The Western Harbor development has earned a reputation as a tourist destination. Its monument, the Turning Torso, can be seen for miles around and draws visitors like bugs to a lamp on a summer night. This is for good reason. The tower is a structure of sculptural beauty and Western Harbor set the standard for mixed use development in the 21st century. Rarely, however, do you hear of future plans in Malmö. The city is growing rapidly and the bar for environmental standards is set high. The City has targeted 2020 for all public buildings to operate on 100% renewable energy sources. By 2030, the entire city will run on hydro, solar, bio-gas and wind power. This goal outpaces Stockholm's targets by two decades.
It appears that the City Administration has successfully changed course from a city focused on shipping and industry to one supported by tourism, education and technological expertise. But there is still work ahead of them. The Western Harbor area suffers from limited transportation connections to the city center and a city core that is active day and night throughout the year. Projects in Hyllie, Augustenborg and further development in the Western Harbor aim to strengthen these connections, to build on the momentum from Western Harbor's success (both financially and environmentally) and to preserve the city's status as a leader in sustainable development.
Siemens press picture of the Øresund bridge and wind farm
Following the opening of the Øresund Bridge in 2000 the city experienced significant growth. Then, the population of Malmö was 250,000 people. Today it is 300,000 (20% growth in 10 years). By 2050 population is projected to climb to 400,000. The tunnel connecting the bridge to Central Station opened at the end of 2010. There is now a connection between Copenhagen airport and Malmö Central Station that takes 18 minutes to traverse. These improvements will ensure a steady influx of tourist, business and commercial traffic - not to mention significant population migration.
This video authored by the Copenhagen firm BIG is focused on development potential around Copenhagen but it spells out a plan for the entire Øresund region that the bridge connection made possible. Jump to 5:45 to see how this region is envisioned as a centerless city by stringing together the region with power, water, waste and transportation infrastructure.
Copenhagen aims to infill their urban environment with new development, but with the bridge in place, Malmö is physically closer to its center than its nearest suburbs and there is room to grow. The first stop on the train once visitors cross the bridge is the Hyllie station. It is here that the City of Malmö has plans to build a major new development.
City of Malmo promotional video
HYLLIE
A new transit oriented development of 8,000 residential units and 8,000 offices is planned for this greenfield site south of Malmö at the Hyllie station. A convention center and arena opened in 2008 kicking off the development activities. The Emporia shopping center designed by Wingårdhs Architects is under construction and completion is anticipated some time next year.
AUGUSTENBORG
To a large extent, and from a new construction sustainability perspective, the design and construction industry in Sweden is self-sufficient. It requires less incentive and stimulus from the city than it has in years prior. Recently, international attention has turned to the challenge of energy upgrades to existing buildings. Here again, Malmö has taken a proactive response to this challenge.
Green roof, PVs and rain gardens at Augustenborg municipal building
In the early '50's, Augustenborg was a contemporary development that attracted local professionals and their families. Larger apartments in the city center or stand alone homes in the suburbs drew the tenants from the development in the '60's. By the early '90's the area was known more for its high rates of crime, vandalism and drug use. In 1998, the City designated Augustenborg as 'Ekostaden' or 'Eco-City' and used the existing 1,800 unit, post war development as a test bed for sustainability upgrades.
stormwater overflow area
The idea started as a discussion between individuals at three organizations, the Department for Internal Services, MKB (Malmö's public housing company) and the Augustenborg school. They managed to stimulate interest in the idea of Augustenborg as a sustainable development. The open channel storm drainage system and the green roof experimentation on municipal buildings were designed to address recurrent flooding problems on the site. But the entire development was planned to be socially, economically and environmentally successful. Community members were invited to join workshops and provide ideas to improve their community. The resulting development serves the needs of its residents, addresses the demands of the changing weather conditions and is fully occupied. For this, the development earned a UN world Habitat Award in 2010. The facade upgrades are on hold pending further funding. The design, community involvement process and the upgraded buildings themselves serve as examples for planners, designers and builders faced with questions surrounding the sustainability upgrades to existing buildings.
WESTERN HARBOR - NEXT STEPS
The trip to the Western Harbor requires a bus ride or a 20 minute walk from Central Station. The public transportation, or lack thereof, does stand in the way of the potential for this area. But the 3,000 residents in the Bo01 development alone are not enough to justify the expenditures for a tram, subway extension or more frequent buses. The University and new businesses are cropping up in all corners. And more residential mixed-use development is either in planning or under construction.
City of Malmö - Western Harbor Master Plan
The Masthusen area places an additional 1,000 units of housing, offices, educational buildings and retail on the site southeast of the turning torso tower and just south of the planned central park. The mixed use aspect of the proposed master plan will help to infuse the area with off season daytime activities and some much needed night life. The Fullriggaren block, primarily offices and residential buildings is currently under construction. It, together with the Kappseglaren area will add another 1,000 units.
