a movie. I have used Aker Brygge a lot, but I don’t miss living there”, says Kolstø.
Now the same debate is brewing again as construction gets under way at Bjørvika, which will be the main part of the Fjord City.
“People are angry and ask me who will live in Bjørvika. I tell them that it will be the people who buy apartments there. It’s as simple as that. The Fjord City project will benefit everybody in Oslo, but those who will live there are those who buy homes there”, says Kolstø.
Norway has no system of subsidized housing and waterfront developments are expensive. When the market sets its prices, apartments will cost more than most can afford. The City still has an ambition that ten percent of the homes in Bjørvika shall be reasonably priced.
But compared to what? That is pretty much up to the developers.
Those who can’t afford to live by the Fjord will at least get a completely new waterfront full of public spaces. When their longing for the sea, in the words of Ibsen, gets to strong they will be able to walk right down to the water and dip their toes in it.

This is the third and final report in a series on the transformation of Oslo.

Copyright: Tjuvholmen KS

Under construction; a model of a residential building on Tjuvholmen.

Copyright: Knut Ramstad for Tjuvholmen Utvikling

A model of the outer part of Tjuvholmen, with the art museum in the foreground.

Work is under way on the new art museum designed by Renzo Piano.

Prestigious development fears oblivion

2010-03-23T07:21:00.004+01:00

COPENHAGEN. It was the most prestigious urban development project in Scandinavia during the past decade.
Ørestad would become a showcase for modern city building with cutting-edge architecture, excellent public transportation and vast green fields surrounding this new face of Danish capital Copenhagen.
Then came the financial crisis, which left many buildings un-built. And on top of that, residents of Ørestad now fear that the city and the developers will leave them behind to focus on new, more exciting projects in other parts of the capital.
The Danish press is now talking of a “war between city districts” in Copenhagen.
Over the weekend, daily Berlingske Tidende ran a big piece on the worries in Ørestad. In an earlier report in this blog, I wrote about the critics who see Ørestad (right) as a failure with its desolate streets and empty lots.
Now residents in Ørestad, who paid big money for homes in what they thought would become the most exclusive part of Copenhagen, see signs that the future is moving elsewhere and that they will be left with their dark streets and empty lots.
Ørestad is divided into three parts. Ørestad North, closest to the city center, has a university complex, a celebrated new concert hall at the headquarters of Danish Radio, and residential buildings which gives life to its streets.
Ørestad City has some stunning residential buildings and the big convention center where the UN held its failed Climate Summit in December. It is dominated by the huge shopping center Field’s, which many blame for effectively killing all street life in the area.
The last part, Ørestad South, is where the problems become most obvious. Only a few buildings are under construction. Among them is the 8-house, a huge residential and office building designed by famous young Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and his firm BIG.
The building will be an attraction in itself when completed, but it is surrounded by empty lots and that isn’t likely to change in the near future.
Ørestad was planned for 20-25,000 residents, but there are only 5,500 living there today.
At the same time, the city is getting ready to build a number of new developments around Copenhagen. The most important of these is Nordhavnen, destined to be an environmentally friendly showcase eventually housing some 40,000 residents.
Copenhagen is growing, and everybody expects that growth to pick up considerable speed when the financial crisis is over.
But many residents now fear that the city will begin developing new districts, while leaving others half-finished.
“There are a colossal number of city development districts in Copenhagen. The question is if you shouldn’t give priority to finishing what already has been set in motion”, one architecture and urban planning professor tells Berlingske Tidende.
Former Copenhagen mayor Jens Kramer Mikkelsen, who now heads the CPH City & Port Development (jointly owned by the city and the Danish government), assures residents in Ørestad and elsewhere that they will not be left behind when Copenhagen continues to develop.
“When they a 100 years from now look back, I’m sure they’ll say that we did the right things”, says Jens Kramer Mikkelsen to the newspaper.
CPH City & Port Development is responsible for all big developments in the Danish capital.
Jens Kramer Mikkelsen, for many years a dominant figure in Copenhagen politics and development, sees Ørestad as a future Manhattan with a planned new sports arena as a Danish version of Madison Square Garden.
Looking at Ørestad today, it’s more like Central Park without the surrounding cityscape.

The 8-house will be an attraction in a desolate Ørestad.

The comic strip hero of architecture

2010-03-22T11:39:00.009+01:00

OSLO. Designing an eye-catching building is a complicated creative process where the architect has to convince a number of people of the brilliance of hers or his idea.
How can you best explain that process?
Bjarke Ingels, the 35-year-old international star of Danish architecture, came up with an unusual solution.
Together with his colleagues at BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) in Copenhagen he did it in a comic book that is as playful and practical as the architecture that has given his office a world reputation.
“The book has become an unexpected success. Many non-architects have told us that this is the first time they actually got something out of a book on architecture”, says Bjarke Ingels (left) when I by chance walk right into a small press briefing with him in Oslo.
Ingels was at the National Museum of Architecture in the Norwegian capital to open the exhibition “Yes is more” that led to the comic book with the same title.
The Oslo exhibition that runs until April 25 is a smaller version of the original showing from the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen that was a success last year. Ingels takes us through the exhibition and later in the day gives a lecture before a packed room of architects and students.
“Yes is more” is described as “an archicomic on architectural evolution”. In the book, readers are guided through the creative processes behind 35 of BIG’s projects. It shows how exciting ideas are rejected, just to show up again much later in another project.
“It often turns out that a great idea could be the right answer to a different question than the one you’re working on”, says Ingels.
After his education, Ingels spent a couple of years with Rem Koolhaas and his OMA in Rotterdam before heading home to Copenhagen to set up PLOT together his young Belgian OMA-colleague Julien de Smedt.
PLOT was an immediate success, but Ingels and de Smedt decided to go separate ways and the Bjarke Ingels Group was formed in 2006. It now has a staff of 86, a number of awards to its merit list and clients all over the world.
BIG’s work, a continuation of what was started at PLOT, has been described as seeking a balance between playful and practical approaches to architecture. The playfulness can be seen in most of BIG’s buildings, and even more in the objects that haven’t been built.
“In eight or nine years we have designed over 200 projects. Only eight have been built, and a few more are on the way”, says Ingels.
But he is not discouraged by the statistics.
“That’s the name of the game. The ideas live on. It’s a form of evolution.”
He describes 2009 as BIG’s best year so far, both artistic and economically. His office won a number of international competitions and exciting new projects are being built.
“Architecture is the art and science of resurfacing the surface of the earth”, says Ingels as he opens his lecture later in the day.
He is an entertaining speaker who tells a good story. If you would like to see an example of it, you can watch this video that I posted earlier in the blog.
When the Shanghai Expo 2010 opens in May, the world will get another taste of Bjarke Ingels and his architecture. BIG designed the Danish pavilion where they will try to convince visitors that sustainable urban development isn’t a burden, but rather increases the quality of life.

