AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.06.2003, Blaðsíða 38

Haraldur Sigurðsson, Planner, Borgarfræðasetur, Planning and Building
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Densities in Reykjavík:
Then and Now
Increasing densities is a city plan-
ning action which developed dur-
ing the latter half of the 20th cen-
tury. During the last 20 years, it
has been a dominant planning
policy in most western cities. The
concept is not the invention of
individual planners or built on
deep ideology, but is rather the
reaction of public bodies and the
housing market to the develop-
ment of land use and prices in
cities. It is not necessary to dis-
cuss the economic, environmen-
tal and social arguments that
support increased densities and
the re-planning of under-utilised
areas within cities. The opposition
to continuous expansion of cities
and the use of new „virgin" sites
on their outskirts, with longer dis-
tances, power usages and
expenditures on roads and
services, has increased consider-
ably during the preceding years.
The same applies to the support
for nature preservation, sustain-
able development, revitalisation of
central areas and the demands
for more humane cities. The
increased density of already built-
up areas is a logical consequence
of this change of emphasis.
What is increased density
of development?
Increased density of development
must mean an increase in the
remaining built area and a net
increase of inhabitants and/or
jobs for a given area within the
city. An increase in the built area
does not always, however, mean
a more dense development. For
example, if warehouses, which
usually do not employ many peo-
ple, are built on an area which
was previously the site of a facto-
ry employing many people, then
no increase in density has taken
place, although the amount of
building per area of land has per-
haps increased.
Another problem arises when it
has to be decided if the re-plan-
ning of an employment area in a
housing area will result in an
increased density or not. If 200
jobs no longer exist in a given
area but 100 people move into
that area, does that mean less or
more dense development? It is
clearly difficult to find a universal
measure for density or the densi-
ty of development. The most sen-
sible method is to measure densi-
ty in terms of the land saves on
the outskirts of the city reduction
in the road network, capital cost
of roads and services, use of
service institutions and how
increased densities improve the
existing built-up areas or how
they can adversely affect adjoin-
ing buildings.
Historic development of
increased densities of
development in Reykjavík
For a number of historical rea-
sons, Reykjavík did not develop
as a continuous city from 1940 to
the 1950's. During the first half of
the 1940's, housing areas began
to be built in the Sund and
Langholt areas, in districts that
were distant from the continuous
development within Hringbraut.
What was typical for this develop-
ment was the ownership of land,
important farming attitudes that
prevented farming land from
being built upon, the building of
individual undertakings like the
construction of Kleppsspítali, and
construction due to the occupa-
tion and lack of technical knowl-
edge of construction in water-
logged areas. This resulted in the
development of Reykjavík
towards its centre, after the areas
west and south of Kleppsspítali
had been developed. According
to this it could be said that
Reykjavík, west of the Elliða-river,
has become more dense since
the 1950's and that this develop-
ment will continue during the
next decades. It is however
doubtful that this development
can be classified as conventional
increase in density development.
The first areas of real increased
density development were built
during the 1970's along
Bústaðavegur, where tree nurs-
eries gave way to housing areas.
Previously, barracks had been
torn down in many areas to make
way for modern housing. It was
not until the 1980's that this
development of increasing
densities gained momentum, but
increasing densities was the
declared policy of the council
majority from 1978 to 1982. All
the proposals for increased
densities were implemented, but
many new housing areas were
built within developed areas dur-
ing the next years, such as
Suðurhlíðar, Efstaleiti, at
Eiðsgrandi and Skúlagata (pic-
tures 1 and 2). The last two areas
are textbook examples of
increased density development,
where dilapidated industrial areas
on the outskirts of the central city
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