AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.03.2004, Blaðsíða 21

Þéttbýli i Kópavogi. / Dense development in Kópavogur.
Planning and
the Future
Sigurður Geirdal, Mayor of Kópavogur
These thoughts are put on paper
bearing in mind the development
which has taken place on the south-
west corner of lceland during the last
years, what I think should be borne
in mind and what I, as a non-profes-
sional in planning, see as the main
development issues during the next
years and decades.
The capital area, from Mosfellsbær to
Hafnarfjörður, has already become
one city, quickly nearing 200,000
inhabitants. I put forward the theory
in 1990 that when the population of
lceland reached 300,000, then
200,000 would live in this area and
some 100,000 „out in the country."
After that, this development could
not be reversed and from then on all
increase would be on the south-west
corner. I think that this should be
borne in mind when we discuss the
planning of this area. I am not going
to discuss the obvious, like the need
for close cooperation in transporta-
tion, services, public transport, envi-
ronmental issues, etc., but I will men-
tion other aspects which are not as
often mentioned. We have only one
international airport and will not build
another one in the near future. I am
of the opinion that domestic flights
will move to this airport within the
next few years. This is such a big
issue that it should be strongly borne
in mind when we think about urban
planning in this area. The traffic to
the airport will grow rapidly during
the next years and therefore we
should not attempt to pull develop-
ment towards Hvalfjörður but
instead encourage development
towards the airport. Development
should tend towards the south - not
towards the north.
In my opinion it is unavoidable to
make the existing built-up areas of
the Capital Area more dense, and
this will be a major issue for our plan-
ners during the next decades. We
have to stop being afraid of tall build-
ings and increased densities, and
realise that we will soon live in a large
city obeying the same laws as other
cities with several hundreds of thou-
sands inhabitants. A proper
cityscape will be created here as in
other cities and this should be care-
fully planned.
I would like to emphasise that I am of
course speaking of a situation sever-
al decades ahead and do not doubt
that several solutions that we do not
see today will appear no less than
the difficulties that usually accompa-
ny increased densities. In this we are
not alone, because this development
is rapidly taking place in all corners of
the world. We will therefore also be
able to learn from other people's
solutions and the ways of the ostrich
will not help us in the long run.
I am not saying that this is what I
would prefer and consider the best
solution, but rather trying to be real-
istic. We will of course influence this
development in many ways and I
would like to mention that neighbour-
ing areas, especially the Árborg
area, will also develop quickly and
we could, if we wanted to, divert
some of this development towards
south and east. By this I mean that it
is time that considerable develop-
ment took place next to the interna-
tional airport, such as hotels, car
rentals and other activities needed by
tourists. There is no reason to
hustle almost all the tourists arriving
in lceland into buses and drive them
all to the old centre of Reykjavík. The
construction of a so-called
„Southcoast-road“ as soon
as possible is only natural to facilitate
traffic through areas such as Grinda-
vík, Þorlákshöfn, and Selfoss. This
should have been completed many
years ago.
I do not think that these will be con-
sidered important planning propos-
als, as this is not my intention. What I
am trying to do is point out that we
have to try to see far into the future
so that what we do today can be
used as, and link in, building a
purposeful future. ■
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