"The Mountain" in Copenhagen, one of BIG's most celebrated designs.

Copyright: Bjarke Ingels Group/National Museum of Architecture, Oslo

Hafjell ski resort, an example of BIG's playful design. The skiing begins on the roof.

A new scene for art and architecture

2010-03-19T13:09:00.010+01:00

OSLO/RECLAIMING THE SEA. On the scene way below my balcony seat, the drama of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser opera unfolds in a spectacular show. Dressed in present day Salvation Army uniforms, the cast performs on an impressive high-tech stage in constant change.
To be honest, I’ve come not as much for Wagner’s opera as for the chance to admire the inside of a spectacular building that has come to symbolize a transformation of the Norwegian capital on a massive scale.
Like a huge block of ice, the white marble Opera House is set in the waters of the Oslo Fjord. The sloping roof of the building that extends all the way down into the fjord forms a unique urban space where people gather both summer and winter.
In an exhibition at the Architecture museum nearby, representatives of the local world class architects Snøhetta, explain in a filmed interview that this dual use - both the inside and the outside – of the building was one the main ideas behind the project.
Snøhetta has already won several awards for its design of the Opera House (right and below), and the exhibition is due to the Norwegian architects winning the Mies van der Rohe Award for 2009.
The Opera House, with its cool marble exterior and its warm wooden interior, was opened two years ago as an inspirational starting point of what will become the new face of Oslo.
The Fjord City, as a series of developments along the waterfront is called (see my first report here), will reconnect the city with the sea.
This new Oslo will house an impressive series of cultural institutions in new buildings with high architectural ambitions.
If we move two kilometres along the Fjord to the west, we can begin an imaginary trip through the cultural Oslo of the future.
On Tjuvholmen, a small island peninsula that used to be occupied by port and shipyard facilities, builders are now busy completing what will be the fanciest part of the new Oslo. Most of the residential buildings are already in place, but the real gem will be a new art museum and recreational park complex designed by Italian master Renzo Piano.
The new privately owned Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is planned for opening in 2012. It is set to become one of Norway’s major attractions.
“Tjuvholmen is a small island, but I think the park there will become one of the most beautiful places in the world”, says Renzo Piano when interviewed in a book about the Tjuvholmen development.
He prefers to call it an “island of art” instead of a museum. Besides a gallery for modern art, there will be a sculpture park, recreational areas with a small beach, restaurants, an office building and an observation tower.
“The Piece”, as Piano calls it, of the project will be a large wooden roof covering the main buildings and the space between them.
“This project is inspired by Norway in so many ways. The buildings belong to the sea”, says Renzo Piano in the book interview, and explains that the inspirational site surrounded by water was the reason he accepted the offer to do this project.
Not far from Tjuvholmen, Oslo’s National Museum will have a new home behind the old railway station that now houses the city’s Nobel Peace Center. Six finalists have been chosen from an international architecture competition and the winner will be picked on April 12. Whoever wins, the new National Museum is bound to become one of Oslo’s signature buildings.
As we move eastwards, past Oslo’s characteristic City Hall, the area surrounding the Akershus Fortress (an important part of Norway’s historical heritage) will be spruced up.
Further east lies Bjørvika, with the Opera House, which will be the most significant part of the new Fjord City.
The Opera will get two high-profiled neighbours; a new home for the Edvard Munch collection and a new library.
Munch is Norway’s most important contribution to the history of art and his masterpiece “The Scream” one the world’s most famous paintings.
The present Munch Museum on the outskirts of central Oslo will be replaced by a new ultra-modern museum designed by Spanish architect Juan Herreros. His design “Lambda”, after the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, has caused some controversy in Oslo. Some find the 40 meter high building too tall, some think it looks more like a bank office than a museum.
Juan Herreros himself called the building “strange but logical” when he was interviewed by the Norwegian daily Aftenposten on a recent visit to Oslo where he faced some of his critics.
“This is a place where all of Oslo will go when they have their birthday or visitors from other places. We are also considering a viewing platform on the roof of the building. There you can go out from the exhibition and feel the light, the wind and the cool air, and then go inside the warm building again. If we make the building lower, it will diminish the view and the quality of the experience”, says Herreros in the Aftenposten interview.
The future Deichman Library, designed by local architects Lund Hagem, will be an innovative building with see-through walls on the other side of the Opera House.
Further east there will be a Middle Ages park on the original site of the Norwegian capital, with plans for a new Museum of Cultural History housing Oslo’s unique Viking ships. A decision on this is expected later this year.
“All of this will become an extremely attractive cultural cluster that will be important not only for those who live here and come here for visits. It will also to cultural cooperation across the borders”, says Bård Folke Fredriksen, the city’s Commissioner for Urban Development.

This is the second in a series of reports on the transformation of Oslo.

Oslo's new Opera House, rising from the water like a big block of ice.

The warm interior of Snøhetta's Opera House.

The new art museum on Tjuvholmen, designed by Italian master Renzo Piano.

