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ARCHITECTURE

Uproar over planned destruction of urban ‘green lung’

Residents living in Kvarteret Plankan in the Södermalm district of Stockholm are in uproar over plans to build a large apartment block in the centre of their courtyard.

Uproar over planned destruction of urban 'green lung'

The apartment complex is owned by Svenska Bostäder (SB), Sweden’s largest housing association. SB has stated an interest in developing additional housing at Plankan since 2003, although all previous plans have been refused.

Susanna Stenfelt from Stockholm’s city planning office told The Local: “SB are very eager to develop the site. They are looking all over the city for places to build new housing and are under considerable political pressure to do so”.

The new five-storey, colosseum-esque building will provide the area with nearly 80 new residences; 24 of which will be apartments, a further 42 specifically for students and 12 business premises with residential mezzanines. Construction is planned to commence in 2010.

Despite the city being in dire need of new residential space, especially for students, the tenants of Kvarteret Plankan say it will destroy their quality of living.

Plankan resident Mariana Santini spoke to The Local about her concerns over the plans:

“We are not against new buildings, but I can’t understand why they are so stubborn in wanting to put something here when it is already so polluted.”

Kvarteret Plankan is flanked by the bustling Hornsgatan, the largest thoroughfare linking Södermalm with Stockholm. Not only a very busy street, with a heavy concentration of traffic, Hornsgatan is considered to be Stockholm’s most polluted street.

“It’s quite a wild exploitation without any explanation,” says Santini. “They want to create green spaces, how does this help?!” It seems in contrast with other ‘green’ initiatives in the city”.

The potential destruction of the courtyard is not only an environmental concern. The existing complex is comprised of 341 apartments, housing over 600 people and the open space is utilized by many of its inhabitants.

“Especially during the summer there are a lot of people using this. When it’s sunny, of course they go out and sit there. It’s a very nice, pleasant, little green area to be in,” comments Santini’s partner, Mathias Thiel.

The area is used not only by the 600 occupants: in addition to the complex’s own day care facility, the large fenced play area is also used by several other nurseries in the area.

“Every morning they come and play here as they have no green space themselves,” adds Santini.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are also concerns over how the development might affect the many elderly and disabled residents of Plankan. Currently the simple landscaping of the courtyard, punctuated with winding paths, trees and benches, provides many of the less physically able tenants with their sole opportunity for exercise and fresh air.

“I don’t know where else they would go” says Santini, pointing out how both exits to the courtyard either end in steps, or potentially uneven public pavements.

Built in the 1960s and constructed largely from concrete, the Plankan complex is not the most aesthetically pleasing of housing blocks. The many mature trees and evergreen shrubs in the courtyard are one of the only redeeming features of this otherwise stark edifice.

The central square is also the only light source for many of the lower apartments. If this is obscured by extensive construction, Santini notes how they “will lose so much light, particularly those on the bottom storeys”.

Thiel continues: “I think it’s a pity that they are thinking of dividing up this big yard. It will be five spaces, one in each corner and then one in the centre of this main column. All of these spaces will be quite dark and confined”.

However, Stenfelt disagrees with this view: “The courtyard is quite large, there should be no problem fitting in the new building whilst still retaining lots of green space around it”.

There is much disbelief amongst residents as to why SB is so interested in building at Plankan, as Thiel explains: “You need to weigh the needs of 80 or so households against the fact that we are 341 flats here. I don’t know if there can really be much to gain”.

The planned build certainly is an emotive issue for residents, and there is great concern for both the environmental and humanitarian cost. As an impassioned Santini states:

“We need to see it as an issue for the whole city. It is a lung which will disappear”.

See also: Photo gallery

ARCHITECTURE

Futuristic Gehry tower opens in World Heritage Arles

Rising high beyond an ancient Roman arena in Arles, a tall, twisted tower created by Frank Gehry shimmers in the sun, the latest futuristic addition to this southern French city known for its World Heritage sites.

Futuristic Gehry tower opens in World Heritage Arles
Gehry's Luma Tower opens in Arles, France. Photo: H I / Pixabay

The tower, which opens to the public on Saturday, is the flagship attraction of a new “creative campus” conceived by the Swiss Luma arts foundation that wants to offer artists a space to create, collaborate and showcase their work.

Gehry, the 92-year-old brain behind Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum and Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, wrapped 11,000 stainless steel panels around his tower above a huge glass round base.

It will house contemporary art exhibitions, a library, and offices, while the Luma Arles campus as a whole will host conferences and live performances.

From a distance, the structure reflects the changing lights of this town that inspired Van Gogh, capturing the whiteness of the limestone Alpilles mountain range nearby which glows a fierce orange when the sun sets.

Mustapha Bouhayati, the head of Luma Arles, says the town is no stranger to
imposing monuments; its ancient Roman arena and theatre have long drawn the
crowds.

The tower is just the latest addition, he says. “We’re building the heritage of tomorrow.”

Luma Arles spreads out over a huge former industrial wasteland.

Maja Hoffmann, a Swiss patron of the arts who created the foundation, says
the site took seven years to build and many more years to conceive.

Maja Hoffmann, founder and president of the Luma Foundation. Photo: Pascal GUYOT / AFP

Aside from the tower, Luma Arles also has exhibition and performance spaces in former industrial buildings, a phosphorescent skatepark created by South Korean artist Koo Jeong A and a sprawling public park conceived by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets.

‘Arles chose me’

The wealthy great-granddaughter of a founder of Swiss drug giant Roche, Hoffmann has for years been involved in the world of contemporary art, like her grandmother before her.

A documentary producer and arts collector, she owns photos by Annie Leibovitz and Diane Arbus and says she hung out with Jean-Michel Basquiat in New York.

Her foundation’s stated aim is to promote artists and their work, with a special interest in environmental issues, human rights, education and culture.

She refuses to answer a question on how much the project in Arles cost. But as to why she chose the 53,000-strong town, Hoffmann responds: “I did not choose Arles, Arles chose me.”

She moved there as a baby when her father Luc Hoffmann, who co-founded WWF,
created a reserve to preserve the biodiversity of the Camargue, a region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Rhone river delta known for its pink flamingos.

The tower reflects that, with Camargue salt used as mural panels and the
delta’s algae as textile dye.

Hoffmann says she wants her project to attract more visitors in the winter, in a town where nearly a quarter of the population lives under the poverty line.

Some 190 people will be working at the Luma project over the summer, Bouhayati says, adding that Hoffman has created an “ecosystem for creation”.

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