And this is just a sampling of the activity on this peninsula of land. There are too many to mention all of them here but they are available on the city Western Harbor site. Based on the master plan below, which shows unit counts by block, at full build-out the Western Harbor will have more than 10,000 housing units. Combine that housing with the new university and numerous business moving into the area and you have a small city within the city built at a comparable density and following the strict environmental standards established for the Bo01 project.
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
The roof of the Opera building is bright. It is this almost
translucent white marble. The light reflects off the surfaces like winter sun
on snow. That light combined with the steep roof slope brings to
mind mischievous activities on the Opera’s winter rooftop. I personally think
it would be perfect for a silver saucer sled. The guys in this video were
thinking along the same lines.
Image courtesy of Oslo Waterfront Development Department
The master plan, for
which the Opera building marked the first step, will change the Bjørvika industrial waterfront to a thriving commercial,
residential and cultural area. The Opera quarter is one of five development
areas that the City of Oslo has included in their Fjord City master plan. New
work in Bjørvika, Aker brygge, Vippetangnen,
Filipstad and Sydhavna will transform several kilometers of coastline and hundreds of acres of
waterfront on three separate bays to a thriving mixed use waterfront area tied together by a continuous pedestrian promenade and electric tram.
Opera Quarter (Bjørvika)
The Opera building’s design by Snøhetta has made this waterfront area extremely popular for visitors. It was
constructed on a manmade island of beams on piles. The design introduces the
broader public to the outdoor space, then lets their curiosity draw them inside to
the performances. On any given day you will find the plaza area and the various
levels of the roof busy with tourists. They come to experience the unique trek
to the building rooftop that affords spectacular views of the Oslo fjord. It is just a few steps from the roof to the lobby where you can buy a ticket and see a
performance.
The Opera has in itself proven to be an adequate magnet to
the waterfront despite some significant obstacles between the city and the
waterfront, namely the E18 motor way. Already the city has constructed a 675
meter long tunnel beneath the bay to divert the majority of traffic around the
train station and the Opera quarter.
The construction work is underway to demolish the elevated roadway and convert
the four lane highway to a tree lined, boulevard with tram rails, bike
paths and crosswalks.
Many of the office buildings in the Bar Code development are
already occupied. Residential buildings are under construction and more are on
the way. By the time this quarter is completed, it will house 3,000 residents
and provide offices for 10,000.
Bar code area in lower left
The "Bar Code" is an area developed around a concept that enables access to and from either end
of the narrow building footprints. The resulting plan resembles its namesake. It encourages and enables day lighting and
natural ventilation of office environments and, more importantly, the density and location
of these buildings near the central station means that a majority of the people living and working in
these buildings will take public transportation.
Oslo’s confidence is bursting and the drawing boards are
full with new competition winning design schemes. Herreros Arquitectos won the The New Munch Museum competition with
their scheme “Lambda”.
Lund Hagem Arkitekter and Atelier Oslo took home the
prize for their Daichmann Library design submittal “Diagonale” . Construction of these
new projects, a new park at the mouth of the Alna river and hundreds of new residential
units will complete the build out of that the Opera started. When 2030 rolls
around the Opera Quarter will include 1 million square meters (10 million ft2) of new
construction on 70 hectares (173 acres) of land! Bjørvika is a veritable
playground of urban planning.
Aker brygge
For each exuberant and playful building in the Opera
Quarter there is a corresponding bar, restaurant, condo building or museum on
the eastern waterfront of the Pipervika - the Aker brygge area. At the head of
the bay is the Radhus plassen town hall and plaza designed by Arnstein
Arneberg and Magnus
Poulsson and built between 1931 and 1951. Having just come from
Stockholm I saw a connection between the design of their city hall and Oslo’s.
In
a display of wealth and power the interior flooring is patterned marble and the
walls are beautiful, colorful frescoes layered with socialist optimism and
historical references.
Construction will start next year on the Town Hall’s new
neighbor, the National Museum. The firm Kleihues
+ Schuwerk Gesellschaft von Architekten won a lengthy competition with their
entry “forum artis”. From this image you can see that it rivals the massing and scale of the Town Hall while making the Nobel Museum look like a miniature from a Holiday train set.
The port history for this bay dates back 1,000 years. To make way for new shops and condos, all the
shipping activities were moved from this area in the '80's and '90's. In the course of the
last two decades the waterfront warehouse and industrial buildings have gradually
turned over to offices, shopping malls and restaurants.
