Atlantica - 01.01.2006, Page 52

50 AT L A N T I CA
Young Suburban Professional
DIMMUHVARF. “Living in downtown Reykjavík is great until you really want to start a family because prices have been going up
so much... The suburbs are cheaper. When you have a baby, you need a bigger space, therefore you move out.”
On her: Cape, Whistles. Dress, All Saints. On him: Leather jacket and sweater, All Saints. Jeans, Next.
The borders imagined as Reykjavík’s
original city limits were crossed
decades ago. Look out one night on the
city lights of Reykjavík from any point in
town: it does not seem possible that only
180,000 people live beneath the blanket
of yellow and white electricity stretching
from horizon to horizon. Inhabitance
sprawls in every direction. And that
inhabitance is young and growing.
The average Icelander starts a family in
their 20s, bucking the international trend
of partnering up or having kids later.
Despite the fact that between October
2004 and October 2005 the price of a
home in the greater Reykjavík area rose 37
percent, young urban Icelanders are still
buying them up. Massimo Santanicchia,
an Italian architect and new urbanism
advocate who teaches in Reykjavík, com-
ments on the young boom.
050-53 Atl 106 Suburbs+Ice.indd 50 16.12.2005 12:51:23