A Norwegian facelift of historic proportions

2010-03-18T15:10:00.009+01:00

OSLO/RECLAIMING THE SEA. He might be stretching it a bit, but when the politician responsible for urban development in Oslo’s City Hall tries to describe the ongoing transformation of his city he digs deep in history.
“This is the biggest change of Oslo since 1624”, says Bård Folke Fredriksen, Commissioner for Urban Development in Oslo’s city government.
When he looks out the window of his tenth floor office in one of the towers of Oslo’s characteristic City Hall, Bård Folke Fredriksen (right) can see the changes taking place.
Oslo is reconnecting with the sea in a monumental waterfront development called Fjord City, a project that will completely change the face of the Norwegian capital. A decade or two from now, when the project is completed, Oslo will finally live up to its motto: “The Blue and the Green, the City in Between”.
Today most of the city center is separated from the blue waters of the Oslo Fjord by a stretch of dismal infrastructure that forms a barrier between urban life and the seafront.
Norway’s busiest highway (left) cuts right through the city center along the waterfront. Old port areas take up much of the rest of what is the face of Oslo.
Plans for the new Fjord City were first drawn almost 30 years ago, in the early 1980’s, and parts of the waterfront have already been transformed into pleasant new city districts. But the really big changes will be set in motion later this year, when the first part of the main waterfront highway is moved into a new tunnel under the waters of Bjørvika right in the city center.
Next to the iconic new Opera House, a celebrated architectural sensation, construction will begin on new residential areas. The highway will be torn down as soon as the tunnel is completed, and the new city district will be connected to the old center.
The Bjørvika development, one of a series of developments that form the Fjord City, will be right next to the historic center of the 1000-year old Norwegian capital.
This is where the great change took place in 1624, when the original city was destroyed in a fire and the King of Denmark, who ruled Norway at the time, decided to move the capital across the waters of Bjørvika to a new site further west along the fjord.
“The main driving force behind this development is the fact that Oslo is growing very quickly. We must secure that the city can house as much 200,000 more residents in the next 20 years. And that comes on top of a growth of 100,000 residents in the past 12 years”, says Bård Folke Fredriksen in the City Hall.
The city of Oslo now has a population of 585,000. The Fjord City developments with its 9,000 homes will not fill all needs for new housing, but this is where the symbolic change of Oslo is taking place.
After looking at a number of European waterfront developments lately, I’m tempted to say that no other city will go through a facelift comparable to Oslo’s.
The Fjord City project will not only change the physical image of Oslo in a dramatic way. It will also make the city a world class cultural attraction with several new institutions set to follow the Opera down to the waterfront in planned new architectural masterpieces. There will be more about that in later reports.
The video below will give you an idea of what this Oslo of the future will look like.
The frosting on the cake, Bård Folke Fredriksen says (using a similar Norwegian metaphoric expression), is that Oslo with the new development will get a 10 km long waterfront promenade linking the different parts of the Fjord City, from east to west.
“You will be able to go for a walk, fish and swim in the fjord. There will also be many open urban spaces leading down from the city to the new waterfront.”
As the construction at Bjørvika now gets under way, the vision of the Fjord City becomes more real for Oslo’s residents. There is a sometimes heated debate going on, mostly about details in the project. A later report will look more at that.
Stein Kolstø, the city’s project manager for the Fjord City development, has lived with the planned transformation of Oslo for decades. I meet him and his colleagues at the city’s Agency for Planning and Building Services for a comprehensive look at the changes brought forward by the Fjord City plans.
“This is very valuable land, both because it’s so near the city center, but also because it’s near the nature of the Fjord landscape. And it’s facing south. This closeness to the city center is something I think sets this project apart from other waterfront developments in Europe”, says Stein Kolstø.
Closest in comparison comes HafenCity in Hamburg, says Kolstø, a project that has been covered in this blog.
All existing port activities along the Oslo waterfront will be moved to a new terminal called Sydhavna (Southern Harbour) on the eastern edge of the Fjord City project. Construction of the new, modern port facility is financed by the sale of land to the developers of Fjord City.
The revamp of Oslo’s waterfront actually began in the 1980’s with Aker Brygge, a commercial and residential district near City Hall. It was completed in 1992 and has since been a popular meeting place with its bars and restaurants.
Near Aker Brygge, a small new development called Tjuvholmen (right) is nearing completion. Dominated by exclusive residential buildings, Tjuvholmen’s main draw will be a new art museum designed by world famous Italian architect Renzo Piano. There will be more on Tjuvholmen and Piano’s creation in later reports.
Filipstad, a large port facility to the west of Tjuvholmen, will be the last of Fjord City segments to be developed with residential, commercial and extensive park areas.
But for now all eyes are on Bjørvika, with some 5,000 homes and 20,000 workplaces the center of Fjord City.
The water of the fjord is now clean, since polluted sediments have been removed. Lobster has returned and city center beaches will be part of the future urban landscape.
In the era of sustainable urban development, Bjørvika’s main asset will be its location just a short walk from Norway’s most important public transportation hub – Oslo’s Central Station. Trains, subways, streetcars and buses – all meet here. The developments of the Fjord City will also be served by a new street car service.
A geothermal system using seawater will heat houses in Bjørvika through a district heating system.
Standing on the roof of the Opera house, you can only imagine the change this part of Oslo will go through the next 10-15 years.
To your right all you see is remaining containers from the port activities soon to be moved. To your left are some of the first buildings in the area – the so called “barcode” high rises (left) in the Opera block. When the highway is gone, these buildings while line the Queen Eufemia Street, the main boulevard through the new Oslo.
Stein Kolstø has been part of this vision from the beginning. The idea of a total makeover of the whole waterfront was there right from the start. But back then the challenge was to convince decision makers of the brilliance of the plan.
“This was a terrible place”, Kolstø says while pointing at Bjørvika on a map.
“Imagine standing there and trying to explain what a paradise it would become if only billions where invested.”

This is the first in a series of reports on the Fjord City development in Oslo.

An aerial view of Bjørvika as it will look in the future.

The "barcode" buildings; where the new Oslo begins.

A map of central Oslo showing the Fjord City developments in yellow.

2010-03-18T15:05:00.000+01:00

This video from the City of Oslo shows what the Bjørvika development will look like in the future. It’s in Norwegian, but here is a short recap:
The tour begins on the hill top Ekeberg park, overlooking Bjørvika and the city center. From here there will be a cableway to the new district in the future.
Much of the tour in the clip is focused on future parks and urban spaces, an effort from the city to calm fears that the area will be dominated by big buildings blocking the views.
Below you can see a photo of what Bjørvika looks like today.

Bjørvika today, a dismal old port facility ready for a total makeover.

Swedish urban development on show

2010-03-17T13:55:00.004+01:00

STOCKHOLM. Decision makers from cities all over the world and representatives of the international property business got a taste of modern Swedish urban development at the important trade show MIPIM in Cannes today.
Stockholm is using its present status as European Green Capital 2010 to market itself as a global role model for sustainable urban development. A delegation lead by Mayor Sten Nordin headed for the French Riviera to tell the world about it.
“We would like to act as a role model to inspire other cities. We have long a reputation as one of the cleanest cities in the world”, said Mayor Nordin (right) in a keynote address in Cannes Wednesday morning.
“The environmental work is important not only for our own citizens, but also as a way to share best practices with others. The exchange of ideas is essential.”
Mayor Nordin informed the audience about Stockholm’s planned way to become a CO2-free city by 2050 and ideas for the future in the city’s Vision 2030-document. He also presented the plan for Stockholm Royal Seaport, the city’s new showcase urban development that is already gaining international attention.
Later in the day the Swedish Trade Council, through its marketing project SymbioCity, hosted a presentation of sustainable urban development in the three Swedish cities Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.
The Swedes had also invited Hamburg to be part of the program, a show of cooperation between the two first European Green Capitals – Stockholm (2010) and Hamburg (2011).

