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Göteborg, Sweden
Cities 27 (2010) 182–194
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City profile
Göteborg, Sweden Gunilla Enhörning * School of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 11 July 2009 Received in revised form 16 October 2009 Accepted 1 November 2009 Available online 9 December 2009 Keywords: Göteborg Landerier Landshövdingehus Million Homes Programme Demolition/slum clearance SKF Volvo
a b s t r a c t The Swedish city of Göteborg, located on the west coast of Sweden, is the country’s western gateway. Göteborg dates back to the 1600s when it was founded to function as both a port and a defensive position. From the beginning the city saw an influx of people from other countries and Göteborg at one point was known as ‘little London’. Soon industries were introduced and the town became an important commercial centre, growing rapidly in both area and population during the second half of the nineteenth century. Town districts subsequently developed different identities and these can still be experienced today. The town’s heavy industry and shipbuilding were important up to recent times but today the city has made the transition to become a knowledge centre and also an attractive city for tourism. Planning for the future aims to consolidate Göteborg as a dynamic regional centre and an attractive place to live with its diversified urban environment enhanced by its natural qualities. The city aims to create a climate of participation among the inhabitants, corporations and organizations in the region. Ultimately, success will be measured in terms of the city’s ability to engage with all sections of the rapidly expanding community. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction Göteborg, also known as Gothenburg, is Sweden’s second largest city after the capital Stockholm. With a population of 501,429 inhabitants in March 2009 it serves as the residence city of Västra Götaland county/administrative province, and diocesan capital of the episcopate. The Göteborg municipality is the successor to the old administrative city of Göteborg and includes areas outside the population centre. Situated on Sweden’s western coast Göteborg has a clear identity as a coastal city with an international imprint, based on the early influence of Dutch and Scottish immigrants. A mild maritime climate prevails, reflecting the influence of the Gulf Stream, with summer maximum temperatures averaging 18–25 °C, and with 18 h long days and bright nights due to the city’s latitude of almost 58° North. Winters are usually mild with temperatures around zero degrees, with a short daylight period of only 6 h in December and January. The average annual rainfall is 909 mm. As befitting other ‘west coast’ settlements its citizens are said to be somewhat more informal and relaxed than those in Stockholm, the self-proclaimed ‘capital of Scandinavia’. History 1621–1900 When Göteborg was founded in 1621 by King Gustav II Adolf, it was not really a new city, but the latest of a series of towns along * Tel.: +46 31 772 2457; fax: +46 31 772 2485. E-mail address: [email protected] 0264-2751/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2009.11.001
the Göta River estuary. From a commercial and defensive point of view, the settlement was most favourably sited at the confluence of several rivers, on a short stretch of coast that belonged to Sweden, with Norwegian territory to the north and Danish to the south (see Fig. 1). Here the king donated land for the city and turned to the Dutch, renowned at that time as city founders of worldwide significance, as architects of urban planning and development. Göteborg became the largest of the cities founded during this era and endured as a symbol of the size and growing power of Sweden during the seventeenth century (Lilienberg, 1928). Like Dutch towns, Göteborg was built to a regular, orthogonal design, which included both the street network and canals (see Fig. 2). A connection with the Mölndalsån River, the so-called Fattighusån, was excavated, acting as both a communications link and an influx of fresh water. Inside this moat all trade was managed and the burghers’ houses, stock buildings and warehouses were situated beside the canal streets. With the actual port located further to the west smaller boats had to bring goods from the bigger ships in the outer part of the river through the canals (Almquist, 1929/1935). The first inhabitants of the newly founded town were people from its precursors Nya Lödöse and Karl IX’s Göteborg on the Hisingen island, together with Dutch, Germans, Scots, English and French, who had been asked to move to the town to help with its construction and administration. Thus, from the very beginning, Göteborg was planned in an international context and by 1635 the city had about 2000 inhabitants. Beyond the moat was the donation land, a large area also donated by the king for the town’s citizens to use at their common disposal. This land was divided
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Fig. 1. The extent of the Swedish kingdom in 1617, when the king began to plan for the new defense town to the west. Göteborg’s site to be is marked with a star. Source: Illustration by author.
into smaller plots, and leased out to individual burghers as socalled landerier,1 to be used as plantations, for animals to graze and so on (Enhörning, 2006). Three main roads linked the inner city to the land beyond the moat, to the northeast through the Queen’s Gate, southeast through the King’s Gate and westwards through the Karl’s Gate (Janson, 1988). Already, in the 1600s, the small suburb of Haga was placed right on the south edge of the donation land. The fortifications drawn into the Haga area were connected to one of the town’s two redoubts, and the residents were told to tear down the houses in case of war (Almquist, 1929/1935) (see Fig. 3). The settlement’s vulnerable situation demanded strong fortifications and the improvement, expansion and modernisation of fortifications continued, with the entrance to Göteborg being protected by the Nya Älvsborg fortress. Göteborg was attacked several times by the Danes, but the attacks were fended off in the harbour entrance. By 1650 Göteborg had become one of the largest cities in the country and at the turn of the century the city was ‘complete’ with a canal network and some of the strongest urban fortifications in Europe. At the same time, it was a city with a rural appearance, constructions were very simple and almost all buildings were made of wood (Andersson, 1996). The start of Göteborg’s port as a transit harbour became evident during the Great Northern War (1700–1721), when the export of wood and iron was taken through Göteborg. An East India Company was established in 1731 and Göteborg on the west coast was best placed to take advantage of this new trading direction, engaging in a lucrative trans-ocean trade with remote countries, mainly China. Intensive fishing of herring began in 1747 and conveyed good export earnings. In these good times children’s homes, hospitals, poorhouses and early schools were established and, remarkable for its time, a water pipe was drawn into the city in 1 A landeri was a leasehold agricultural property often with a manor house built on the plot. The land belonged to the town but the buildings to the leaseholder.
