søndag den 28. november 2010

Djursholm - a Suburban Utopia

Meeting-point: Djursholms Ösby. (Stockholm, Sweden)
Date and time: Monday, November 01, 2010

The point of departure for this trip was to take a look at the richest and most expensive residential areas in Stockholm. Without prior knowledge we will move trough Djursholm, and imagine the possibility this place holds if we redefine by manipulating it’s subtext. We will look to space, ownership, property structure, ways of living, architecture and the possible residents of such a place. We come as observers and invite everyone to take part in a redefinition of what this place could be.



What we, as walkers, immediately noticed upon arrival at Djursholms Ösby station, was the lack of or poor quality sidewalks. In a way already an indication of the lack of public life in the area.




The American urbanist Jane Jacobs springs to mind with her analysis of sidewalks as having an important function for the community in terms of safety and human contact. What makes a sidewalk work well in these terms is they should be under supervision of stay-at-home residents and business owners and it must enjoy fairly continuous usage. It should also have a clear demarcation between public and private, and thus, not be something just for you and your neighbor.



Neither of these things were the case. Frequent signs about neighborhood watch, and alarm companies were indicators that people didn’t feel too safe. But maybe more noticeable was that the place was completely empty of people. At 3:00-5:00 Friday afternoon we hardly met anyone to talk to in the streets. Had this been a wealthy neighborhood in Copenhagen there would have been underpaid Philippine and Thai maids walking kids in prams. Here nothing.



Well, we did meet one woman tending her garden. She told us of cultural things in the area; a house by the architect Gunnar Asplund (Villa Snellman, 1917-18) seen above and one villa with a ceiling painted by Carl Larsson. Originally Djursholm was built as a garden city with winding roads. Its reputation also comes from around 1900-20, when artists, writers and cultural personalities lived here. It's an old story of how art can make an area exclusive. But it seems to us that today this place is in dire need of support.



Seeing the low quality of public fittings and furniture, we imagine a new public foundation being created much like the first Danish ; ”Ad Usus Publicos” (For public use or benefit). That fund supported artists and cultural figures in doing their art, but also funded other things of public interest, like the making of side walks. The residents of Djursholm who are some of the richest in Sweden could of course pay for this themselves.




The lack of use of this place, which undeniably has lots of spatial qualities, and in particular, a lot of space per resident, makes us think of how we can maximize the use of this. Apple trees with unpicked apples throughout the area points to abundance of resources, but also lead us to think of the principle of Crop Rotation. “the system of varying successive crops in a definite order on the same ground, esp. to avoid depleting the soil”.



In Spatial Terms that would mean a type of time-share, and we would then propose a daily rotation of people from a poor neighborhood from Stockholm. Those with no current employment would come in the morning and live in Djurholm during the day to bring life and safety to the area. This is also feasible because public transport to Djursholm is fairly good.



One more note on apples; In older times in France they had mobile distilleries moving between all the smaller villages. When it came to a village, everyone appeared with their apples and Calvados was made and distributed. We know there are issues with home-brew in Sweden, but this could revitalize the communal spirit of the now dormant Djursholm.

fredag den 1. oktober 2010

City Walking in Albertslund 1968 and 2010

Our trip to Albertslund the 1th of October 2010 took its point of departure in the city walk, as a method and investigation of urban structures and new cities. This trip also marked Walking Distance’s 5th-year and reiterated the notion that it is still relevant to walk through the city, in conversation, on paths, through neighborhoods, across lawns, over walls, through tunnels and look up and down on what is and is not there.

The trip was guided by Ydre Nørrebro Kultur Bureau including Finn, Kirsten and Ninna. In 1968, a group of artists did so-called dérives in the newly built areas in Albertslund. Together with some of the artists from the original group, we did the walk again.



We began at the square in Albertslund. Where Finn Thybo Andersen presented to us photo documentation from the ‘68 trip of an urban area that was completely new at the time.



When you arrive with the S-train you walk down through the city, and from there you move around on paths, through tunnels and in an area of low buildings (mainly row houses, one and two stories).

”In the so-called finger plan from 1947, conducted by the architect Peder Bredsdorff, guidelines were made for the expansion of Copenhagen through five stolons (fingers) from the city center. Albertslund on the ”finger of Roskilde” got its master plan in 1957. The building south of the railway was erected in 1963-66 after the plans of Peter Bredsdorff and Knud Svensson and had a great significance on other similar buildings in Danish cities. The street network is rectangular, the running and pedestrian traffic are separated, and the varied dense-low housing of predominantly small yard houses are designed as an alternative to high-rise and detached houses.” (Den Store Danske)


This lack of horizon makes one feel a bit disoriented and can cause a loss of the sense of direction.