Photo of Sten Nordin: © Peter Knutson

Green light for Swedish science cluster

2010-03-16T13:26:00.004+01:00

STOCKHOLM. In one the biggest developments ever in Sweden, a new science cluster and residential district will be built on an “infrastructural wasteland” on the border between Stockholm and the neighbouring city of Solna.
Stockholm’s City Council last night gave a green light to the project that will run for at least 15 years and cost some 50 billion Swedish crowns (7 billion US dollars or 5 billion Euros) in public and private money.
Residents have been invited to a competition to name the new district. A winner will be announced later this spring. For now it’s called Norra Station (North Station) after an old railway station in the area.
The ambition is to create a world class center for life sciences. A number of research foundations as well as three local universities are involved. The Karolinska Hospital, a leading Swedish hospital, on the Solna side of the project will be redeveloped and upgraded to top international standard.
Some 36,000 workplaces will be located in the new district, which also will be a dense new residential area with 5,500 homes. Norra Station is expected to be completed by 2025.
“With this decision we are sending a clear signal to investors and researchers that we are welcoming their operations to our region”, says Stockholm’s Mayor Sten Nordin.
Most of the discussion around Norra Station has been focused on the plans for two high rise towers called Tor’s Towers (right)forming a new gateway into Stockholm. The 140-meter towers have caused controversy for two reasons. Some people don’t want high rises at all in central Stockholm, other accept the idea but dislike the proposed design for the towers.
Kristina Alvendal, vice mayor for city planning, recently asked architects to return to the drawing boards to come up with something more interesting.
The political opposition in Stockholm’s City Hall called for an international architect competition during last nights debate. The present plan has been developed at the city’s planning department.
However, an architect competition is unlikely since planning now will go ahead for a start of construction later this year.
Norra Station is just one of several big developments under way in Stockholm, a city destined for big changes in the decade to come.

Konceptbeskrivning: White Arkitekter

The New Karolinska Hospital will be part of a Swedish life science cluster.

Danish capital aims for Expo 2022

2010-03-16T13:05:00.003+01:00

COPENHAGEN. The City of Copenhagen has now officially asked the Danish government to prepare a candidature for hosting the world Expo in 2022.
The city plans for the Expo to be a showcase for a planned new sustainable district called Nordhavnen, a CO2-neutral futuristic development under way on a huge, derelict port area just outside the city center. This sustainable new city district is expected to house 40,000 residents and 40,000 workplaces. Read more about it here.
“With an Expo we can hold on to the brand that Copenhagen got in connection with COP15 (the UN Climate Conference in December 2009) and show that Copenhagen can be a laboratory for development of big city solutions for CO2-goals locally and globally”, says Copenhagen’s new mayor Frank Jensen to Danish daily Berlingske Tidende.
“Such a showcase would also secure growth and export possibilities. After Nordhavnen in Copenhagen, the next step can be New York or Tokyo for implementing climate friendly solutions.”
If the plan comes through, Copenhagen would aim for a smaller version of the world Expo that would run for three months and attract 5-10 million visitors.
This year’s Expo in Shanghai, which will open in May, is a six month mega-event expected to be visited by 70 million people.

Copenhagen's Nordhavnen as it may look when its time for Expo 2022.

New city plan "a departure from modernism"

2010-03-16T11:26:00.005+01:00

STOCKHOLM. Last night the City Council in the Swedish capital Stockholm approved the new comprehensive plan setting up strategies for the city’s development in the next decade.
Kristina Alvendal, the ruling liberal-conservative coalition’s vice mayor for city planning, called the plan a return to “classic European urban planning”.
“This plan marks a departure from the modernist urban planning. We are creating the walkable city. The different parts of the city will be linked together”, said Kristina Alvendal (left) as she presented the ruling majority’s proposal.
The opposition from the left accused the majority of having “politicized” the comprehensive plan, but didn’t make a clear case in explaining that.
Last week I presented some of the main parts of the new plan in a series of reports that you can find here, here and here.
The plan is seen as an attempt to combine expansive growth with modern urbanity. The city itself is expected to grow from 800,000 residents to one million in the next 20 years. The Stockholm region is also expecting rapid growth.
The city will grow through densification, with new developments under way on old port and industrial sites as well as in a number of suburban nodes with good public transportation.

Photo of Kristina Alvendal: © Peter Knutson

A new icon for Norwegian winter sports

2010-03-15T11:48:00.012+01:00

OSLO. A young Belgian architect, working in Denmark, won the honour of designing the most important icon of Norwegian winter sports – the ski jump at Holmenkollen in Oslo.
The result went on full display for the first time this past weekend, when Oslo held the dress rehearsal for next year's World Championships at Holmenkollen, the classic winter sports venue overlooking the Norwegian capital. “Awesome” was a frequently heard comment from ski jumpers and on-lookers, as they admired the design by Julien de Smedt and his JDS Architects. The new Holmenkollen Beacon, as the ski jump is called, strives towards the sky in a daring structure that takes the sport to a new era.
When the complex is fully finished, a beam of light at night will extend the visual impression of the structure even further towards the sky. From Oslo’s city center, the Holmenkollen ski jump can be seen on the not too distant mountain, standing as a symbol for the winter sports that Norwegians hold so close to their hearts.
The World Championship trial run this past weekend was a great success, even though the new Holmenkollen (with venues for cross country skiing and biathlon next to the ski jump) is not completely finished yet.
The official opening of the ski jump on Saturday was, of course, conducted by His Majesty Harald V, Norway’s winter sports loving king.
I took the old train up to Holmenkollen on Saturday to spend a magnificent day among tens of thousands of Norwegians, most of them carrying flags and dressed in traditional ski wear as they came to pay tribute to the returning Norwegian heroes from the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
The fans got all they wished for as the great cross country skier Marit Bjørgen (winner of five medals in Vancouver, including three gold medals) led the Norwegian women to a 1-2-3-sweep in the opening 30 km-race.
To underline the importance Norwegians put into winter sport, some 6,000 fans spent the night in cold tents in the Holmenkollen forest just to get a good spot along the course.
Anyone who would like to experience winter sports in a classic venue should head for Oslo next year, when the World Championships are held in Holmenkollen February 26 to March 6.
The Winter Olympics were held here in 1952, and Oslo markets itself as the World’s Winter Capital.
It’s hard to argue with that. There are few major cities in the world where you will see people dressed in ski gear and carrying their skies on public transportation, heading for a day of outdoor fun in Holmenkollen and beyond.
“The City of Oslo wants it to be the skiing capital of the world, with the best after-ski in the world right downtown”, says Bård Folke Fredriksen, commissioner for urban development, when I meet him for an interview in Oslo’s City Hall.
There has been cost overrun in the development of new Holmenkollen, and the word “scandal” has been used in Norwegian press. The project was budgeted at 1.8 billion Norwegian Kroner (300 million US Dollars, 217 million Euros).
“It is too bad that it became more expensive than planned. But this is something that had to been done for Holmenkollen, and now we have a fantastic venue. Next year’s World Championships will be a great festival”, promises Bård Folke Fredriksen.
The new Holmenkollen can also be seen as a beacon leading the way for the new Oslo under development along the shoreline of the Oslo Fjord.
I went to the Norwegian capital to have a look at the huge transformation of the city that is taking place. There will be several reports in the blog on that later on this and next week.