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1787. During the Napoleonic wars and the period of the so-called Continental System (ca. 1806–1814) British trade to Europe was conducted via Göteborg due to a blockade against England. Major profits could be made, and many of the tradesmen became extremely wealthy (Andersson, 1996). The most rich and distinguished people in Göteborg have traditionally been the merchants; unlike Stockholm there has never been any king or nobility in the city. The actual town was still contained inside the moat and there was no need to build outside it. Still most of the buildings were very simple and wooden houses were most common. Recurrent fires meant that there were plenty of vacant plots. Finally in 1803 a new building order was introduced which decreed that only stone houses were to be built inside the town. Also by the early 1800s the fortress had become dilapidated and had ceased to fill a useful role. As the city needed room for further building the fortress was demolished and a new town plan drawn up, taking the old closed town beyond its restrictive surroundings beyond the moat (Enhörning, 2006) (see Fig. 4). This period of prosperity lasted until the early 1800s, the decline of herring fishing and the folding of the East India Company in 1813, followed by the fall of Napoleon in 1814 which marked the demise of the so-called ‘transit trade’, meant that the boom had abruptly come to an end. A difficult time of depression followed for Göteborg with many bankruptcies and thereafter a cholera outbreak which literally decimated the city’s population. The city’s renewal was linked to growing industrialisation and accompanying trade during the nineteenth century, greatly facilitated by new infrastructure. Northwards up the Göta River, the Trollhätte and Göta channels were built (1800–1832) and boat traffic on Göta River became even more important. Other parts of Sweden could be reached more easily and from 1850 Göteborg became Sweden’s leading port. The first railway link was completed in 1859 and others quickly followed. Many new factories were developed especially along the Mölndalsån River (Fritz, 1996). In Göteborg, and Sweden as a whole, the nineteenth century was a period of transition between the old and new. As population increased a movement emerged to convert the burghers’ common possession of the donation land into individually owned plots. Previously, the town’s burghers had enjoyed exclusive rights to the donation land, but by this time non-land owners were in the majority. In 1810 each Swedish male was given the right to buy and own properties both in town and in the country (Prawitz, 1954). The cities had to develop their town donation lands and in order to build upon the Göteborg donation land the town began in the 1860s to acquire the aforementioned landerier, a process that took around 50 years to complete (Enhörning, 2006). The first town plan for the donation land beyond the moat, where landerier with their small, irregular but well-established patterns were situated, was established in the 1860s (Bjur, 1984). This planned expansion of the city produced stone houses designed for a well-off middle class. In many other areas of the city, however, the habitat was of much simpler kind. Soon enough not even the original donation land was sufficient and in 1868 the city began to incorporate additional areas of land (see Fig. 5). The first area that was incorporated within the city was Majorna and Kungsladugård in 1868 (Schånberg, 1975). Majorna had until then served as a port town of Göteborg and the city’s three shipyards were located there in beginning of the 1800s (see Fig. 6). At the town’s expansion localised settlements built in a local, traditional pattern varied with planned blocks of houses according to the ideals that were prevailing at the moment. During the latter half of the nineteenth century a special type of building had arisen in Göteborg, the so-called landshövdingehus. The prohibition against building wooden houses with more than two floors produced a ground floor built of stone with the second and third floors constructed of wood (see Fig. 7).
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Fig. 2. Top: ‘‘Gottenburg in Schweden” [Göteborg in Sweden], unsigned drawing from around 1650 showing the town from the south. Source: Göteborg City Museum (historical archive). Left: Map from 1644 by Kiättel Klason showing the town inside protective walls and moat. Three arrows point out the entrances through gates into the town. Source: Land Survey Board Archive.
North of the city, the Hisingen island (Sweden’s fourth largest) was linked to Göteborg in 1874 with the opening of the first bridge, Hisingsbron. Hisingen lands, which consisted largely of land for agriculture, were incorporated within the town from 1883 as the initial bridge was followed by the Götaälvbron (1939), the Älvsborgsbron (1966), and the 1968 Tingstadstunneln under the Göta River. Today Hisingen island accounts for about half of Göteborg’s surface area and holds about a quarter of the city’s inhabitants. The twentieth century In 1900 Göteborg’s population had grown to 130,000 (see Fig. 8). Entering the twentieth century as Sweden’s foremost maritime city with several major shipping companies operating as far afield as North America (AB Svenska Amerika Linien), South Africa and Australia, the port had the largest exports in Scandinavia, with most of the shipyards located on the Hisingen side, north of the Göta River. Sweden peacefully separated from Norway in 1905, and despite the onset of an early recession the twentieth century brought in a number of industrial and technological innovations. In the textile industry Gamlestadens Fabriker AB had a strong economic presence in the city and this company invented the spherical ball bearing, subsequent manufacture of which led to the 1906 formation of AB Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF). In 1926 SKF formed a subsidiary, the car manufacturer Volvo, destined to become one of Sweden’s major employers and exporters. The redeveloped harbour emerged as Sweden’s largest export port and the shipyards Götaverken, Lindholmen and Eriksberg together with the growing engineering trades became the city’s leading lines of business (Olsson, 1996). Göteborg had now developed into a true industrial city, unlike the capital Stockholm. Celebrations for Göteborg’s three hundredth anniversary were held in 1923. Although 2 years delayed, these celebrations were
well-attended and consequent international exposure placed the city on the world map (Schånberg, 1975). At this time the Art Museum, Art Gallery, Natural History Museum and Swedish Fair were built, the Botanical Garden was laid out and an amusement park was established on the premises of the landeri Liseberg. By 1920, all the landerier had been redeemed by the city with new construction firstly on the areas closest to the inner city and thence expanding radially. While the long-established patterns of landerier were replaced by modern buildings and roads, some vestiges have survived to the present day and the landscape can still be read as a palimpsest (Enhörning, 2005) (see Fig. 9).
Urban growth The town’s expansion during various epochs might be compared to the annual rings of a tree. Each ring is characterised by the planning ideas and building conditions of its time. Predominantly town districts for workers grew up around the shipyards and various industries. The division between poor and rich town districts became increasingly apparent with house type also reflecting the difference between social classes. More relaxed building regulations beyond the town border proved attractive to industrial premises. This process has resulted in a number of small, distinct town districts. For example the new houses were built according to the stone-house tradition or as landshövdingehus in parallel up to 1930, as in the Landala area. Then the functionalistic style was introduced during the 1930s and this added characteristic areas in different parts of the city (Göteborg: De små stadsdelarnas stad, 1993). One example is the area Johanneberg. From the 1930s under the Swedish Social Democratic Party, a comprehensive social
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Fig. 3. Both the inner town and the area outside the moat was founded on land donated by the king. This map is showing all the donation land. The redoubts The Crown and The Lion are marked out and also the old Haga suburb. Source: Map from 1790 by A. Södergren. Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg.
policy programme was launched, designed to build up a welfare society with full employment and social security. Following World War Two buildings were built by the state, often as neighbourhood units around a local centre; such as the Högsbo area. In the 1960s a wide-ranging building programme was undertaken to solve an acute housing crisis and over one million apartments were built in the Million Homes Programme to replace demolished homes and add new housing stock. In Göteborg, construction occurred mainly in the areas northeast of the inner city, namely the areas of Hjällbo, Bergsjön, Eriksbo, Hammarkullen, Gårdsten, Lövgärdet and Rannebergen. Housing standards were raised and overcrowding was resolved. But the planners could not have imagined that people who had social problems would be the ones that came to live in the newly built suburbs. This became the reason for a large proportion of these suburbs’ bad reputation. Despite their forward design, many of these areas were criticised for their monotony, rough materials and inhuman scale, which all contributed to segregation, isolation and passivity among the inhabitants. Urban redevelopment As the Million Homes Programme was being implemented in Göteborg more central parts of the city began to be cleared for
redevelopment. While Sweden did not participate in World War Two, cities all over the country seemed to have been bombed as buildings were cleared for development. In 1968 demolitions of the country reached a maximum and Göteborg’s plan to demolish about 15,000 homes proceeded apace, despite growing public reaction. The affected buildings, typically wooden houses and landshövdingehus had been built in the late-1800s, in Haga, Landala, Annedal, Olivedal and Stigberget to the south and west; on Hisingen Slottsberget, in the east Gårda and Olskroken, and in the west several areas of Majorna. In the city core the eastern part of the Nordstaden area inside the moat was completely destroyed and replaced with a modern shopping centre (Schönbeck, 1994). For a while the Haga area was supposed to be totally redeveloped, but a more long-term conservation plan emerged in the early 1980s (Storstadens omvandlingar: Postindustrialism, globalisering och migration. Göteborg och Malmö, 2006). About one fifth of the original houses were kept and the rest were replaced with new houses with material and scale adapted to the surroundings. The patterns of environments of living for different classes have changed but strong segregation still prevails in Göteborg. This strengthens the specificity of each town district but it also underlines the differences. Some town districts of the city have undergone a major social change which has been followed by a physical, or inversely – a physical change followed by a social.
