Reading Socio-Spatial Interplay - Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i ...

R E A D I N G S O C I O - S P A T I A L I N T E R P L A Y P A R T 2dense large scale building typologies (such as variations of the slab block 318 )in the areas close to the district centre, and less dense typologies (such as rowhouses and atrium houses) in the areas in the periphery of the housingdistrict, bordering Marka.Meanwhile, a number of plan proposals for sanitary reorganisation of thetraditional urban block areas – plans for demolishing areas of traditionalurban blocks and wooden suburbs to be replaced with slab blocks – weredeveloped and discussed, among other places for Grünerløkka. AtEnerhaugen (Grønland) an urban clearance project was realized.2 nd generation of 1960s satellite towns: Large scale industrially produced apartment blocks inopen “neutral” spaceThe second generation of satellite towns are characterized by large scaleindustrially produced apartment blocks in open “neutral” space. The largescale total-design solutions were inspired by international modernist ideas. Incomparison with contemporary international examples, the Norwegiansatellite towns still though were quite small and nature-oriented. Ammerud isan illustrative example of the characteristics of the 2 nd generation of satellitetowns in Oslo: The satellite town of Ammerud 319 was developed onagricultural land. The area was characterized by relatively flat fields fallingsteeper down towards the river Loelva in the east and north, wooded hills(Marka) towards west and north, a railway (and railway station) and a mainroad around the existing Grorud centre in south east, and the Ammerudsubway station in southwest. Ammerud was planned as a pure housingdistrict, with a local centre at Ammerud subway station, a district centre atGrorud station and five different types of buildings organized in five areas: 320The four highest slab blocks were located in the area closest to Grorud centre,the lamellae blocks and the other slab block on the hills towards the west, and318 The slab block is a high rise version of the lamellae block: usually with quite a lot more than five floors, arectangular footprint and containing elevators. Le Courbusier’s freestanding Unités d’Habitation in the freeand open global space (which can be considered a realization of his “house in park”-model) is often presentedas an international model of this type. In Oslo the slab block usually configures in groups of three or four (likeat Ammerudlia borettslag in the satellite town of Ammerud, and at Enerhaugen where the slab blocks replacedthe wooden house suburb). The slab block is constructed of prefabricated concrete elements, and represented abreakthrough for industrial housing production in the 1960s. By turning the previous lengthwise supportingwalls so that they also could work as partitions between the apartments, the apartment layouts were dictated byconcrete spread economy, producing economical, but deep and dark apartments. The operating radius of thehoisting crane (which often was set to serve several construction sites simultaneously, to obtain maximumefficiency during the building process) is also said to have defined the lay out-geometry of the groups of slabblocks. The height of the slab block (14 floors at Ammerud, 15 at Enerhaugen, 14 at Tveita (originally plannedto have 18 floors) provides most of the apartments with an aerial view of the landscape. The elevators and thenumber of apartments per building (246 at Ammerud), provide the neighbours with more anonymity than whatis the case with for instance neighbours sharing a staircase in a lamellar house: the dwellers needn’t passseveral entrance doors with spy-holes in order to get home.319 Approximately 0,65km 2 , 1,500 apartments, developed for 6,000 inhabitants, realized 1966-67.320 Ammerudlia: Four 14 storey slab blocks (984 apts); Ammerudfaret: Three normal lamellae buildings;Ammerudenga: one S-shaped and one C-shaped lamellae building (both of them three storeys, totally 200apts); Ammerudkollen: one nine storey slab block (250 apts); and Alunsjø: 236 atrium houses174