Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2011, Page 16

16
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2011
Reykjavík | City planning
How Reykjavík Got To Be What It Is
Words
Gerður Jónsdóttir
The fabled area of 101 Reykjavík is
a fun place, but there is certainly
more to the city. Reykjavík is actu-
ally divided into ten districts, with
the 101 area (101 is the postal code
for the downtown area of Reykja-
vík) only encompassing five per-
cent of the city. Driving through
Reykjavík may feel like being on a
ride in a historical amusement park
installed by construction workers
on acid. However, examining the
history of Reykjavík and its urban
planning can tell us a lot about the
history of the Icelandic nation itself,
the impact of World War II and even
the unquestionable Icelandic belief
in elves and trolls.
Each of Reykjavík's ten districts can be
divided into smaller quarters that all
have unique and interesting histories—
not only in terms of city planning, but
also looking at the land before it was
populated with garages and light posts.
Reykjavík now numbers 118.898 resi-
dents (according to Statistics Iceland, 1
January 2011), which means that 37%
of the Icelandic population lives in the
capital. However, Reykjavík has not al-
ways been the island’s centre; in fact,
coincidence ensured Reykjavík its cur-
rent status as Iceland’s capital.
EARLY REYKjAVíK
Our historical sources tell us that Ice-
land’s first permanent settler, Ingólfur
Arnarson, made his home in Reykjavík
(which literally translates as “Smoky
bay”). It is assumed that Reykjavík de-
rives its name from the hotsprings that
were prevalent in the area at the time,
and the steam they generated.
The time from Ingólfur's settle-
ment to the year 1400 remains a gap in
Reykjavík's historical records. However,
tax contracts between a landowner
and the church got historians back on
track. Reykjavík’s first major decisive
point towards becoming a city was in
the year 1752, when a couple of Ice-
landers established the first Icelandic
corporation, ‘Innréttingarnar’ (“The
Decorations”), with headquarters lo-
cated in the area (the location was a
coincidence—the country comptroller
resided on Viðey island, and the Reyk-
javík farm was located between Viðey
and Bessastaðir, the then-residence of
the most powerful representative of the
Danish monarchy in Iceland). The cor-
poration started a factory in Aðalstræti
(working mostly with wool for weaving
and hemp for ropes), which is thought
to be the same area Ingólfur Arnarson
settled in Reykjavík around 900 years
earlier.
The next pivotal step was when the
main public administration entities be-
gan relocating to Reykjavík. Between
1783 and 1785 Iceland was hit by a
big natural disaster, the Laki Eruption
where one-fifth of Iceland's population
(approx. 10.000 people) died, as well as
80% of farmers’ livestock. The situation
called for new ideas and development,
including new ways of labour and spe-
cialisation, which was easier to imple-
ment where people lived together in
towns. With the abolition of the Danish
merchant monopoly in 1786, Reykjavík
was chosen to be the main business
centre in the southwest part of the
country. At the time, a total of 176 per-
sons occupied Reykjavík. The year 1786
was later determined to be as the year
the City of Reykjavík was founded (25
years ago, in 1986, we celebrated the
city’s 200 year birthday by consuming
the ‘longest cake’—200 metres—that
has ever been baked in Iceland).
The national movement for indepen-
dence from Denmark (which gained
real momentum in the 19th century)
also helped Reykjavík to grow, since
the independence activists figured that
the country needed a capital for public
administration (though many of the ac-
tivists thought Reykjavík too influenced
by Danish culture to become the head-
quarters for an independent Iceland).
There was no turning back after Ice-
land’s main educational centre moved
to Reykjavík in 1846 and the construc-
tion of the parliament building in 1881:
Reykjavík was to become the Capital of
the country. The city’s first mayor was
elected in 1908, and the University of
Iceland was established in Reykjavík in
1911, which meant that fewer students
needed to travel to Denmark to seek an
education.
THE FUTURE OF THE CITY ON A
PIECE OF PAPER
Constructive discourse on Reykjavík's
urban planning was first established in
1915. That year, the city centre caught
fire and ten houses in Hafnarstræti and
Austurstræti burned down. Bad plan-
ning was blamed for how things turned
out, and regulations on timber buildings
were created, and wooden structures
were prohibited from the centre. After
the dramatic fire, the age of concrete
dawned and new houses were built
to replace the old ones. Today, these
houses make an important part of
downtown Reykjavík a part of what it
is today (these buildings currently host
restaurants Café Paris, Austur and Esja,
for instance).
A year after the fire, in 1916 the first
book on planning was published in
Iceland. The author was a professor of
medicine, Guðmundur Hannesson, who
was influenced by recent theories in ur-
ban planning, such as the English Gar-
den City movement, which is charac-
terised by a desire to bring nature back
into the cities. In his book, Guðmundur
placed great emphasis on making the
urban area as healthy as possible for its
inhabitants.
One of Guðmundur's ideas was a
rule stating that houses should be built
in alignment to sunlight exposure. This
rule had a big influence on how streets
in Reykjavík were built up until the mid-
20th century.