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Fig. 4. Map from 1862 showing the alterations after the demolition of the walls. The moat was partly redrawn, partly filled in and a new ring-road was laid out. Source: Tourist Map from 1862, Gothenburg University Library.
Despite this, the districts have often preserved an identity of their own (Göteborg: De små stadsdelarnas stad, 1993). Examples of districts that have a strong local character are Haga, Masthugget and Majorna. In the wake of the 1970s oil crisis, Göteborg’s heavy engineering and shipping building industry suffered badly. Many shipping companies went bankrupt. In the late 1970s planning for urban renewal on the northern bank of Göta River began on the old shipyard land of Eriksberg, Götaverken and Arendal. During the 1980s the renewal with dwellings/apartments, hotel, exhibition halls, sports centre was carried through. A new ferry line started, which connected this north side of the river with the city to the south (Älvstranden Utveckling AB, 2009). About the time that heritage areas were being demolished, a number of new building projects were changing the face of the city. Frölunda square was Europe’s largest shopping centre when it opened in 1966. Further hallmark construction continued with the Scandinavium, Sweden’s second largest indoor arena, which opened in 1971. In the 1980s the largest hotel in Nordic countries, the Gothia Towers and the Skanska skyscraper (by British-Swedish architect Ralph Erskine) were built. The new Opera House was built in 1994. The Universeum (a knowledge and experience centre) by architect Gert Wingårdh was completed in 2001. The Museum of World Culture (architect Brizac Gonzalez) was inaugurated in 2004. Present day Göteborg Today, the city with its 12 surrounding municipalities (Ale, Härryda, Kungsbacka, Kungälv, Lerum, Mölndal, Partille, Stenungsund, Tjörn, Öckerö, Alingsås, Lilla Edet) comprises the so-called Göteborg region, with a total of 911,406 inhabitants (Statistisk Årsbok Göteborg, 2009). A shared political vision, the so-called Structural image (Strukturplan) outlines sustainable growth strategies for the region. The Structural image consists of six parts, namely; the core, central Göteborg; the continuous urban area, which is provided with good local public transport; the main thoroughfares, which are supported by railways and highways; the coastal zone, including the offshore islands; the green wedges with forestry and agricultural landscapes; and the River Göta (Arkitekten, 2009).
Although the city since its foundation has grown much in terms of both population and area, the area inside the moat has remained the core of the city and most civic attractions are within walking distance from the Götaplatsen, one of the main city squares. The main area of commerce has extended south to the area along Kungsportsavenyn and in a south-westerly direction to the area around Järntorget and Linnégatan. There is also an ‘events thoroughfare’ running from the Gamla Ullevi arena past Nya Ullevi arena and the Scandinavium with the neighbouring public swimming baths Vallhallabadet to the Korsvägen crossroads with the Swedish Fair (exhibition and congress centre), Liseberg amusement park and Museum of World Culture (Göteborg & Co Verksamhetsberättelse, 2006). Luckily enough Göteborg is also provided with several large, centrally located parks, which serve as the city’s ‘green lungs’. Port activities remain in the centre of the city in the Cityvarvet yard by the Norra Älvstranden bank, where ships are repaired, maintained and rebuilt. The renewal of the former shipyard areas on the north bank of the River Göta, Norra Älvstranden, has continued. In Eriksberg urban renewal has reached the western part of the area and the dry dock. Besides many new constructions, several shipyard buildings have received makeovers. In Sannegårdshamnen all types of housing are represented and a park, Sörhallsparken, has been established. The Sannegården centre with retailing and service flats for the elderly is being finalised. Opposite the harbour basin the historic Slottsberget mount, with its old buildings (on the Lindholmen area) can be viewed. In Lindholmen today 175 companies have been established in former shipyard and newly constructed buildings. Now construction is underway on the so-called Lindholmspiren 3 to be filled with professional occupations/activities. Planning is also under way for a hotel and a congress hall in connection with the Lindholmspiren (Älvstranden Utveckling AB, 2009). Frihamnen further eastwards has in recent years been used for navy/marine visits and as an events arena for big concerts (see Fig. 10). Changing demographics Traditionally, the presence of foreigners was always apparent in Göteborg, from the Dutch, Germans, Scots, English and French at foundation, to the British in the early industrial period, the growing
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Fig. 5. The growth of the city, i.e. the incorporation of additional areas between 1868 and 1974. The darkest part shows the original donation land. Source: Illustration by author.
Jewish population in the 1800s and the influx of foreign labour from Finland, Italy and Yugoslavia in the 1950s. Further population diversity was experienced in Sweden from the early 1970s with the migration of refugees from both within and outside Europe. Immigration was facilitated by a relative abundance of housing following the Million Homes Programme (Olsson, 1996). Within Göteborg, many refugees from Africa, the Balkan countries and the Middle East settled in suburbs northeast of the inner city. The demographic profile of these areas is very young, in Lärjedalen for instance where every third resident was under 18 years (2007). In the Hjällbo area, 61% of the population was born abroad and 89% had immigrant backgrounds (2007). In the area of Östra Bergsjön 75% of the population was foreign born and 80% were of immigrant background. In the area Gårdstensberget these figures were 73% and 79%; in the area Hammarkullen 71% and 82%, and in the area Norra Biskopsgården in Hisingen 68% and 78% (see Fig. 11). In areas where immigrants are in a majority, housing segregation is tangible and in order to reduce segregation
and exclusion the municipality has opted for all kinds of various integration projects, designed to encourage immigrants to realise their potential within mainstream society. But in these suburbs social discontent still prevails based on poor future prospects, poor opportunity of work, high unemployment and bad faith in society’s ability to deliver security (Storstadens omvandlingar: Postindustrialism, globalisering och migration. Göteborg och Malmö, 2006). During autumn 2009 there was a sharp increase in deliberately-lit car fires in Göteborg, mainly in Hisingen, and researchers at the University of Gothenburg are now investigating the motivations of those children and adolescents who engage in such anti-social activity. Overcoming alienation and exclusion means implementing major changes to the manner in which new immigrants are received. The houses of the Million Homes Programme have now grown old and many of them are in need for renovation. Over the years, some houses have been torn down and others have been rebuilt, as in the Lövgärdet area (in Gunnared) where half of the high rise
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Fig. 6. Göteborg’s location by the river and in relation to the sea, where the big ships anchored up. The map has been denominated ‘‘Map of Göteborg and its suburbs”. Majorna is marked out with an ‘‘M”. Source: Map from 1815 by A. Lindgren: ”Karta öfver Göteborg och Dess Förstäder”. Maritime Museum Gothenburg.
