AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.03.2004, Blaðsíða 13

vallareining í efnahagslífi nútímans.
Sterkt borgarsvæði er forsenda öfl-
ugs efnahags- og atvinnulífs í sér-
hverju nútímasamfélagi. Opinber
stefnumótun í málefnum höfuðborg-
arsvæðisins hefur hins vegar í raun
aldrei farið fram og hefðbundin
byggðastefna einungis tekið á öðrum
hluta byggðaþróunarinnar. Er vert að
minna enn á að hvorugt getur þrifist
án hins, borgarsvæðin þurfa öflugt
bakland sem landsbyggðin svo sann-
arlega er.
En landsbyggðin og landið allt þarf
líka á öflugu og sterku borgarsvæði
að halda, í því liggur styrkur samfé-
lagsins alls á nýrri öld. B
Fermentation of the
Capital Area
Árni Þór Sigurðsson, Chairman of Reykjavík Council
Everybody who is interested in plan-
ning and regional development in
lceland realises that an important
change is taking place in these fields.
This is especially true about planning
and development in the capital area.
To my mind, one can say that this is
partly due to the general societal
change that we have witnessed in
many parts of the world during the
last few years. One could maintain
that the societal change and the
international currents and forces that
are now dominant in the economic
systems of nations and international
trade has radically altered the laws,
emphasis, and the ways of trade
between nations, wealth creation,
and the location of production units.
Considerable political change has
also taken place within and between
countries and continents. In many
places, this development has result-
ed in more open economies, espe-
cially regarding foreign investment
and imports which can be seen, for
example, in international trade agree-
ments within Europe, USA and Asia
in the recent past. During the same
time, technological change and
development of transportation and
communication have both increased
and facilitated business and commu-
nication between countries, con-
tributing to a kind of exodus of com-
panies and economies. A new
emphasis in city planning which aims
at strengthening the position of cen-
tral cites has become important, and
international treaties in environmental
matters, like Agenda 21 and others,
have increased influence on city
planning.
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