A year after the book was published,
an official urban plan for Reykjavík was
composed, although however, it wasn’t
made law until 1921. Six years later,
Reykjavík’s first urban plan was final-
ised. The plan made no real distinction
between streets and avenues, which
explains why the old streets in down-
town Reykjavík also serve as traffic
lanes. Another characteristic of the plan
were the 2-3 story apartment buildings
constructed in parallel (as in Njarðar-
gata) and an avenue, Hringbraut, which
at the time circled the city. Hringbraut
(“Circle Avenue”), was meant to define
the city and...circle it. However, the city
has long since spread past its confines.
This first urban plan was created
to serve Reykjavík's development for
the next decades. Seven years after its
release, architects were hired to make
new districts outside Hringbraut; the
plan was already proving too small for
the increasing population and the plan-
ners had neglected to account for the
growing number of cars in the city. The
first area to be planned outside Hring-
braut was Norðurmýri; Melahverfi and
Hlíðar came subsequently.
REYKjAVíK AND THE SECOND
WORLD WAR
A radical shift took place in Reykjavík
when the British Armed Forces occu-
pied the country in May of 1940. Not
only did the army pave large streets,
like Suðurlandsbraut, it also construct-
ed the Reykjavík airport and erected
thousands of barracks. The military also
brought work to the people of Reykja-
vík, which meant that the city got a new
status as THE PLACE to go for jobs and
money. Thus, from 1940 to 1960, Reyk-
javík’s population grew by 60%, from
43.841 to 72.407.
However, the number of available
apartments or housing spaces re-
mained stagnant, and the city soon
faced a real problem. The almost expo-
nential population increase in Reykjavík
had much impact on how Reykjavík de-
veloped from that point. Before World
War II, the city had developed continu-
ously from the city centre. With the
aforementioned effects from the war,
however, the city expanded at a tre-
mendous speed, with no time taken to
formulate a comprehensive future plan
for the city.
A city plan was made in 1948. It was
not officially approved, but was used as
some kind of basis for Reykjavík's de-
velopment. The new airport prevented
the city from growing south, and the
city mainly spread in directions where
roads and sewerage systems could al-
ready be found and where the land was
good enough to make shallow hous-
ing foundations (no houses were built
in the numerous moors and swamps,
which also partly explains why Reykja-
vík developed as it did).
THE LOVE OF CARS
In 1960, Danish specialists were hired
to make a general plan of Reykjavík,
which they submitted in 1965. It was
by then obvious that Reykjavík needed
more apartments and houses for the
growing number of inhabitants. What
characterised that plan was zoning;
people were to live in one place and
work in another. The ideology of that
time was rife with the idea that owner-
ship of an automobile was the future.
All families should have a car, and the
freedom to drive as they pleased. It was
in this plan that Reykjavík’s first real
suburbs were born: Árbær (1965–1970)
and Breiðholt (1967–1982).
In 1982, Grafarvogur was selected
to become the new building land for
the citizens of Reykjavík, after a geolo-
gist discovered that the predetermined
building area, near Rauðavatn, was full
of cracks in the bedrock and therefore
not the easiest land to build an entire
neighbourhood on.
The newest neighbourhoods in
Reykjavík are Grafarholt and Úlfarsárda-
lur. Grafarholt (2000) is the first neigh-
bourhood in Reykjavík which is built
following an open competition for its
planning. The youngest neighbourhood
in Reykjavík is Úlfarsárdalur (2001), still
a work in process. Kjalarnes, one of the
ten districts of Reykjavík, was com-
bined to the city in 1997. Kjalarnes has
both the smallest in population (834)
and the largest (covers 22.6% of Reyk-
javík's land). Kjalarnes’ first urban plan
is from the year 1977, but the history of
Kjalarnes can be traced back to the first
settlers, and serves as backdrop for one
of the Sagas, ‘Kjalnesingasaga.’
Today, The City of Reykjavík is work-
ing on a new general plan, which will
be in effect until 2030. The work is in
process so there is still a time to have
an influence on Reykjavík's develop-
ment by sending your ideas to the City
of Reykjavík (www.reykjavik.is)
“Each of Reykjavík's ten districts can be divided into
smaller quarters that all have unique and interesting
histories—not only in terms of city planning, but also
looking at the land before it was populated with garages
and light posts. ”
This article is based on writing by authors including Trausti Valsson, Pétur H. Ármannsson, and Eggert Þór
Bernharðsson. Further reading in English can be found in ‘City And Nature’ (2000) and ‘Planning In Iceland’
(2003), both written by Trausti Valsson. Ita the first in a series we are publishing by this writer, where she
explores the various Reykjavík neighbourhoods, their history and probable future. It's interesting stuff!
The ten districts in
Reykjavík 2011
Árbær 10.192
Breiðholt 20.646
Grafarholt og Úlfarsárdalur 5.416
Grafarvogur 18.030
Háaleiti og Bústaðir 13.755
Hlíðar 9.612
Kjalarnes 834
Laugardalur 15.239
Miðborg 8.618
Vesturbær 15.703
Residents in Reykjavík
1786 127
1870 2.024
1890 3.706
1900 5.802
1910 11.600
1920 17.679
1930 28.304
1940 38.196
1950 56.251
1960 72.407
1970 81.693
1980 83.766
1990 97.569
2000 111.345
2010 118.326