Fig. 7. Top left: the Haga area which origins from the 1600s is today a very popular area for tourists to visit, since it still rooms some old wooden houses and also a few of the so-called landshövdingehus. Source: Author 2009. Top right: the famous Göteborg Law Courts annex, built in the functionalism style, was conducted (1913–1936) by Gunnar Asplund, one of the country’s most famous architects. Source: Author 2005. Below left: part of the ‘events thoroughfare’ seen from top of the Gothia Tower: the sharp edged building is Universeum, the building further away is the Museum of World Culture. Both are neighbouring the amusement park Liseberg. Its pin belvedere to the left on photo is placed on the park’s mountain. Source: Author 2009. Below right: view of the harbour to the west from the Skanska skyscraper. The Opera house can be seen in the center of the photo, and left of that the lawn covered areas, free after the Göta Tunnel was finished, are to be seen. Far away in the background the suspension bridge Älvsborgsbron can be seen. Source: Author 2009.
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Fig. 8. Diagram showing the population in Göteborg 1795–2007. Note: 5 years interval up to 1990, thereafter annual data (December 31 each year) according to the municipal boundaries each year. Source: SCB (Statistics Central Bureau) and older statistic material.
Fig. 9. Top: the garden of the Katrinelund landeri in the 1880s. Source: Photo by Axel Lindahl, Göteborg City Museum (historical archive). Right: the old landeri structure with buildings, gardens, roads, is replaced by a new structure with new blocks, higher buildings of stone and straight streets. Source: Part of Map from 1890 by A. Södergren, Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg.
buildings were pulled down in 1998, and in the Hammarkullen area (in Lärjedalen), where some high rise buildings were pulled down in the late 1990s and replaced by more small-scale settlements. A constant struggle is under way to increase well-being/satisfaction in these areas. The Gårdsten area (in Gunnared) has undergone radical social and architectural changes from 1997 onwards and has won many awards for its positive work of change. In 2006 Gårdsten won a very prestigious award for repairs and renovations in the eastern part of the area (see Fig. 12). A variety of efforts have thus been made, which have sought to remedy issues that have subsequently been identified in the so-called problem suburbs. But despite this, the image of suburbia is fixed and this image can be seen as a contributing factor to the ongoing segregation processes (Ericsson et al., 2000). Trends in Göteborg, and also nationwide, are producing an increasingly marginalized population in unattractive and geographically distant outer districts and an increasingly prosperous white middle- and upper class living in dwellings near the beach, river, or close to the city (Forsemalm, 2003). The city should therefore in its approach strive to counteract tendencies of segregation as much as possible.
Future issues The population of the Göteborg region is projected to reach 1.5 million inhabitants by 2020, more than 8000 a year. An additional 120,000 homes and 80,000 jobs will be needed to cater for this growth (Business Region Göteborg, 2009). Better connections between the outer areas and the inner city will be required to facilitate commercial expansion and to alleviate the growing incidence of suburban segregation. In February 2009 the city adopted a new overview plan (översiktsplan in Swedish, ÖP) framing land use and urban development in a regional perspective. Fig. 13 outlines the revised approaches for different parts of the Göteborg area. This ÖP plans for the extension of the compact city alongside the banks of the river, and in major centres and hubs. Expansion will occur at key junctions and in areas with good public transportation to further accessibility (Arkitekten, 2009). By 2020 half of all journeys in Göteborg should be made with public transport. In order to facilitate this, a new connection over the river will be needed, the tram ring-road Kringen (construction of which started 1998) will be
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Fig. 10. Both sides of the river are today being considered as a totality in the planning and called ‘‘Älvrummet” (the river space place). The Göta Tunnel is indicated with a horizontally dashed line. Source: Illustration by author based on plan from Municipal Town Planning Office and Älvstranden Utveckling AB.
Fig. 11. Percentage part of foreign citizens 2007. In 2007, in the areas Gunnared and Lärjedalen 67 respectively 65% of the residents had a foreign background. In the area Bergsjön the figure is 72%. On the Hisingen island in the areas Biskopsgården respectively Backa 51 respectively 36% of the residents had a foreign background. Source: Intraservice, population register, Statistisk Årsbok.
completed, and the ‘West Link’ (which is a railway tunnel) will be completed. Road and rail connections to Göteborg’s port will re-
ceive substantial Swedish government funding (Business Region Göteborg, 2009).
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Fig. 12. Map of the 21 city planning committees of Göteborg. Source: Illustration by author based on Statistisk Årsbok.
Göteborg’s current core comprising ‘the city inside the moat’ and areas on both sides of the Göta River will become even more attractive for both people and businesses. It will be a dynamic mixed city near the water, offering diversity, culture, meeting places and green spaces. Both sides of the river are considered as a totality in this planning scheme called Älvrummet (the river space place) to be developed by Älvstranden Utveckling AB. Renewal and development will expand to the areas of Backaplan/ Kville, Frihamnen, Gullbergsvass/Ringön and Södra Älvstranden including Skeppsbron, with dense settlements containing a mixture of housing, work, trade, culture and recreation. The adjacent area Kville, today houses older factories and commerce. Here will be built dense residential areas, plus shops and services, and the vegetation along the rivulet will be extended into the settlement. The Skeppsbron area situated in the heart of the city is a large urban renewal area. This is designed to be an attractive environment
with housing, workplaces, shops, meeting places and stroller friendly quay strings. Other areas also intended to be developed and renewed are further away from the city core, including Frölunda torg (part of the Frölunda), Kärra and Gamlestaden, a part of the Kortedala area (Älvstranden Utveckling AB, 2009). One must presume that future development has been planned in the light of predicted sea level change and intensive storm conditions. A recent study on current weather hazards and future climate change effects for Göteborg highlights the fact that existing embankments and ground levels must be reviewed and measures taken to safeguard drinking water supplies. Most sensitive is the transport network since it cannot be secured against extreme weather events at reasonable costs. Future prospects are seen in the expansion of tourism, which has shown 15 consecutive years of growth. The tourism and recreation industry in Göteborg has traded over 20 billion SEK and
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Fig. 13. The new overview plan, the ÖP, 2009. Red: the city core – with complexity, function mix, and more housing; brown: centrally located regeneration areas – building as in the city core; orange: ‘the middle city’ – buildings, public transport and green areas; blue: coastal areas – complementing and increasing accessibility; yellow: ‘the outer city’ – future development areas, building for the longer term; violet: large industries, port, logistics – no housing, activities with transport needs; green: nature reserves – will be safeguarded and extended. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) Source: Illustration author, based on plan by Municipality Town Planning Office, Göteborg.