New residential
buildings cropped up and the docks were converted to ferry terminals and a pleasure craft marina. The construction on Pipervika continues waterward with Tjuvholmen, a new manmade island replete with 140,000 m2 (1.4 million ft2) of high end condos, below grade parking, a 2 acre park and a new museum designed by Renzo Piano.
This point of the pier will mark the completion of the Aker brygge development in 2014. There
are so many people walking through this area on a sunny day that it feels
more like a Southern California boardwalk than a city well above 55 degrees
latitude.
Vippetangen, Sydhavna and Filipstad
Centered and perched above the two bays Pipervika and Bjørvika, the medieval fortress Akershus stands watch over the city waterfront. The
point of this peninsula will be developed as Vippetangnen, the ferry and cruise ship
terminal. And the building won’t stop there. To address the some 200,000 new
inhabitants in Oslo by 2025, there is another mixed use development on the way. West of
Aker Brygge lies Filipstad, where acres of existing port/industrial area are ripe
with development potential. Here the city master plan suggests moving the shipping and
storage functions to a new modern facility south of downtown in Sydhavna to
make room for more residential and commercial development. When completed, Sydhavna will be the largest and most modern
shipping port in Norway. With the exception of cruise ships and ferry
terminals, Sydhavna will be the only shipping port in Oslo. If this sounds
familiar, then I thank you, because you’ve been reading my posts about Stockholm and Helsinki. For images of the waterfront and Oslo information go to this site.
Sustainabiity
In their Guide to a Green Capital, Oslo has pledged to reduce climate gas emissions (CO2, N2O nitrus oxide, CH4 methane) to 50% of 1990 levels by the year 2030. The chart below shows that they their emissions have actually gone up by 15% in the past 25 years. As a course correction they
have set their sights on making the Fjord City project net zero energy and are targeting these specific areas to combat their emissions:
Production of electricity from hydropower
plants and development of district heating based on waste
Economic aid to finance projects that
increase energy efficiency
The development of electric, rail based
public transport
A toll road system to finance the improvement
of main arteries, to reduce traffic on local streets and to develop the public
transport system
Tax on the use of studded tires
The prevention of urban sprawl by
concentration of city development within the current city borders, close to
nodes in the public transport network and identified local centres
Programmes for reuse of waste, construction
material and extraction of energy from waste
This title is more than just a tally of the number of Helsinki postings on this page. It's what's just arrived and is on the way for Helsinki. It's like Rocky III where the champ has been knocked down by his opponent and he's looking for that "Eye of the Tiger" competitive edge. Only in this series, Helsinki's opponent is not the powerful Russian (that was Rocky IV) or even Clubber Lang (it's hard to imagine Sweden as Mr. T). This time the competition is global and harbors all over the world are competing for the shipping business that drives growth in their city.
Public access to the waterfront plays as much a part in the Helsinki waterfront planning as does the need for a cutting edge shipping terminal. I'm seeing a clear pattern across the European continent of shipping terminals turning over to mixed use waterfront developments as drivers of economic change. Helsinki has taken the opportunity with two harbors, Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari, to bring the city to the water. With the Jätkäsaari development, Helsinki seeks to build a thriving new business and residential area that produces zero carbon.
Inland, too, Helsinki is making solid planning decisions that build its cultural capital. The Planning and construction in and around the Finnish Parliament building
covers a period of nearly 80 years. The area includes a new Music Center by the Finnish firm LPR and Kiasma, the museum of contemporary art designed by Stephen Holl. From what I
can gather, the concept for a public park between them did not exist until
recent years. It was part of neither Saarinen's nor Ehrenstrom's master plans. It opened to the public this summer and certain areas are still under construction.
view of Park from top of the Parliament Building steps.
Parliament building from Kiasma
The
designers (if you know who they are please chime in) had fun exploring the concept of the “square” in three dimensions. To take
advantage of an existing grade separation, the square terraces down from the
music center to meet Kasari. At the base of the terrace a new tunnel beneath Mannerheiminti will allow
pedestrians to flow from the train station to museums, the church in the rock and Finlandia Music Hall without crossing this major thoroughfare. It's a smart bit of planning that expands the possibilities for this area as a cultural center for Helsinki. Here you will find a good article about planning underway throughout the city.
Helsinki's waterfront is an organism that grows, moves and changes over time. This overlay shows how the shoreline profile has changed in the last century. Plans for Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari are the latest in a long series of changes to this vibrant connection to the sea.