Here you see one of the canals that collect rainwater.

Albertslund is laid out like a garden city; inspired by the English Garden City Movement, which was established in 1898. The intention was to create an area with a balanced relationship between residential areas, industry and countryside.



Here are some of the row houses along the canal. If you look closer in the next image, you can see the changes in the houses’ surface.



The houses are covered with eternit, and it looks like in a later stage the surfaces have been covered with boards, maybe the plates are beginning to erode, the green fungus formations suggest it.



A number of estates have already been renovated. This housing unit is among them. But it has had an enormous effect on the rents which are expected to increase up to 50 %. Going from affordable housing, the rent on a three bedroom 90-sqm apartment will rise to above 10000 kr.



Along the canal and apartment houses is a small supermarket and a Chinese restaurant.



The only ”meeting places” we have seen outside the city center.



We continue along the canal and it leads us out of the residential area into a small wilderness.



Here is the hill that was originally created out of the extra dirt from the excavated city.



From the green area we move towards the built-up area again.



The modular system that Albertslund are built on is visible here. It does have similarities to an area of detached houses, but instead of being individual houses on their own lot, the houses meet, not in straight rows but staggered, so an inner room is created between them.



The yard houses each have a private area, a little yard shielded by a wood fence. The entrances of the houses are facing the street. Here it is possible to get a glimpse down into the gardens from an elevation.



From this side it is possible to look down on horses, goats and rabbits. On a beautiful autumn day like this Albertslund appears to be on its best behavior. If one ignores the worn houses and the relatively deserted streets.



What possibilities does Albertslund hold? Is it still an alternative to a city life far to expensive? Or does the cost increase prohibit that. Is there still the possibility of a vital social existence? Maybe Albertslund is an experiment that still needs to be tested out...

lørdag den 5. juni 2010

Examined Examined – Welfare institutions in Bispebjerg and Copenhagen NW

On this walk we shall be looking at the architecture and placing of welfare institutions in the city. How is equality installed in the urban scene? Are the institutions fairly distributed geographically? We start from Bispebjerg Hospital and pass some of the municipal institutions that have recently been established in the district.

Meeting-point: Bispebjerg S-train station on Tagensvej.



Bispebjerg Hospital was inaugurated in 1913. It was designed by Martin Nyrup, who was also the architect behind Copenhagen City Hall. The style is art nouveau with a strong focus on craftsmanship and concern for detail. The first part of the hospital consisted of a main building and 6 pavilions.


The facility is symmetrical and on a scale that makes the spaces between the buildings intimate and inviting. Light, air and vegetation were to contribute to the healing process.



The surrounding park is closely integrated with the hospital. Originally there were fruit trees and kitchen gardens between the buildings, which provided a degree of self-sufficiency.


Later additions to the hospital were of gradually poorer quality: from building L to the psychiatric emergency ward, which was originally built in 1968, unmistakably on the cheap.


The landscape architect C. Th. Sørensen designed a number of parks, and most of the courtyards in the new apartment blocks and social housing in Copenhagen NW and Bispebjerg. He says that ”most of the gardens established in connection with apartment blocks were created as fine gardens with lawns, trees and flowers, but without anywhere for the children to romp”. This was a practice that he discontinued. Most of the housing is of really high quality – also aesthetically – like this example, for which Sørensen also designed the open spaces.


In the 1920s the housing situation in Copenhagen was desperate, which led, among other things, to the City Council building three apartment blocks on Tomsgårdsvej. The apartments were small, 1-2 rooms without baths or hot water.


In the 1980s it became the practice in district psychiatry to release psychiatric patients to their own homes; in many cases this meant the 1-room apartments in the municipal housing on Tomsgårdsvej. In 1994 Copenhagen City Council sold its 20,000 apartments. The Council has right of referral to 1/3 of the homes in social housing, among other things the apartments administered by Foreningen Socialt Boligbyggeri in Bispeparken.


At 17-19 Tomsgårdsvej the municipality dispenses doctor-prescribed heroin. The reason for deciding to place the centre here was, among other things, that "a large proportion of the patients are resident in Copenhagen NW", which is partly a consequence of the housing policy. Another reason was that "premises at Tomsgårdsvej are vacant and can be rented at a competitive price". The relation between the institution and its design and architecture is non-existent. A new library is at present being built on an adjacent site as compensation for the placing of Ungdomshuset [The Youth House] on Dortheavej.