created more than 16,000 full-time jobs. The city’s major festivals, city celebrations, meetings, sports-, cultural-, and entertainment events today attract world interest. Göteborg has hosted the world championships in athletics, Europe championships in football and athletics, the finish of Volvo Ocean Race, world championship in figure skating, Göteborg International Film Festival, the world youth cup Gothia Cup, Göteborg Horse Show, the Göteborg book fair ‘Bok & Bibliotek’, U21-Europe championship in football, together with concerts featuring well known international artists like Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston and Iron Maiden. The city plans to strengthen the Göteborg brand even more through the acquisition of congresses, fairs, conferences, corporate events and other meetings (MICE), as well as new cultural, entertainment and sports events, city break travel and the promotion of Göteborg as a summer holiday destination (Göteborg & Co Verksamhetsberättelse, 2006). For the future, local and regional features must be processed into useful symbols of the city and region. Successful promotion must stress the city’s unique qualities and port heritage. As yet, however, compared with other European port cities the use of
quays and riverfronts has been poorly utilised in Göteborg. Much needs to be done, not only for the Göteborg inhabitants but also for the tourists who are expected to arrive in ever greater numbers. Attractive development should involve not only good walking and bicycle paths along the quayside, but also welcoming cafes and restaurants next to the water. The land released by the Göta Tunnel construction remains to be successfully incorporated into city’s port and quayside areas. Forthcoming renewal and densification of the central area on both sides of the river should act to restore the city’s natural and living contact with the waterside. While a start has been made in the importation of a ferris wheel from Australia, to be erected on the Opera plot, this initiative mimics the recreational initiative of others such as the London Eye and Singapore Flyer. The city should look towards its own heritage, for instance it could provide a permanent exhibition home for the Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg which ran aground at the entrance to the port in 1745. Following a marine archaeological excavation the dream of rebuilding the ship was realised by a fundraising foundation established in 1993. The construction project began in 1995, and
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Fig. 14. ‘‘The East Indiaman Götheborg is sailing again!!”. Source: Photo by Åke Fredriksson.
the launch finally took place in 2003 (see Fig. 14). While Götheborg will periodically sail away from the city it should take pride of place in a revitalized exhibition of the city’s maritime heritage which will intrigue both residents and future tourists in the years to come. From previously having been industry-dominated, Göteborg is today increasingly changing to be a knowledge centre with a vibrant economy. Yet, a large proportion of Swedish trade still goes via the port of Göteborg, Scandinavia’s main port and largest container terminal. It is the only port in Sweden catering for oceangoing vessels. From the Skandia harbour, large cargo ships sail around the world (Mediaplanet, 2009). The city must celebrate this historic maritime heritage and actively promote it as a central theme of its urban restructuring efforts. The cultural investments made should be inclusive, stimulating participation and seeking multiple alliances and partnerships with cultural organizations and other sectors to make the city livable and vibrant. Planners can’t make blueprints for the prospering of the civil society, but a strong civil society can curb and steer the planning processes. References Almquist, H (1929/1935) Göteborgs historia: Grundläggningen och de första hundra åren. Part 1, Från grundläggningen till enväldet (1619–1680)/Part 2, Enväldet och det stora nordiska krigets skede (1680–1718). Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum I. Göteborg. Andersson, B (1996) Göteborgs historia: näringsliv och samhällsutveckling. Del I, Från fästningsstad till handelsstad 1619–1820. Göteborg. Arkitekten January and March (2009) The Swedish Association of Architects’ Journal. Stockholm. Bjur, H (1984) Stadsplanering kring 1900 med exempel från Göteborg och Albert Lilienbergs verksamhet. Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg. Business Region Göteborg (2009). [accessed June 2009].
Göteborg: De små stadsdelarnas stad (1993) Stadsbyggnadskontoret Göteborg. Janson, E (1988) Donationsjorden i Göteborg och vissa närstående kameralistiska institut. Adm. avd., Enh. för arkivutveckl. Göteborgs fastighetskontor. Lilienberg, A (1928) Stadsbildningar och stadsplaner i Götaälvs mynningsområde. Från äldsta tider till omkring adertonhundra. Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum, VII. Göteborg. Mediaplanet, theme journal, February and March (2009) [accessed April 2009]. Olsson, K (1996) Göteborgs historia: näringsliv och samhällsutveckling. Del III, Från industristad till tjänstestad 1920–1995. Göteborg. Prawitz, G (1954) Tomter och stadsägor. Om fastighetsindelningen i Sveriges städer. 2nd ed. Stockholm [1948]. Schånberg, S (1975) Där! sa unge kungen: en återblick genom seklen vid Göteborgs byggnadsnämnds 100-årsjubileum av Sven Schånberg. Byggnadsnämnden, Göteborg. Schönbeck, B (1994). Stad i förvandling. Uppbyggnadsepoker och rivningar i svenska städer från industrialismens början till idag. Byggforskningsrådet, Stockholm. Statistisk årsbok Göteborg. [accessed May 2009]. Storstadens omvandlingar: Postindustrialism, globalisering och migration. Göteborg och Malmö (2006). O Sernhede and T Johansson (eds.). Daidalos AB, Göteborg. Älvstranden Utveckling AB (2009).
Maps Map 1644 by Kiättel Klason: ‘‘Geometrisk affritningh uppå Giöteborghs stadh”, Land Survey Board Archive. Map from c. 1790 by A Södergren, In: Historiskt kartverk över Göteborg upprättat för jubileumsutställningen i Göteborg 1923 av andre stadsingenjören A. Södergren. Sheet No. 3. Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg. Map from 1815 by A Lindgren: ‘‘Karta öfver Göteborg och Dess Förstäder”. Maritime Museum Gothenburg. Tourist map from 1862: ”Plan af Götheborg”. Gothenburg University Library. Map from 1890 by A Södergren, In: Historiskt kartverk över Göteborg upprättat för jubileumsutställningen i Göteborg 1923 av andre stadsingenjören A. Södergren. Sheet N:o 8. Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg.
Further reading Améen, L (1964) Stadsbebyggelse och domänstruktur. Svensk stadsutveckling i relation till ägoförhållanden och administrativa gränser. Meddelanden från Lunds universitets geografiska institution. Diss. 46 Lund. Améen, L (1985) Stadens gator och kvarter: Stadsmiljöns geografiska grunddrag. Liber Förlag, Andra uppl., Malmö [1972]. Bebyggelsehistoriska undersökningar i Västsverige 1973 (1974) History Museum, Göteborg. Bjur, H (1988) Göteborgs stadsutveckling. In Göteborg. Yearbook Architecture Museum 1988. Bodman, G (1923) Göteborgs äldre industri. Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum IX. Göteborg. Book, T (1974) Stadsplan och järnväg i Norden. Meddelanden från Lunds universitets geografiska institution. Diss. 69. Studentlitteratur. Lund. Bæckström, A (1923) Studier i Göteborgs byggnadshistoria före 1814. Ett bidrag till svensk stadsbyggnadshistoria. Svensk Byggnadskultur II. Nordiska Museet, Stockholm.
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Fischer, E (1923) Göteborgs landerier. Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum XIII. Göteborg. Fog, H and Helmfrid, S (1982) Kulturlandskap och samhällsförändring. Liber Förlag i samarbete med Delegationen för långsiktsmotiverad forskning. Stockholm. Fog, H (1992) Mark, politik och rätt: om plan-och bygglagen i praktiken. Statens råd för byggnadsforskning, Stockholm. Göteborg En översikt vid trehundraårsjubileet (1923) över stadens kommunala, kulturella och sociala förhållanden samt viktigaste näringsgrenar. In Wimarson, N (Ed.), Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum XX. Göteborg. Göteborg (1948). In Svenska stadsmonografier, P Harnesk and O Thulin (eds.). FörlagsAB Religion & Kultur, Uppsala. Göteborg Uppkomst och äldre historia, O (1976) Göteborgs hembygdsförbund, 5 ed. Göteborgs historiska museum, Göteborg. Hansson, S (2002) Den skapande människan: Om människan och tekniken under 5000 år. Studentlitteratur, Lund.