Map showing shoreline in 1902 with overlay of current shoreline (source)
I can see Burgess Meredith urging on the City of Helsinki with these words: "The population of the
Helsinki region will grow from 1,3 million to 2 million within the next 50
years. The amount of required new building is so great that it enables
developing the region's overall structure in a way which strengthens the
region's position and competitiveness as one of the Baltic Sea region's leading
cultural and technological centers and an appealing residential and business
location." YOU CAN DO IT ROCK! The words are actually from the City Planning site (except that last part). In 2006-2007 the City of Helsinki launched the master planning competition Greater Helsinki Vision 2050 seeking assistance in preparing for the anticipated population growth. From the 86 entries they selected WSP Finland's entry "Emerald". Their master plan formed the basis for the planning at Kalasatama and Jätkäsaari.
Work has started to add 15,000 new residences and 8,000 new
offices in the abandoned shipping and fishing harbor in Kalasatama (Fish
Harbor.)
The existing Helsinki Energy power plant is located on the
harbor peninsula directly west of Kalasatama. It will continue to produce power
from the 6-story high mound of coal on site and will provide the power for the new
development. Since recently completing a comprehensive network of tunnels and
pipe distribution for a regional district heating system they have a new
revenue source and can boast one of the highest efficiency ratings possible for this
type of plant. Helsinki Energy has also announced that they - working with Nokia, Siemens and others - will provide a smart grid on the site. What this actually means remains to be seen. Technology will further boost power efficiency but it has less impact on CO2. The carbon emissions for the site are not world class.
The same can be side for the design caliber of the proposed
buildings. The City of Helsinki Planning department is structured to provide master
planning for all new city development areas. Unfortunately, and apparently
because of this, innovative building designs and integrated design thinking is
lacking from the plan for this area. The metro system already serves the area and
bus route revisions are in the works. The vacuum tube waste collection company, Envac, has recently announced that their system was selected for the site, which
helps the site’s overall carbon emissions. So, sustainability is a part of the
discussion, but not the primary driving factor for the development. The site’s access to waterfront and the city coupled with the fact that views of central Helsinki from the harbor are spectacular, will
help overcome the design and sustainable shortcomings and make the development
a success.
Existing gas works buildings on the western part of the site
are leased out to artists, musicians and architects. These bold first occupants
of the harbor provide a test bed for the connectivity and functionality of the
site as a viable commercial area. One question resonates with projects of
this magnitude and timeline: what do you do with the site until the project’s
scheduled completion in 2030? The city, on this point, has hit on a winning
idea.
Arriving at the site (which is convenient due to the public transportation
connections) both signage and painted path lines on the pavement direct
visitors and indicate your distance to the waterfront. The path makes a 2.5 Km
loop around the ongoing construction activities. Along the path you have both
views to the city over the water and an 8 ft high, kilometer long, colorful
mural of publicly supported graffiti.
The wall encloses staged construction material and debris.
The likelihood that this wall would be a target for such activities must have
spurred on the idea that the city should turn it into a public amenity. By
furnishing the site with appropriate waste and storage containers while encouraging independently
scheduled and funded summer activities, Helsinki made public access to the water possible
well ahead of scheduled construction completion. Aritists (of the graffiti variety
for one), musicians, DJ's and random event planners rent the containers to store
their wares between shows. The one condition of the use of the site and
containers was that events had to be open to everyone. The frequency of
events and attendance numbers this summer, with help from social media, brought about public awareness to the site's development while opening up a new public playground.
In 2008 The City of Helsinki and Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund) combined forces to address the city planning challenges ahead of them. As part of the solution, they jointly hosted an international design competition called 'Low2No' to seek innovative zero carbon solutions for one block of the Jätkäsaari harbor development. Formerly a shipping port, the shipping companies and their containers have all moved to Vuossari harbor east of Helsinki. The 100 acre site will include housing for 16,000 new residents and offices for 6,000 new jobs and construction will be finished by 2024. Plans include tram connections, ferry and cruise terminal ports, public waterfront access, a library, school, day care center, community center and a church. For the
development of the Jätkäsaari harbor, Helsinki is raising the stakes on carbon emissions, design and sustainability.
The winningentry by the team of Sauerbruch Hutton, Arup and Experientia based their strategy on a holistic view of the development that encompasses
not just the buildings, climate, transportation and utilities, but also the team,
the users and the life-cycle use of its buildings.
Using the inherent energies of a community
and extracting it from the waste of one component and converting it to the
energy needed by another. The project team is currently developing the design. Further information about the process can be found on the low2no blog.
While I was in Helsinki, Sitra had a release party for their book "Recipes for Systemic Change". The book is available in PDF form from the Helsinki Design Lab web site. Inside, there is a case study with detailed analysis of the challenges Finland is facing in reaching carbon neutrality. The information has relevance beyond the nation's borders and is full of interesting data.
If these two developments can stay on schedule, they will keep Helsinki in the international fighting ring.
