Aerial view of the new luxury flats at Skuggahverfi, Reykjavik seafront. Photo: Snorri Þór Tryggvason
The historical town centre is located out on the main peninsula. In the area of the old town rises the city's most recognisable landmark, the church tower of Hallgrímskirkja. The church was designed by the renowned and prolific Icelandic architect Guðjón Samúelsson in the 1940s. It was designed to stand atop Skólavörðuholt hill which is 40m above sea level with a tower consisting of hundreds of basalt like columns to support it rising 75m above the surrounding low-rise buildings. As a recognisable urban landmark it towers above all other buildings in the capital area, unsurpassed in terms of visual impact since it was completed and consecrated in 1986.
While only a few thousand inhabitants lived in Reykjavik as recently as the early 20th century the city and its surrounding municipalities now host more than 200 000 inhabitants. During this last century Reykjavik and the surrounding towns grew more rapidly than many other European cities. This saw urban expansion extend inland away from the historic town centre, along the coast and up the hills leaving the old city centre on the periphery of the main urban trajectory.
High-rise buildings were to affect the city skyline much later here than in many other cities of Europe or the USA. The first systematic introduction of high-rise buildings came with the masterplans developed in the late 1950s and 1960s. Until then most of the prominent buildings on the skyline were either churches or other public buildings. The post-war years were however to see increasing housing needs for the ever growing population and a comprehensive plan was thus produced to put new land under construction. The strategy was to build higher on higher ground and to leave the valleys for parks and recreational areas. As a result numerous 8-14 storey high-rise housing developments were built on the hills across the city. Following this pattern most of the prominent new buildings introduced to the previously sparse urban landscape were for housing.
The whole of the capital urban area is characterised by extended growth and expansion escalating continuously from the middle of last century. The urban area covered is greater in relation to the number of inhabitants than that found in most other cities, with over 200 000 inhabitants occupying approximately 230 sq km of land. In this vast landscape urban development relies on the principle use of the private car resulting in a low density city, much open land, poor public transport, heavy traffic infrastructure (more than 40% of the land area is occupied by the road network and associated traffic infrastructure) and relatively few high-rise buildings.
To counteract this development a strategy of city densification emerged as a key issue within the Reykjavík planning office. An integrated urban strategy for the capital urban area and all seven connected municipalities has however traditionally been lacking with economic growth and urban expansion generally resulting in increasing competition between municipalities rather than cooperation towards an integrated urban whole. Following the need for general densification a number of high rise developments have been introduced, the most recent and tallest high-rise building being Turninn in the neighbouring municipality of Kópavogur, a 77m 19-storey office tower.
Today high-rise buildings, designed for either commercial or residential purposes, appear in a variety of settings and contexts. One noticeable high-rise cluster in Reykjavík is the luxury housing development by the coastline at Skuggahverfi, a northerly facing area in the shadow of the main hill of the old town. Numerous high-rise buildings can now be seen here in various states of completion, construction or renovation. This housing development has been underway since the late 1980s. This extended development was partly conceived as a response to increasing criticism in respect of urban sprawl and the call for the densification of the city. The extended development consists of a number of towers, the tallest (still under construction) being 16 storeys high and when completed the whole project will provide 425 luxury flats in downtown Reykjavík. Building here saw the redevelopment of an old industrial area. The project has however attracted significant criticism because of its lack of contextual integration with the existing endowment of low-rise historical buildings. The same concerns arise with the Höfðatorg high-rise development, by architect Pálmar Kristmundsson. Höfðatorg is currently under construction in the financial district some distance from the centre of town and will tower 70m and 19 storeys above the surrounding low-rise neighbourhood.
Densification is the leading topic in the current urban discourse. The planning strategy for Reykjavik has been to increase density and address the complex challenge of densifying and reshaping the urban landscape. The Reykjavik urban area has a history of expansion, particularly in the post-1945 period, and with the almost limitless land available for new building the increasingly acute need to address existing urban problems tends to get overlooked
With Reykjavík located at latitude 64°N experiencing a turbulent confluence of gulf stream winds and the northerly arctic storms, and where wind gusts can thus be difficult and strong, the issue of climate and high-rise development is an important one as any urban obstruction can escalate winds if not carefully planned and constructed. The sun at summer solstice rises to only 50° at most and at winter solstice to only 3° leaving long shadows all year around in the wake of any high-rise building. Consequently any high-rise development demands increased ground space to prevent the casting of shadows on the surrounding buildings.
The challenge ahead for the municipalities is then to address the need for densification while integrating new development with the existing urban sprawl. Due to the current economic crisis the opportunity now exists to halt the seemingly endless expansion of the city and to question how we wish it to develop in future. Central to this debate is the question of the need for further high-rise development. No clear strategy has emerged in recent years on this issue, either in terms of where to build or indeed whether to build at all, but with the recent appointment of Ólöf Örvarsdóttir as director of Reykjavik City Planning the necessary work is now under way towards the development of a strategy for the future.
By Sigrún Birgisdóttir. Aðjúnkt, Fagstjóri- arkitektúr