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 2getting to use the well-maintained playground equipment of theprivate housing project. 369In sum the housing projects realized and/or planned between 2000 and 2006,with morphological characteristics as described above, has given an amountof 4200-4800 new apartments, 370 all of them attached to the existing systemof outdoor spaces at Grünerløkka and Grønland. As discussed earlier, themicro-morphological and iconographical patterns of current streetscapetransformation can be related to a multiplicity of tactics developed at thefringes of what the planning authorities are in control of. In contrast to thesepatterns, the morphological patterns that are created by the numerous housingprojects built on speculation, can be seen as products of negotiations betweenrelatively predictable private interests of maximizing profit, and publicinterests that in this phase has been dominated by two concerns: a) to securehousing production by allowing a maximum number new apartments incentral areas b) to secure a variation of use quality in the housing projects aswell as related to their impacts on the area, for future and current inhabitantsof both.New specialized building types introducing oriental iconographyDuring the last decade an increasing number of specialized building typeswith oriental iconography have been erected and integrated into thestreetscapes of the traditional urban block system at Grønland. In contrast tothe iconographical and micro-morphological transformation related toreprogramming and new profiling of commercial spaces within the existingbuilding structures, the introduction of new institutional and commercialbuilding typologies such as mosques and a bazaar-hall can be seen as anexpression of larger long-term investments in relation to a local consolidationof Muslim congregations and commercial importance of the oriental shops atGrønland.Until recently all the mosques in Oslo were accommodated in more or lessreconfigured spaces in buildings that originally were built for other purposes,such as in commercial spaces, apartment buildings, public air-raid shelters,etc. – usually without changing the façade or even the street signs of the369 But as often happens: At the same moment as I write this chapter (June 2007) an almost two meter tallmetal fence with sharp tips and door-locks is erected to lock off the shared private outdoor space at Waldemarshage from the public park spaces along Akerselva.370 The figures are based on an overview of new projects gathered by the Immigentri project grounded on datafrom applications for building licences from Oslo municipality (Plan- og bygningsetaten). The approximalityof the figures is related to different ways of calculating the number of new apartments (for instance whetherremoved apartments in demolished buildings on the plots are subtracted or not, uncertainties related to the finalresult in projects in the process of negotiations, etc.). The Immigentri project lent the regisrations to twostudents who used it as basis for their master thesis which discussed the current public strategy for urbanhousing development in Oslo: Vegard Ramstad & Kristian Ribe 2006: Kontemporær boligproduksjon i indreOslo (unpublished master thesis, Oslo School of Architecture and Design).233