Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.11.2011, Page 22

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2011
If you have been wondering wheth-
er an old school ghetto can be found
in Reykjavík, the answer is 'sort of.’
What Icelanders refer to as their
‘ghetto’ is more commonly referred
to as Breiðholt, a neighbourhood in
the east part of the city. Breiðholt,
built from 1967–1982, is Iceland's
clearest example of the dominant
policy after the Second World War:
to quickly construct cheap apart-
ments, specially targeted at the
working class.
Before becoming a suburb, Breiðholt
(literally: “Wide Hill”) was a farmland,
whose main building was a classical
Icelandic turf house. In the year 1900,
when Reykjavík was inhabited by a total
of 6.667 souls, Breiðholt was still part of
the countryside, and it took the farmers
one day to walk to the city and back.
The history of the suburb Breiðholt
started in 1960. That year, the city of
Reykjavík started making a new urban
plan to follow the increase in popula-
tion following World War II. The plan
was characterised by an emphasis of
private car ownership, and the suburbs
were born.
Breiðholt has from the start been
Reykjavík’s most populated district.
It is furthermore the district that has
received the most negative press cov-
erage through the years. And the rea-
son is? Well, when Breiðholt was in
process, the government was settling
years-long conflicts between the work-
ing class union, employers, and itself,
regarding salary and benefits. In the
end, they agreed that the government
would take care of building apartments
for low income families for the next
years to come. A committee was estab-
lished which in the end finished build-
ing apartments for almost 50% of the
inhabitants in Breiðholt.
THE THREE STAGES OF A “GHETTO”
When Icelanders refer to Breiðholt,
they are actually talking about three
quarters designed with three different
ideologies: Neðra-Breiðholt (“Lower-
Breiðholt”: 1967–1973), Efra-Breiðholt
(“Upper-Breiðholt”: 1970–1982), and
Seljahverfi (1974–1982).
Neðra-Breiðholt is characterised by
U-shaped-apartment buildings with a
garden in the middle for happy people
inhabiting happy suburbs. The com-
mittee built almost 300 apartments in
Neðra-Breiðholt, but it had nothing to
do with the quarter’s design.
The next quarter to be built was
Efra-Breiðholt. There, the commit-
tee had total freedom to do what they
wanted to do. They felt that the corners
in the U-shaped apartment building in
Neðra-Breiðholt had been too costly.
With that in mind it was decided to
make houses with as few corners as
possible; or in other words, to make
houses as long as possible. Behind
these decisions was also the love for
technology. For the first time in Iceland,
moveable construction cranes were
available to use. And what did Iceland-
ers do with moveable construction
cranes? They kept going and ended
up with the longest house ever been
built in Iceland: 320 m long, with total
of twenty staircases, for 7–800 people.
This house is located in Norðurfell and
soon acquired the nick-name ‘Lan-
gavitleysa (“Long Nonsense”), still in
use. When the building committee was
dissolved in 1983, around 6.000 people
lived in apartments that the committee
had built—at that time the entire popu-
lation of Breiðholt numbered 15.000.
Seljahverfi was constructed from
1974–1982. It has always been the little
sister of the two other neighborhoods,
innocent and cute. In Seljahverfi, fac-
tors such as economic chaos and hy-
perinflation somehow directed middle-
class people into building huge villas
that now characterise the quarter.
HOW CAN WE NORMAlISE IT?
Despite its important part in elimi-
nate unsuitable housing in Reykjavík,
Breiðholt received criticism early on.
Efra-Breiðholt got a particularly bad
reputation, since there was a really high
rate of low income families and a great
number of single parents living there. In
1977, 15% of single parents in Reykja-
vík lived in this area—indeed, in some
apartment buildings weren’t inhabited
by a single adult male.
These circumstances were a source
for various stories that ended up in the
main newspapers in Iceland.
Journalists were active in writing ar-
ticles about vandalism in Breiðholt, and
little by little Breiðholt gained a reputa-
tion for being Reykjavík's ‘ghetto.’ Efra-
Breiðholt always got the most attention
in the media, and it is there where the
City of Reykjavík put the most effort in
social improvements. The neighbor-
hood was thought to be homogeneous,
both in terms of the buildings and the
people living there. Actual residents in
Breiðholt often lied about where they
lived, and people in other neighbor-
hoods outside Breiðholt were terrified
of going there.
Politicians got nervous and felt the
need to “fix” the suburb afterwards
to meet people's “social and cultural
needs.” Money was put into the first
teenage social center in Iceland (Fel-
lahellir), a sports club was established
(Leiknir), the only culture house out-
side the city centre was built (Gerðu-
berg), the first community college in
Iceland was established (Fjölbrautar-
skólinn í Breiðholti), and so on.
Despite of the “ghetto” stamp
Breiðholt was slapped with in the '80s,
its reality did not conform to its image.
In Reykjavík’s most populated neigh-
bourhood, which included all the city’s
social housing, there were also the few-
est incidents of crimes per capita. In the
period 1967–1974, a total of 62 serious
crimes were committed in Iceland, and
only one of those crimes was commit-
ted in Breiðholt.
CAN WE PlEASE ElIMINATE THE
CREATIVE ENERGY?
From the very beginning there was
a strong counter-culture scene con-
nected to Breiðholt. The neighborhood
was full of children and teenagers in
this new neighborhood in the middle of
nowhere (with almost no public trans-
portation)—in Efra-Breiðholt, less than
7% of the inhabitants were 65 years old
or older, while 54.8% of the inhabitants
were under the age of 22. It was also
the time when Iceland’s punk scene
was in formation. It became particularly
strong and prominent in Breiðholt.
A high quality music-studio was
bought for the youth centre Fellahellir.
The centre organised outdoor concerts
every year, entitled ‘RykkRokk,’ where
young artists played music that usu-
ally did not see public release or radio
play. Many of the bands that performed
at these concerts would go on to be-
come leading groups in Iceland. The
studio was for long time one of the
best recording studios in Iceland, and a
cheap one: a crucial factor for allowing
teenage-bands to make their record-
ings. Many great bands recorded in this
studio, including fabled pop group The
Sugarcubes.
A lot of great minds and artists in
Iceland have lived in Breiðholt. One
should also mention that with the '70s
private car policy, there were a lot of
empty garages that became perfect re-
hearsal places for young teenagers to
make some noise.
TODAY'S BREIðHOlT
Breiðholt’s image as a “ghetto” still lives
a good life, and Breiðholt is still under
attack—now because of a different kind
of segregation. In Breiðholt, 10,2% of
the inhabitants have non-Icelandic na-
tionalities compared to 8.1% for Reykja-
vík as a whole.
Breiðholt is one of the most interest-
ing neighborhoods in Reykjavík, where
counter-culture is actively created. It
has always had a unique position in
Reykjavík and still has.
Do yourself a favor. Take a ride to
Breiðholt and breathe the melancholic-
attractive-fresh-angry-beautiful-cre-
ative-energy that is built in the walls.
The experience will leave you under-
standing Reykjavík a tad better!
Reykjavík | City planning
Breiðholt: Where You Kick Cans Or lamp Posts
Did you furthermore know that a lot of Reykjavík's (visual) arty kids aged 16-20 choose to go to school in
Breiðholt because of that school's art department? Because they do. Also: Greenhouse Studios and Bed-
room Community reside in Seljahverfi. And their church is for some reason shaped like a teepee!
How Reykjavík got to be what it is, part II
Words
Gerður Jónsdóttir
Photo
Julia Staples