Jakobsson, G (1965) Stadskartor och donationsjordsförhållanden i Karlstad. In Värmland förr och nu. Meddelanden från Värmlands fornminnes och museiförening. Årg. 63. Uppsala. Lönnroth, G (1984) Stadsbilden – praktfulla palats och usla kåkar. In För hundra år sedan – skildringar från Göteborgs 1880-tal. Göteborgs historiska museums årsbok 1982–84. Göteborg. Rydqvist, CM (1860). Historisk-statistisk beskrifning öfver Göteborg, från dess anläggning till närvarande tid. C.F. Arwidsson, Göteborg. Statistisk årsbok Göteborg [from 1902–]. Göteborgs stadskansli, Göteborg. Städernas donationsjord (1956). Betänkande avgivet av donationsjordsutredningen. SOU 1956:7. Stockholm. Städernas särskilda rättigheter och skyldigheter i förhållande till staten. (1962). Betänkande avgivet av 1955 års stadsutredning. SOU 1962:9. Stockholm. Sveriges Nationalatlas.
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City profile
Göteborg, Sweden Gunilla Enhörning * School of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden
a r t i c l e
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Article history: Received 11 July 2009 Received in revised form 16 October 2009 Accepted 1 November 2009 Available online 9 December 2009 Keywords: Göteborg Landerier Landshövdingehus Million Homes Programme Demolition/slum clearance SKF Volvo
a b s t r a c t The Swedish city of Göteborg, located on the west coast of Sweden, is the country’s western gateway. Göteborg dates back to the 1600s when it was founded to function as both a port and a defensive position. From the beginning the city saw an influx of people from other countries and Göteborg at one point was known as ‘little London’. Soon industries were introduced and the town became an important commercial centre, growing rapidly in both area and population during the second half of the nineteenth century. Town districts subsequently developed different identities and these can still be experienced today. The town’s heavy industry and shipbuilding were important up to recent times but today the city has made the transition to become a knowledge centre and also an attractive city for tourism. Planning for the future aims to consolidate Göteborg as a dynamic regional centre and an attractive place to live with its diversified urban environment enhanced by its natural qualities. The city aims to create a climate of participation among the inhabitants, corporations and organizations in the region. Ultimately, success will be measured in terms of the city’s ability to engage with all sections of the rapidly expanding community. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction Göteborg, also known as Gothenburg, is Sweden’s second largest city after the capital Stockholm. With a population of 501,429 inhabitants in March 2009 it serves as the residence city of Västra Götaland county/administrative province, and diocesan capital of the episcopate. The Göteborg municipality is the successor to the old administrative city of Göteborg and includes areas outside the population centre. Situated on Sweden’s western coast Göteborg has a clear identity as a coastal city with an international imprint, based on the early influence of Dutch and Scottish immigrants. A mild maritime climate prevails, reflecting the influence of the Gulf Stream, with summer maximum temperatures averaging 18–25 °C, and with 18 h long days and bright nights due to the city’s latitude of almost 58° North. Winters are usually mild with temperatures around zero degrees, with a short daylight period of only 6 h in December and January. The average annual rainfall is 909 mm. As befitting other ‘west coast’ settlements its citizens are said to be somewhat more informal and relaxed than those in Stockholm, the self-proclaimed ‘capital of Scandinavia’. History 1621–1900 When Göteborg was founded in 1621 by King Gustav II Adolf, it was not really a new city, but the latest of a series of towns along * Tel.: +46 31 772 2457; fax: +46 31 772 2485. E-mail address: [email protected] 0264-2751/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2009.11.001
the Göta River estuary. From a commercial and defensive point of view, the settlement was most favourably sited at the confluence of several rivers, on a short stretch of coast that belonged to Sweden, with Norwegian territory to the north and Danish to the south (see Fig. 1). Here the king donated land for the city and turned to the Dutch, renowned at that time as city founders of worldwide significance, as architects of urban planning and development. Göteborg became the largest of the cities founded during this era and endured as a symbol of the size and growing power of Sweden during the seventeenth century (Lilienberg, 1928). Like Dutch towns, Göteborg was built to a regular, orthogonal design, which included both the street network and canals (see Fig. 2). A connection with the Mölndalsån River, the so-called Fattighusån, was excavated, acting as both a communications link and an influx of fresh water. Inside this moat all trade was managed and the burghers’ houses, stock buildings and warehouses were situated beside the canal streets. With the actual port located further to the west smaller boats had to bring goods from the bigger ships in the outer part of the river through the canals (Almquist, 1929/1935). The first inhabitants of the newly founded town were people from its precursors Nya Lödöse and Karl IX’s Göteborg on the Hisingen island, together with Dutch, Germans, Scots, English and French, who had been asked to move to the town to help with its construction and administration. Thus, from the very beginning, Göteborg was planned in an international context and by 1635 the city had about 2000 inhabitants. Beyond the moat was the donation land, a large area also donated by the king for the town’s citizens to use at their common disposal. This land was divided
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Fig. 1. The extent of the Swedish kingdom in 1617, when the king began to plan for the new defense town to the west. Göteborg’s site to be is marked with a star. Source: Illustration by author.
into smaller plots, and leased out to individual burghers as socalled landerier,1 to be used as plantations, for animals to graze and so on (Enhörning, 2006). Three main roads linked the inner city to the land beyond the moat, to the northeast through the Queen’s Gate, southeast through the King’s Gate and westwards through the Karl’s Gate (Janson, 1988). Already, in the 1600s, the small suburb of Haga was placed right on the south edge of the donation land. The fortifications drawn into the Haga area were connected to one of the town’s two redoubts, and the residents were told to tear down the houses in case of war (Almquist, 1929/1935) (see Fig. 3). The settlement’s vulnerable situation demanded strong fortifications and the improvement, expansion and modernisation of fortifications continued, with the entrance to Göteborg being protected by the Nya Älvsborg fortress. Göteborg was attacked several times by the Danes, but the attacks were fended off in the harbour entrance. By 1650 Göteborg had become one of the largest cities in the country and at the turn of the century the city was ‘complete’ with a canal network and some of the strongest urban fortifications in Europe. At the same time, it was a city with a rural appearance, constructions were very simple and almost all buildings were made of wood (Andersson, 1996). The start of Göteborg’s port as a transit harbour became evident during the Great Northern War (1700–1721), when the export of wood and iron was taken through Göteborg. An East India Company was established in 1731 and Göteborg on the west coast was best placed to take advantage of this new trading direction, engaging in a lucrative trans-ocean trade with remote countries, mainly China. Intensive fishing of herring began in 1747 and conveyed good export earnings. In these good times children’s homes, hospitals, poorhouses and early schools were established and, remarkable for its time, a water pipe was drawn into the city in 1 A landeri was a leasehold agricultural property often with a manor house built on the plot. The land belonged to the town but the buildings to the leaseholder.