The new icon for Norwegian winter sports; the ski jump at Holmenkollen.

The local train will take you right up to Holmenkollen.

The top of the ski jump will hold a platform with a great view of Oslo.

From one core to several nodes

2010-03-12T07:01:00.001+01:00

STOCKHOLM/PLANNING A CITY. Like many major cities, Stockholm is pretty much focused on one core.
Like many cities, the Swedish capital would like to see that change.
“I don’t know of many cities that succeeded in doing that. It would be a very exciting development if that would happen”, says Niklas Svensson of the City of Stockholm Planning Department where he headed work on the new comprehensive plan for the city.
In the Stockholm City Plan, set to be adopted on Monday, planners have pointed out nine “strategic nodes”. These are suburban centres they would like to see develop into more robust “cities within the city”.
Future suburban development will be focused on these nodes, which already have good public transportation and commercial centres. The transportation infrastructure is set to be improved further, according to the new comprehensive plan, with suggested focus on transverse transit.
Development of the suburban nodes will not only be about housing and workplaces. They have to offer more of entertainment, culture, sports etc to pull people away from the city center.
“Of course, it’s very difficult to plan for this kind of development. But we have analyzed all parts of Stockholm and come to the conclusion that these nine nodes have a good base for further development”, says Niklas Svensson.
On a snowy winter day, I take the subway for a half-hour ride westwards from the city center to Vällingby (left, and below right). This is one of the suggested nodes in the new City Plan, and a node with a history and an important part of Sweden’s modernist heritage.
In the late 40’s, Vällingby was planned as Sweden’s first ABC-town, short for Arbete-Bostad-Centrum in Swedish (Work-Housing-Center). This “New Town” suburb wasn’t meant to be a sleeper community, but a city center serving all the needs of its residents.
After it was opened in 1954, visitors flew in from all over the world to study this Swedish showcase in modern urban planning. Vällingby was the Hammarby Sjöstad, today’s model for sustainable urban development, of its age.
Vällingby and its logotype “V” also became an idyllic symbol for the Swedish welfare state built by the Social Democrats. Former Social Democratic Prime Minister Olof Palme, assassinated in 1986, chose to live with his family in Vällingby for many years.
As the years went by, the idea lost its lustre. But now Vällingby might be set for a come back.
In 2008 a new shopping center was opened right next to the classic 1950’s Vällingby center. Well known Swedish architect GertWingårdh was awarded a first prize at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona for his design of the Kfem shopping mall, built on top of the subway tracks.
But Stockholm planners are not seeking a revival of the dreams of the 50’s in their new suburban nodes.
“The old idea that people would live and work in the same place is not something we think will happen. The important thing is to have a mix of homes and workplaces. Then there will be an exchange of people. But it would of course be good if more people choose to live closer to where they work”, says Niklas Svensson.
Another node is Kista in the north western corner of Stockholm. This center for information technology is set to expand further into a “Science City”. It is seen as an interesting example of the suburban mix of offices and homes. But few, if any, of the employees of Kista’s IT-companies live in the area.
“We now have to think a lot about what type of processes will be needed to develop these nodes. I don’t think we can just rely on the market forces. One important thing will be to improve public transit, even though it is already good”, says Svensson.
Four of the suggested nodes are located north of central Stockholm, five on the south.
Niklas Svensson and his fellow planners see the development of the nodes as a long term process.
“If, by 2030, Kista and one more node on the north and two of the nodes on the south have developed like we wish, then Stockholm has come a long way.”

This is the third and final report on the new Stockholm City Plan, set to be adopted on Monday.

In the 1950's, Stockholm suburb Vällingby was a modernist dream.

The award-winning Kfem shopping center in Vällingby.

London's greatest attraction turns 10

2010-03-11T07:18:00.000+01:00

DESIGN. When cities invest in daring objects of art, design, architecture – or bid for the Olympics, for that matter – there is always an outcry against what is seen as a waste of public money.
When the object is in place, and people start enjoying it, the protesters disappear and the visitors from near and far start to arrive.
I like those kinds of things, like Anish Kapoor’s fantastic steel sculpture “Cloud Gate” in Chicago (readers of this blog might have noticed my affection for this object).
Another of my favourites turns 10 this week.
After a couple of months of technical problems, the London Eye was opened to the public in March 2000.
Jonathan Glancey, the Guardian’s architecture critic, wrote a nice piece about it earlier this week.
London is a city of many attractions. But if somebody asked me to pick one, and only one, thing to do on a short visit, I would recommend the 30-minute ride on this giant ferris wheel by the Thames.
More than 30 million people have enjoyed the great views of the city from the glass capsules that slowly take you up in the sky.
But it’s not only the view take makes the London Eye special. This is a great design object to enjoy from above and below. The smart construction, by architects Marks Barfield, leaves you somewhat bewildered as you try to figure out how it works while pointing out all the London landmarks on the ground below.
Or as Jonathan Glancey puts it:
“The London Eye was always a brave and daring adventure, a throwback to 1951’s Festival of Britain, held on the same site – an era when Britain could still claim to lead the world (just) in supersonic-era design and engineering. It looks to the past as well as the future.”

The greatest view in London, from the city's greatest attraction.

