DRAGON TATOOS, NOODLE BOWLS AND THE GASOMETER

Walking through the narrow streets of Gamla Stan at night brings to mind movies of cold war espionage woven in with a steamy affair between international spies. Along Götgatan or Folkungatan in Södermalm you are more likely to find eclectic shops and restaurants sporting tattooed and pierced likenesses of Lisbeth Salander. The differences between the two areas highlight the physical disconnection between the two areas. 
Stockholm hopes to better knit the character of these two areas with their SLUSSEN design competition.Between Old Town (Gamla stan), and Södermalm to the south lies a dreadful concrete noodle bowl of traffic arterial roads, train tracks, a boat locks and a city bus terminal. Somewhere in this rats nest a pedestrian is to navigate a path across the river between these popular destinations. The competition attracted big names in design; the likes of Jean Nouvel, Norman Foster, BIG and - Sweden's own - Carl Nyrén and Wingårdhs. Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote a tight editorial for the NY Times about the competition entries. He was surely disappointed to learn that Stockholm recently selected Norman Foster's team as the winning entry. 

Here is the link to images of the other entries and worldarchitecture.com's decidedly softer editorial by comparison. The traffic revisions at Slussen together with a revised underground bypass motor way around the city center (currently under construction) will prevent the city center from suffering a traffic embolism in the coming decades. 
This competition is one of three major projects Stockholm has planned with their Vision 2030 document. This is their counter offensive to an even greater challenge of six digit population growth. Population today is 840,000 people. By 2030 it is projected they will have one million inhabitants.A cornerstone of their solution to housing this new population growth is the Stockholm Royal Seaport. Here the city aims to improve on their sustainable design success in Hamarby Sjöstad and build a zero carbon development by 2030 with homes for 10,000 and offices for 30,000. 

STOCKHOLM ROYAL SEAPORT – 

Herzog & de Meuron designed the Oscar properties site using the existing masonry gasometer structures and replacing one of the three with a 47 story cylindrical residential tower. 

Plans by AIX Architects working with the City of Stockholm suggest the gasometer can be reused and converted to a public theater.

Two projects were designed by Wingårdhs, the SKB and Folkhem residential buildings. Master planning for the development was completed by the City Planning Administration.
Plans for a development in this area of the city go back to City Master Plans from 100 years ago. The1999 Master Plan initiated formal planning for the shipping and ferry ports in the northeast part of Stockholm. The detailed planning started in 2000 with Council approval of the plan in 2003 and an updated master plan in 2009. The first phase is under construction and includes 680 residential units and 10 developer/builder/design teams.

Construction phasing of Stockholm Royal Seaport around Hjorthagen

Spearheading the project are the City of Stockholm Planning and Development departments. Together with City Hall, The Stockholm Seaport Innovation and (a local university) the Royal Institute of Technology they make up the municipal development team. The city owns the 236 hectares (583 acres) of land and auctioned off the first set of parcels (numbers 1, 2 and 3 above) in 2010. Developers assembled construction and design teams and bought sites. The city invited successful bidders to a preliminary environmental brainstorming session. Building on a recommended environmental profile from the city, the teams generated ideas that formed an aggressive, but achievable, environmental profile that will be used as a project wide standard through the remainder of the project. 

There are currently 400 businesses and 2000 residents living on the site in the Hjorthagen and port areas. So there has been considerable community involvement in the design process via public comment periods over the past year. A key resolution of the Vision 2030 document places an emphasis on improving the business climate and building the “work city” program. Three significant changes to the port address this effort; 1] moving the primary shipping terminal to Nynäshamn (south of the city), 2] upgrading the existing cruise and ferry terminals and 3] phasing out the oil port in the southern pier of the development, Loudden. These changes use the most successful and vibrant port activities that support commercial development. Moving shipping operations creates both an opportunity to upgrade port infrastructure and to make valuable commercial property available for for development.
Based partially on the ambitious sustainability goals set for the project, in 2009 the Royal Seaport site was designated as one of 18 projects worldwide to be supported by the Climate Positive Development Program a joint initiative between the Clinton Climate Initiative and the US Green Building Council. 

This profile sets an energy consumption target of 55 KwH per m2 per year or about 50% of the current Swedish average rate of consumption. Three environmental targets form the project directive:

• By 2020 CO2 emissions less than 1.5 tonnes/person. Swedish avg is 4.5 tonnes/person.
• Adapt to future climate change.
• By 2030 Seaport will be fossil fuel free. This compares to a 2050 target for all of Stockholm to be fossil fuel free.

Focus areas to achieve these targets include energy, transportation, lifestyle, eco-cycle and climate adaptation. Current designs include a bio-fuel fired combined power/heating plant, an energy smart grid, vacuum tube waste collection services, bio-fueled public transportation and a cadre of low carbon, low energy building solutions. Couple these with the port, roadway and Tvarbanan (metro light rail) upgrades planned for the area and it is clear that Stockholm is serious about meeting these targets. The site is already easily accessible from the city center and it is surrounded on two sides by nature reserves of several hundred acres. This is an area where people will want to live. 

The Royal Seaport information is compiled from data on the project web site and a meeting with Daniel Carlson-Mård, the city of Stockholm Development Administration Project Officer.