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1787. During the Napoleonic wars and the period of the so-called Continental System (ca. 1806–1814) British trade to Europe was conducted via Göteborg due to a blockade against England. Major profits could be made, and many of the tradesmen became extremely wealthy (Andersson, 1996). The most rich and distinguished people in Göteborg have traditionally been the merchants; unlike Stockholm there has never been any king or nobility in the city. The actual town was still contained inside the moat and there was no need to build outside it. Still most of the buildings were very simple and wooden houses were most common. Recurrent fires meant that there were plenty of vacant plots. Finally in 1803 a new building order was introduced which decreed that only stone houses were to be built inside the town. Also by the early 1800s the fortress had become dilapidated and had ceased to fill a useful role. As the city needed room for further building the fortress was demolished and a new town plan drawn up, taking the old closed town beyond its restrictive surroundings beyond the moat (Enhörning, 2006) (see Fig. 4). This period of prosperity lasted until the early 1800s, the decline of herring fishing and the folding of the East India Company in 1813, followed by the fall of Napoleon in 1814 which marked the demise of the so-called ‘transit trade’, meant that the boom had abruptly come to an end. A difficult time of depression followed for Göteborg with many bankruptcies and thereafter a cholera outbreak which literally decimated the city’s population. The city’s renewal was linked to growing industrialisation and accompanying trade during the nineteenth century, greatly facilitated by new infrastructure. Northwards up the Göta River, the Trollhätte and Göta channels were built (1800–1832) and boat traffic on Göta River became even more important. Other parts of Sweden could be reached more easily and from 1850 Göteborg became Sweden’s leading port. The first railway link was completed in 1859 and others quickly followed. Many new factories were developed especially along the Mölndalsån River (Fritz, 1996). In Göteborg, and Sweden as a whole, the nineteenth century was a period of transition between the old and new. As population increased a movement emerged to convert the burghers’ common possession of the donation land into individually owned plots. Previously, the town’s burghers had enjoyed exclusive rights to the donation land, but by this time non-land owners were in the majority. In 1810 each Swedish male was given the right to buy and own properties both in town and in the country (Prawitz, 1954). The cities had to develop their town donation lands and in order to build upon the Göteborg donation land the town began in the 1860s to acquire the aforementioned landerier, a process that took around 50 years to complete (Enhörning, 2006). The first town plan for the donation land beyond the moat, where landerier with their small, irregular but well-established patterns were situated, was established in the 1860s (Bjur, 1984). This planned expansion of the city produced stone houses designed for a well-off middle class. In many other areas of the city, however, the habitat was of much simpler kind. Soon enough not even the original donation land was sufficient and in 1868 the city began to incorporate additional areas of land (see Fig. 5). The first area that was incorporated within the city was Majorna and Kungsladugård in 1868 (Schånberg, 1975). Majorna had until then served as a port town of Göteborg and the city’s three shipyards were located there in beginning of the 1800s (see Fig. 6). At the town’s expansion localised settlements built in a local, traditional pattern varied with planned blocks of houses according to the ideals that were prevailing at the moment. During the latter half of the nineteenth century a special type of building had arisen in Göteborg, the so-called landshövdingehus. The prohibition against building wooden houses with more than two floors produced a ground floor built of stone with the second and third floors constructed of wood (see Fig. 7).
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Fig. 2. Top: ‘‘Gottenburg in Schweden” [Göteborg in Sweden], unsigned drawing from around 1650 showing the town from the south. Source: Göteborg City Museum (historical archive). Left: Map from 1644 by Kiättel Klason showing the town inside protective walls and moat. Three arrows point out the entrances through gates into the town. Source: Land Survey Board Archive.
North of the city, the Hisingen island (Sweden’s fourth largest) was linked to Göteborg in 1874 with the opening of the first bridge, Hisingsbron. Hisingen lands, which consisted largely of land for agriculture, were incorporated within the town from 1883 as the initial bridge was followed by the Götaälvbron (1939), the Älvsborgsbron (1966), and the 1968 Tingstadstunneln under the Göta River. Today Hisingen island accounts for about half of Göteborg’s surface area and holds about a quarter of the city’s inhabitants. The twentieth century In 1900 Göteborg’s population had grown to 130,000 (see Fig. 8). Entering the twentieth century as Sweden’s foremost maritime city with several major shipping companies operating as far afield as North America (AB Svenska Amerika Linien), South Africa and Australia, the port had the largest exports in Scandinavia, with most of the shipyards located on the Hisingen side, north of the Göta River. Sweden peacefully separated from Norway in 1905, and despite the onset of an early recession the twentieth century brought in a number of industrial and technological innovations. In the textile industry Gamlestadens Fabriker AB had a strong economic presence in the city and this company invented the spherical ball bearing, subsequent manufacture of which led to the 1906 formation of AB Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF). In 1926 SKF formed a subsidiary, the car manufacturer Volvo, destined to become one of Sweden’s major employers and exporters. The redeveloped harbour emerged as Sweden’s largest export port and the shipyards Götaverken, Lindholmen and Eriksberg together with the growing engineering trades became the city’s leading lines of business (Olsson, 1996). Göteborg had now developed into a true industrial city, unlike the capital Stockholm. Celebrations for Göteborg’s three hundredth anniversary were held in 1923. Although 2 years delayed, these celebrations were
well-attended and consequent international exposure placed the city on the world map (Schånberg, 1975). At this time the Art Museum, Art Gallery, Natural History Museum and Swedish Fair were built, the Botanical Garden was laid out and an amusement park was established on the premises of the landeri Liseberg. By 1920, all the landerier had been redeemed by the city with new construction firstly on the areas closest to the inner city and thence expanding radially. While the long-established patterns of landerier were replaced by modern buildings and roads, some vestiges have survived to the present day and the landscape can still be read as a palimpsest (Enhörning, 2005) (see Fig. 9).
Urban growth The town’s expansion during various epochs might be compared to the annual rings of a tree. Each ring is characterised by the planning ideas and building conditions of its time. Predominantly town districts for workers grew up around the shipyards and various industries. The division between poor and rich town districts became increasingly apparent with house type also reflecting the difference between social classes. More relaxed building regulations beyond the town border proved attractive to industrial premises. This process has resulted in a number of small, distinct town districts. For example the new houses were built according to the stone-house tradition or as landshövdingehus in parallel up to 1930, as in the Landala area. Then the functionalistic style was introduced during the 1930s and this added characteristic areas in different parts of the city (Göteborg: De små stadsdelarnas stad, 1993). One example is the area Johanneberg. From the 1930s under the Swedish Social Democratic Party, a comprehensive social
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Fig. 3. Both the inner town and the area outside the moat was founded on land donated by the king. This map is showing all the donation land. The redoubts The Crown and The Lion are marked out and also the old Haga suburb. Source: Map from 1790 by A. Södergren. Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg.