And now, version 2.0 of green development

2010-03-10T07:29:00.007+01:00

STOCKHOLM/PLANNING THE FUTURE. For more than a decade, foreign visitors have come to Hammarby Sjöstad on the fringes of Stockholm’s inner city, looking for inspiration in sustainable urban development.
The project took off in the mid 90’s as an important part of Stockholm’s failed bid for the 2004 Summer Olympics. It has been seen as a model for eco-friendly city building, but lately there have been critical voices in Sweden claiming that Hammarby Sjöstad doesn’t live up to its “green” reputation.
The criticism is focused on the energy efficiency of the buildings in the still on-going development, and the first comprehensive evaluation report of the project, released last year, supports that claim.
But Nils Brandt, associate professor in industrial ecology at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and the man behind the report, underlines that this doesn’t diminish the importance of Hammarby Sjöstad (right).
“In fact, it’s one of the main conclusions in our report. Hammarby Sjöstad has had such an impact because this was the first time someone tried to implement such a holistic environmental profile for a whole city district. This was an important accomplishment that I think has inspired many others, also internationally”, says Nils Brandt.
You can find the document here, in Swedish with a summary in English.
In the new Stockholm City Plan, the comprehensive plan for future development to be adopted by the local council next week, planners don’t go into the details of coming projects. But the city has an ambition to strengthen its position as an international role model when it comes to sustainable urban development.
The place to follow those ambitions in the next decade or two will be a project called Stockholm Royal Seaport (or Norra Djurgårdsstaden in Swedish), located on the north eastern outskirts of the city center.
The Royal Seaport development sums up many of the ambitions in the new City Plan, from densification and expansion on old industrial and port sites, to new infrastructure for public transit and tough emission goals.
Ulla Hamilton, the city’s vice mayor for environment and traffic, recently called plans for the new development an ambition to create Hammarby Sjöstad 2.0.
“It was important to evaluate Hammarby Sjöstad. If you want to move on to the next generation of sustainable development, you have to know what didn’t work in the first generation in order not to make the same mistakes again”, says Hamilton.
“Hammarby Sjöstad has sometimes been described as a failure when it comes to energy consumption, but I don’t think you can look at it that way. At the time it was planned, the energy question was not on top of the agenda. Now we will learn from that and raise the bar.”
Ulla Hamilton describes Hammarby Sjöstad as a big step forward in modern urban development, if you judge it from the circumstances at the time. Nils Brandt agrees.
But critics point at the Royal Seaport project and claim that the city still doesn’t set tough enough energy standards for the buildings.
Nils Brandt, who is working on a model for continuous evaluation of the environmental aspects of the Royal Seaport project, says that’s correct when it comes to the first stage of the project. It was planned well before the city set up present standards, following the evaluation of Hammarby Sjöstad.
“With the environmental program for stage 2, it is different”, says Brandt.
The Stockholm Royal Seaport is part of an exclusive group of 17 development projects world wide that have been chosen by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his foundation to take part in a Climate Positive Development Program.
In its vision for this showcase project, the City of Stockholm sees the Royal Seaport as a “world class environmental city district” with three overall goals:
To be free from fossil fuels by 2030.
To have CO2-emissions lower than 1.5 ton/capita by 2020.
To be adjusted for coming changes in the climate.
Developers have to sign a “world class agreement” with the city, agreeing to the high environmental standard from stage 2 and on in the Royal Seaport project. Nils Brandt at KTH points out that much has changed in the attitude of developers since Hammarby Sjöstad was first planned.
“At that time their reaction to environmental demands was to say no to everything, and describe them as impossible. Today many developers have come a long way. In some ways they act more responsibly than the city”, says Brandt.
The evaluation of Hammarby Sjöstad points out the importance of integrating environmental aspects into all parts of the planning process from the very beginning. That is what Stockholm now wants to do in the Royal Seaport and other designated developments with an environmental profile.
Many Swedes see their country as a leader in eco-friendliness. But as the evaluation of Hammarby Sjöstad stresses, that leadership role has more to do with old municipal technological systems than with modern, cutting-edge so called green tech.
The “Hammarby Model” with its district heating, sewage system, biogas production and waste treatment form the backbone of the environmental program for Hammarby Sjöstad. Much of this has been around for decades in Swedish cities and towns, but putting it in the context of modern urban development on a district level made it interesting for the world in a new way.
Now we are waiting for version 2.0.

This is the second in a series of reports on the new Stockholm City Plan, set to be adopted next week.

Copyright: Aaro Designsystem/City of Stockholm

The first stage of Stockholm Royal Seaport, as it will look in the future.

Creating a manual for a world class city

2010-03-09T07:28:00.009+01:00

STOCKHOLM/PLANNING THE FUTURE. The politicians in Stockholm’s City Hall have a vision for what the Swedish capital will look like in 2030.
Now there is a plan for how to get there.
On Monday afternoon, March 15, the local council is expected to adopt the city’s new comprehensive plan – the Stockholm City Plan.
In Vision 2030, adopted in 2007, the future Stockholm is described as a world class metropolis combining the pulse of the big city with a unique closeness to nature and water. It spearheads a strong regional growth and is a center for knowledge-based businesses supported by innovation, high quality education and research.
Today’s 800,000 residents will grow by 200,000 in a city where there is limited room to grow outwards within the city limits. Stockholm is the center in an extended region around Lake Mälaren with more than 3 million inhabitants, a third of the country’s population.
“If there is a clear vision of what the city will look like 20 years from now, it was pretty obvious for us that the comprehensive plan should tell us how to get there”, says Niklas Svensson, project manager for urban planning at the City of Stockholm Planning Administration.
Svensson headed work on the new City Plan, which in several ways leads in new directions when it comes to city planning in Stockholm.
First of all the new City Plan marks an ambition to make comprehensive planning, required by law for municipalities, more of a strategic navigation tool than a traditional land use plan. Strategic planning for the city’s future will also be an on-going process from now on.
“That way we can focus on the most important issues of the moment, take on the toughest challenges, and then update the plan when it’s needed”, says Niklas Svensson.
Secondly, the new City Plan calls for Stockholm to grow in a somewhat different way than in the past, when development traditionally has moved outwards in mostly smaller patches. Now Stockholm follows an international trend where cities grow inwards through densification and development of harbour and industrial sites in central locations.
In other words, what’s normally referred to as sustainable urban development.
“When we meet our colleagues from the other Nordic countries, and from what we see in EU-projects where we take part, it’s clear that the thinking goes like this in many cities. No matter how you toss and turn things, this seems to be the recipe for the future. It will be interesting to hear the verdict 15 years from now”, says Niklas Svensson.
“I know that there are critics who don’t think this unison way of finding solutions is good, but they seldom present an idea of how things should be done instead”, says Svensson.
The City Plan points out four strategies for sustainable growth.
● Strengthen central Stockholm.
This strategy covers not only on-going development right in the city center, with several projects under way near the Central Station accompanied by a never-ending public debate over what this does to the traditional cityscape of Stockholm.
Kungsholmen, one of the island districts that form what is known as the inner-city of Stockholm, is going through big changes as the last remnants of small industries give way for thousands of new homes (right).
In a ring of “inner suburbs”, bordering on the inner-city, densification will in fact lead to a further expansion of the central city. The model for this is Hammarby Sjöstad, a development that begun in the mid 90’s and became a showcase for Stockholm’s ambitions to be a world leader in modern, sustainable urban development.
Now Stockholm is ready to take the next step in the Royal Seaport development, already receiving international attention. How the experiences from Hammarby Sjöstad will be used in future developments will be the topic of my next report.
Further development of already existing inner suburbs will stir some emotions, mostly from people living there.
“This might the most controversial part of the comprehensive plan. These are attractive places, near the inner-city but with more open spaces. Some green areas should not be touched, but there are some areas that form barriers that you would like to breach. We think that this plan in an honest way should point out where this could be done, where we should put our focus for densification”, says Niklas Svensson.
Southwest of Södermalm, another of the popular inner-city districts, this is already happening.
● Focus on strategic nodes.
Planners have chosen nine suburban centres on the outskirts of the city as suitable for a special focus on densification and development as outer city nodes. There will be more on this in a later report.
● Connect city areas.
Stockholm has a good public transportation system, with a strong backbone in subway and commuter rail traffic. But most of it connects suburbs with the city center. The City Plan calls for a better integration between suburbs, with improvement in transverse travel. Linking city areas through development at connecting borders is another idea for the future.
The infrastructure needed for this will also be an important part of a new regional plan set to be adopted later this spring.
“We try to look at this in a more visionary way, maybe beyond 2030”, says Niklas Svensson.
● Create a vibrant urban environment.
City planners want to focus on the core and the suburban nodes for future development, but promise to keep an eye on the urban environment in other areas as well. As parts of Stockholm will be developed in the decades to come, other parts must be preserved. There will be room for smaller developments, but they must be near public transit.

