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 2INTRODUCTION OF NEW TYPES OF BUILDINGSGrünerløkka and Grønland: New apartment block typesAs discussed earlier, urban transformation in relation to the urban renewalprograms in the traditional urban block areas implied:- a significant decrease in density, both in terms of inhabitants perblock and in terms of housing area per block (due to extensiveclearance of backyard buildings),- a significant upgrading of housing standards and quality in formerquite thrifty apartment block areas,- introduction of private outdoor spaces (balconies) and shared semiprivateoutdoor spaces (courtyards and rooftop terraces) in areas thatpreviously only contained more pure public outdoor spaces anddark, narrow backyard spaces, and- upgrading of a weary streetscape image by way of restoration andrefurbishment of street facades.The recent increase in housing densities in these areas – both in terms ofnumber of apartments and in terms of number of inhabitants in the area as awhole – is exclusively related to the introduction of a large number of newhousing projects, in the name of infill projects and transformation of formerindustrial sites. This has happened both at Grønland and in the architecturally“stable” grid plan-areas of Grünerløkka. In this way a whole new layer ofnew housing typologies has been introduced to the central eastern areas ofGrünerløkka and Grønland.In contrast to the environmental typologies related to the architecturalsystems of the earlier presented historical growth belts, these typologies arein no way designed to work as elements that define a complete architecturalsystem of more or less private/public or integrated/segregated outdoor spaces.On the contrary, the new typological inventions are designed to providemaximum exploitation of singular plots – i.e. to maximize the profit ofprivate developers and to accommodate a maximum of new inhabitants inOslo’s central urban areas. The latter must be seen in relation to publicambitions of “sustainable growth” that is reflected in municipal planningstrategies as well as state-initiated urban policies: The idea is that intensifiedexploitation and an increased number of inhabitants can benefit from theextensive public investments in infrastructure and the general upgrading ofthe central eastern areas.Typologically some of the buildings of these new infill and transformationprojects resemble the modernist freestanding building typologies of thegrowth belt period 1950-80: Both the internal organization of apartments in229