HAMMARBY SJOSTAD

The Hammarby Sjostad area, south of city center, was conceived in the early 90's as an Olympic Village for Stockholm’s bid for the 2004 Olympics. Stockholm staked their bid on a highly sustainable Olympics. They of course lost the bid to Athens. But watching the London 2012 Olympics planning unfold, they were clearly ahead of their time. Despite losing to the Greeks, Stockholm moved forward and invested heavily in the development to make it a test bed of new sustainable building system technologies. Now nearing complete build out, the development is one of the foremost research destinations in the world for developers, city planners and architects. 

Aerial from City of Stockholm

The environmental goals for the project were set in 1997, late in the design process.

• 75% built in public transportation at the start 
• 80% target for commute to work by means other than a car (actual is 79%)
• Be twice as green as other developments. In other words, lower the environmental impact by 50% (actual is 30-40%)
• Provide means for residents to work on site (8% actual is lower than expected).

Map from City of Stockholm (hammarbysjostad.se)

The master plan provided for 11,500 residences and 10,000 offices (28,000 people) on 204 total hectares, 171 of them on land. Construction started in 1997 and is nearly complete. The total cost to date  is 4.5 billion euros. Currently there are 20,000 people living on site. The development is quite popular among young families. So, of the total population, 15% are children under 16 years - a much higher percentage than expected or planned. Original plans called for 1 school and 1 daycare center. There are now 3 schools and 15 daycare facilities throughout the area.

The city leased or sold the land to numerous developer/design teams and built the project in phases. Public transportation was key to the success of the development. The car trips, parking and city access were part of the planning discussion from the outset. Currently there are 0.7 parking spaces per unit and nearly 80% of the residents commute to work by some means other than a personal car.

The technology in Hammarby Sjostad was, in many instances, so new that the systems have not been broadly copied. Only now is the city collecting the data on system performance to make it available for use on other projects. The data will be a valuable tool for Stockholm as they embark on the next major development at the Royal Seaport project. Preliminary reports are available on the project web site. It will also serve to refute or validate numerous energy savings, water savings and urban planning strategies for the building design and construction industry at large. As part of the Royal Seaport project, the city has mandated that the information be collected real time and shared within the city and abroad to further advance the public knowledge of sustainable technologies. 

As an ongoing educational resource, the project planned for an informational showroom for residents and visitors called GlasshusEtt. Its dual-glazed facade, solar cells and fin-tube heaters running on district heat from a bio-gas boiler make it an extremely energy efficient building by any standard. Through surveys, community outreach programs and seminars, the staff here have helped reduce water usage on site and impacted significant change in behavior within the development.

Below is a partial list of the sustainable solutions incorporated on site.

Water

•         Wastewater treatment plant that creates biogas for stove gas and city buses
•        Stormwater collection and on site treatment
•     Bio-deegraded sewer sludge is used as fertilizer and to make bio-gas

Fortum Energy's thermal power plant

Energy

•        PV panels on the roof of select residential buildings to produce power for common areas.
•        Solar tubes for hot water heating on select buildings
•         District heating and cooling from treated waste water
•      Bio-gas made as a bi-product of waste water treatment used as bus fuel
•      Bio-gas used for district heating

Waste

•         Below grade vacuum waste collection service for residential buildings
•      Waste is sorted for recycling into 4 fractions
•      Bio-degradable waste is composted and used as fertilizer or turned into bio-gas
•      Combustible waste is incinerated and used for district heating

Transportation

•         Bus and tram connection to local train station
•         Car share program
•         Minimal parking per unit
•         Bike and pedestrian friendly road system
•         Free ferry shuttle across bay every 15 minutes
•         Public access marina
•         Live/work development concept

Locks and salmon ladder

Ecology

•         Land bridges over freeway connect nature reserve to site
•         Reed bed in bay and along canal edges encourages bird habitat
•         Salmon ladder on locks

view to school and residences from nature reserve

Social and public health

•         Pocket parks, access to public nature reserve and ski area
•         Bridges, paths and bike storage promote walking and biking
•         3 schools and 15 daycare buildings on site