This is the first in a series of reports on Stockholm’s new City Plan, to be adopted by the City Council on March 15.

The famous City Hall disappears behind construction in central Stockholm.

A model shows residents where Stockholm's future development will take place.

Danish award to a "raw and poetic" boulevard

2010-03-08T10:24:00.006+01:00

COPENHAGEN. The seedy streets of Vesterbro used to be the dark side of Denmark’s capital Copenhagen. Drug trafficking and prostitution characterized this neighbourhood near the city’s Central Station.
You can still see remnants of that in Vesterbro, but this part of Copenhagen has been transformed into a vibrant example of modern urbanism.
Now Sønder Boulevard, a main thoroughfare turned into a lively urban space, has been awarded the yearly “Road Price” for 2009 by the Danish Road Directorate.
“Sønder Boulevard is an excellent example of how the city’s many functions can be connected in harmony. When it was constructed in the late 1800’s, Sønder Boulevard was a classic boulevard. Today it stands out as an expression for how infrastructure and recreation can be combined despite the contradiction in those concepts and their functions”, says Per Jacobsen, director of the Danish Road Directorate.
The architecture of the renewed boulevard, designed by SLA architects in Copenhagen, is described as at the same time “raw and poetic”.
During my last couple of visits to Copenhagen I have enjoyed walking along this modern streetscape. People gather in the park between the opposite lanes of the boulevard. Small weekend markets draw young and old, people play basketball or table tennis.
As the boulevard turns into Halmtorvet (Straw Square) nearer the Central Station you find many restaurants and cafés, several with an eco-profile.
Here is also the popular Kødbyen, Copenhagen’s own Meatpacking District, now an increasingly popular place for cool restaurants, bars, galleries and shops.
“Sønder Boulevard will surely set new standards for how we create good urban spaces in Copenhagen. The boulevard used to be a thoroughfare that now turned into a place where you can stroll in green surroundings, relax on a bench, use the playground or play ball. We created new opportunities in the middle of the city – and we created a green belt through Vesterbro”, says Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard, Copenhagen’s vice mayor for the environment, in a comment to the award.

A weekend market on a boulevard turned into a modern urban space.

Leading the way to the urban future

2010-03-05T16:27:00.005+01:00

GOTHENBURG. With a brand new international research center for sustainable urban development and big plans for future expansion, Sweden’s second city is ready to become a laboratory for modern urbanism.
Gothenburg, or Göteborg as it’s known in Swedish, is a pleasant city of half a million on the country’s west coast. Streetcars form the backbone of public transportation, like they have for over a hundred years, and pedestrians stroll along “the Avenue” as Kungsportsavenyn, the main boulevard, is commonly known.
The jovial people of this city are proud of the strong industrial heritage in car-manufacturing (Volvo is based here) and shipbuilding.
With the shipyards long gone and the switch to a knowledge-based economy already an established fact, Gothenburg is now ready to take a giant leap in transforming the city itself.
In a huge project with a striking resemblance to Hamburg’s HafenCity, the largest on-going urban development in Europe, Gothenburg is now beginning a process of developing old port and industrial sites along the Göta River right in the center of the city.
Centrala Älvstaden (or the Central River City) as the project is called, will greatly increase the city center and eventually add homes for some 30,000 residents and workplaces for another 40,000.
City authorities are in the process of appointing a special project organisation that will work directly under the city government in the planning and developing of Centrala Älvstaden.
At the same time, a new and in some ways unique research center for sustainable urban development is setting up shop in Gothenburg. The Mistra Urban Futures will be an interdisciplinary and international center for urban issues with close ties to Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg.
A director for the center will be recruited internationally in the near future and a number of pilot projects are under way.
“We will work with a methodology that we hope will be characteristic for the center. Researchers will work close with practitioners in the field, like planners, builders, developers, energy experts, policy makers etc”, says Henrik Nolmark, acting head of the center during the build-up period of the organisation.
“That gives the city quick access to useful knowledge as it plans new projects. It also generates two types of knowledge, one for traditional research, and one for a more direct input into on-going work”, says Nolmark.
Gothenburg got the center in tough competition with other Swedish cities, primarily Stockholm and Malmö. The two Gothenburg universities, the City of Gothenburg, an environmental research institute and three regional bodies stand behind the winning bid.
The center is also financed by Mistra, a Swedish foundation for strategic environmental research, and the government-run aid agency Sida.
Mistra Urban Futures will form an international network with research institutions in Manchester, Shanghai, Cape Town and Kisumu in Kenya.
“We aim to be a national center for studies in sustainable urban development, but also to be known internationally”, says Henrik Nolmark, and stresses the opportunities future plans for development in Gothenburg will offer researchers at the center.
“It will be very interesting to follow the development along the river, where a great number of homes and office buildings will be built. But the city also has interesting ideas for transforming suburbs.”
On a short visit to Gothenburg earlier this week, I enjoyed late winter sunshine on a walk along the Göta River and tried to image what the city might look like when the visions of the future have been realized.
The river has been a traditional barrier between the city center to the south and the industrial and port facilities on the Hisingen island to the north. With most of port activities now placed further down the river, the transformation of the city began already in the 90’s with new developments north of the river. Commuters cross the river on ferries.
But the vision for Centrala Älvstaden is on a completely different scale.
“For a long time I think it was difficult for this city to accept the fact that the shipyards were gone. But now we are past that and ready to move on”, says Ylva Löf, in charge of comprehensive planning at the City Planning Authority.
She takes me through the comprehensive planning that aims at connecting both sides of the river as Gothenburg will grow through densification of the city center. As the Gothenburg region, with some 900,000 people, grows there is an ambition to strengthen the core to attract new businesses and people.
“More and more people are looking for an urban lifestyle. They don’t mind living closer together, and it’s not only about the environment”, says Ylva Löf.
The future developments in Gothenburg will set high standards for sustainability, but Löf points out that this is something younger planners like her now take for granted. When I ask her what sets Gothenburg apart she points at something else.
“I think there is a clearer social focus in our planning here in Gothenburg, trying to break the segregation in our society.”

Down by the river, where Gothenburg will grow in the future.

Stockholm to promote new architecture

2010-03-04T15:28:00.004+01:00

ARCHITECTURE. In the friendly battle between Stockholm and Copenhagen to decide which city is Scandinavia’s true leader in modern urban development, there are two distinct trends.
In sustainable city planning and building Stockholm is ahead, thanks to a long established tradition in robust municipal infrastructure like district heating, public transportation and waste management. That is why Stockholm was awarded the title European Green Capital 2010.
When it comes to an attractive green lifestyle and exciting new architecture, Copenhagen takes the lead with its bicycle-friendly streets and headline-grabbing young architects.
Now Stockholm wants to catch up in the architecture department.
Kristina Alvendal, vice mayor for city planning and housing, announced yesterday that the city is introducing a yearly prize for the best new architecture in Stockholm. The city’s residents will be invited to nominate candidates and then choose the winner from a field of five finalists selected by a jury.
“Today we are building the cultural heritage of the future. By paying attention to the best that is built we can further raise the ambitions when it comes to interesting architecture in Stockholm and contribute to creating both beautiful and nice cityscapes for today’s and future generations of Stockholmers”, says Kristina Alvendal.
The first winner, for the best building of 2009, will be announced later this spring.
There is a lot of ongoing urban development in Stockholm, but hard to pick any obvious favourites for the title. Perhaps the prize can be seen a veiled criticism of recent developments in the city and a longing for more exciting architecture in future projects.
Architecture buffs visiting Stockholm enjoy classic gems like Ragnar Östberg’s red brick City Hall from 1923 or Gunnar Asplund’s beautiful Public Library from 1928 (above left). The 21-year-old Globe Arena, the world’s largest spherical building, is also hard to miss.
But will modern office buildings, like Kungsbron 2 (above right) completed in 2009, stir the emotions of residents? We’ll soon find out.

Never the city you saw last time

2010-03-03T16:33:00.008+01:00

CHICAGO/ARCHITECTURE. I will never forget the thrill when I for the first time saw Chicago’s skyline. It was in October 1974, I was a bewildered Swedish exchange student in Indiana on my first excursion to the big city.
I gazed at the brand new Sears Tower, then the tallest building in the world, and the forest of skyscrapers in the Loop. Chicago instantly became my favourite city and it still is a favourite.
I’ve been back many times since then. Thanks to a good Chicago friend, who is a superb guide, I’ve seen many of the neighborhoods that make the city so special. And thanks to the fantastic Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) and its passionate volunteer guides, I’ve done many tours in a city that few can rival when it comes to modern, world-class architecture.
CAF is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the city’s architecture and the history behind it. CAF offers 85 different tours and if you would like to get a taste of it you can check out this blog which sets out to take all tours during the course of 2010.
On my latest visit I had a chance to squeeze in two CAF-tours. At the end of the first one, the classic River Cruise (right), the guide used these words from Mark Twain (Americans love to quote him) to describe what we had just experienced:
“It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago – she outgrows her prophecies faster that she can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.”
That was exactly how I felt this time. I hadn’t been to Chicago for a number of years and there were so many new things to see.
As our River Cruise began, we immediately passed one of the new landmarks – the gleaming Trump Tower. Next to it stands the 52-story 330 North Wabash (formerly the IBM Plaza), one of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s black modernist skyscrapers in Chicago, now dwarfed by its neighbour.
A cruise along the Chicago River is a like riding through a man-made canyon lined by colossal pieces of architecture. The guide takes you through the styles; beaux-arts, art deco, modernism, post-modernism, and the great names of architecture that all came here to build the city that saw the birth of the skyscraper.
We pass the massive Merchandise Mart, one of the biggest buildings in the world, and we turn our heads up to see the aging giant now called Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower).
If you’re in Chicago just for a short stop-over and only have time for one trip, take the River Cruise.
Another day I join one of CAF:s many walking tours, this one called Modern Skyscrapers. We look at many of the buildings that set the style for high rise buildings in the decades following World War II, like Mies van der Rohe’s Federal Plaza built 1959-74.
One of the more unusual buildings on the tour is the Metropolitan Correctional Facility (left), a high rise prison in the middle of downtown Chicago. The triangular 27-story tower, designed by Harry Weese and completed in 1975, has a rooftop exercise yard.
We end the tour in Millennium Park, near CAF headquarters at 224 South Michigan Avenue. This is another of the great new attractions in Chicago that I hadn’t seen before. Opened in 2004, Millennium Park has been a success and is probably one of the best examples in the world of how a new public space can add life to a city.
Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate and Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain are instant favourites.
If you have the time, you should also take a tour of the older skyscrapers of Chicago, not very tall by today’s standards, but revolutionizing at their time.
One of my favourites is the Marquette Building, built in the 1890’s in what often is called Chicago’s golden age for architecture. This 17-story office building has a fantastic lobby highlighted by a mosaic conveying early Chicago history (right).
The Marquette Building is a prime example of the early “Chicago School” type of architecture that became world famous. It was also one of the early steel-frame buildings, a technique that made skyscrapers possible.
Mark Twain went on to describe Chicago as a place for “achieving new impossibilities”. I wonder what he would say today.

This is the third in a series of reports on architecture in Chicago.

Cloud Gate, or "the Bean" as Chicagoans call it, in Millennium Park.

Heading into Chicago's man-made canyon on a River Cruise.

Twin sister to replace absent mermaid

2010-03-02T06:05:00.001+01:00

COPENHAGEN. The most famous symbol of the Danish capital leaves on a long trip later this year to promote her home town.
The Little Mermaid, or Den Lille Havfrue as she is called in Danish, will be a big attraction in the Danish pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai from May to October. The little bronze figure, much smaller than first-time visitors expect her to be, will be removed from the rock where she sits on the inlet to Copenhagen harbour and transported to China.
There have been worries in Copenhagen over how tourists will react when this main attraction on most city tours is gone. But daily Berlingske Tidende reports that there will be a substitute ready to greet visitors.
The Little Mermaid has a “twin sister” that was made by sculptor Edvard Eriksen, who created the fairytale figure in 1913. The mermaid twin, owned by descendants of Eriksen, will be placed on display at the picturesque amusement park Tivoli in central Copenhagen when summer season begins April 15.
The Little Mermaid statue was inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen story with the same name.
“Welfairytales” is also the name of the Danish pavilion at Expo 2010, where the overall theme is “Better City, Better Life”. The pavilion, designed in part by young Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and his studio BIG, will portray Copenhagen as a modern, liveable, sustainable city where people ride their bicycles (as Expo-visitors also will be able to do in the Danish pavilion), enjoy clean water and see The Little Mermaid sitting on her rock.
Over 70 million visitors are expected to Expo 2010, which opens in Shanghai May 1 and runs to October 31.