policy programme was launched, designed to build up a welfare society with full employment and social security. Following World War Two buildings were built by the state, often as neighbourhood units around a local centre; such as the Högsbo area. In the 1960s a wide-ranging building programme was undertaken to solve an acute housing crisis and over one million apartments were built in the Million Homes Programme to replace demolished homes and add new housing stock. In Göteborg, construction occurred mainly in the areas northeast of the inner city, namely the areas of Hjällbo, Bergsjön, Eriksbo, Hammarkullen, Gårdsten, Lövgärdet and Rannebergen. Housing standards were raised and overcrowding was resolved. But the planners could not have imagined that people who had social problems would be the ones that came to live in the newly built suburbs. This became the reason for a large proportion of these suburbs’ bad reputation. Despite their forward design, many of these areas were criticised for their monotony, rough materials and inhuman scale, which all contributed to segregation, isolation and passivity among the inhabitants. Urban redevelopment As the Million Homes Programme was being implemented in Göteborg more central parts of the city began to be cleared for
redevelopment. While Sweden did not participate in World War Two, cities all over the country seemed to have been bombed as buildings were cleared for development. In 1968 demolitions of the country reached a maximum and Göteborg’s plan to demolish about 15,000 homes proceeded apace, despite growing public reaction. The affected buildings, typically wooden houses and landshövdingehus had been built in the late-1800s, in Haga, Landala, Annedal, Olivedal and Stigberget to the south and west; on Hisingen Slottsberget, in the east Gårda and Olskroken, and in the west several areas of Majorna. In the city core the eastern part of the Nordstaden area inside the moat was completely destroyed and replaced with a modern shopping centre (Schönbeck, 1994). For a while the Haga area was supposed to be totally redeveloped, but a more long-term conservation plan emerged in the early 1980s (Storstadens omvandlingar: Postindustrialism, globalisering och migration. Göteborg och Malmö, 2006). About one fifth of the original houses were kept and the rest were replaced with new houses with material and scale adapted to the surroundings. The patterns of environments of living for different classes have changed but strong segregation still prevails in Göteborg. This strengthens the specificity of each town district but it also underlines the differences. Some town districts of the city have undergone a major social change which has been followed by a physical, or inversely – a physical change followed by a social.
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Fig. 4. Map from 1862 showing the alterations after the demolition of the walls. The moat was partly redrawn, partly filled in and a new ring-road was laid out. Source: Tourist Map from 1862, Gothenburg University Library.
Despite this, the districts have often preserved an identity of their own (Göteborg: De små stadsdelarnas stad, 1993). Examples of districts that have a strong local character are Haga, Masthugget and Majorna. In the wake of the 1970s oil crisis, Göteborg’s heavy engineering and shipping building industry suffered badly. Many shipping companies went bankrupt. In the late 1970s planning for urban renewal on the northern bank of Göta River began on the old shipyard land of Eriksberg, Götaverken and Arendal. During the 1980s the renewal with dwellings/apartments, hotel, exhibition halls, sports centre was carried through. A new ferry line started, which connected this north side of the river with the city to the south (Älvstranden Utveckling AB, 2009). About the time that heritage areas were being demolished, a number of new building projects were changing the face of the city. Frölunda square was Europe’s largest shopping centre when it opened in 1966. Further hallmark construction continued with the Scandinavium, Sweden’s second largest indoor arena, which opened in 1971. In the 1980s the largest hotel in Nordic countries, the Gothia Towers and the Skanska skyscraper (by British-Swedish architect Ralph Erskine) were built. The new Opera House was built in 1994. The Universeum (a knowledge and experience centre) by architect Gert Wingårdh was completed in 2001. The Museum of World Culture (architect Brizac Gonzalez) was inaugurated in 2004. Present day Göteborg Today, the city with its 12 surrounding municipalities (Ale, Härryda, Kungsbacka, Kungälv, Lerum, Mölndal, Partille, Stenungsund, Tjörn, Öckerö, Alingsås, Lilla Edet) comprises the so-called Göteborg region, with a total of 911,406 inhabitants (Statistisk Årsbok Göteborg, 2009). A shared political vision, the so-called Structural image (Strukturplan) outlines sustainable growth strategies for the region. The Structural image consists of six parts, namely; the core, central Göteborg; the continuous urban area, which is provided with good local public transport; the main thoroughfares, which are supported by railways and highways; the coastal zone, including the offshore islands; the green wedges with forestry and agricultural landscapes; and the River Göta (Arkitekten, 2009).
Although the city since its foundation has grown much in terms of both population and area, the area inside the moat has remained the core of the city and most civic attractions are within walking distance from the Götaplatsen, one of the main city squares. The main area of commerce has extended south to the area along Kungsportsavenyn and in a south-westerly direction to the area around Järntorget and Linnégatan. There is also an ‘events thoroughfare’ running from the Gamla Ullevi arena past Nya Ullevi arena and the Scandinavium with the neighbouring public swimming baths Vallhallabadet to the Korsvägen crossroads with the Swedish Fair (exhibition and congress centre), Liseberg amusement park and Museum of World Culture (Göteborg & Co Verksamhetsberättelse, 2006). Luckily enough Göteborg is also provided with several large, centrally located parks, which serve as the city’s ‘green lungs’. Port activities remain in the centre of the city in the Cityvarvet yard by the Norra Älvstranden bank, where ships are repaired, maintained and rebuilt. The renewal of the former shipyard areas on the north bank of the River Göta, Norra Älvstranden, has continued. In Eriksberg urban renewal has reached the western part of the area and the dry dock. Besides many new constructions, several shipyard buildings have received makeovers. In Sannegårdshamnen all types of housing are represented and a park, Sörhallsparken, has been established. The Sannegården centre with retailing and service flats for the elderly is being finalised. Opposite the harbour basin the historic Slottsberget mount, with its old buildings (on the Lindholmen area) can be viewed. In Lindholmen today 175 companies have been established in former shipyard and newly constructed buildings. Now construction is underway on the so-called Lindholmspiren 3 to be filled with professional occupations/activities. Planning is also under way for a hotel and a congress hall in connection with the Lindholmspiren (Älvstranden Utveckling AB, 2009). Frihamnen further eastwards has in recent years been used for navy/marine visits and as an events arena for big concerts (see Fig. 10). Changing demographics Traditionally, the presence of foreigners was always apparent in Göteborg, from the Dutch, Germans, Scots, English and French at foundation, to the British in the early industrial period, the growing
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Fig. 5. The growth of the city, i.e. the incorporation of additional areas between 1868 and 1974. The darkest part shows the original donation land. Source: Illustration by author.
Jewish population in the 1800s and the influx of foreign labour from Finland, Italy and Yugoslavia in the 1950s. Further population diversity was experienced in Sweden from the early 1970s with the migration of refugees from both within and outside Europe. Immigration was facilitated by a relative abundance of housing following the Million Homes Programme (Olsson, 1996). Within Göteborg, many refugees from Africa, the Balkan countries and the Middle East settled in suburbs northeast of the inner city. The demographic profile of these areas is very young, in Lärjedalen for instance where every third resident was under 18 years (2007). In the Hjällbo area, 61% of the population was born abroad and 89% had immigrant backgrounds (2007). In the area of Östra Bergsjön 75% of the population was foreign born and 80% were of immigrant background. In the area Gårdstensberget these figures were 73% and 79%; in the area Hammarkullen 71% and 82%, and in the area Norra Biskopsgården in Hisingen 68% and 78% (see Fig. 11). In areas where immigrants are in a majority, housing segregation is tangible and in order to reduce segregation
and exclusion the municipality has opted for all kinds of various integration projects, designed to encourage immigrants to realise their potential within mainstream society. But in these suburbs social discontent still prevails based on poor future prospects, poor opportunity of work, high unemployment and bad faith in society’s ability to deliver security (Storstadens omvandlingar: Postindustrialism, globalisering och migration. Göteborg och Malmö, 2006). During autumn 2009 there was a sharp increase in deliberately-lit car fires in Göteborg, mainly in Hisingen, and researchers at the University of Gothenburg are now investigating the motivations of those children and adolescents who engage in such anti-social activity. Overcoming alienation and exclusion means implementing major changes to the manner in which new immigrants are received. The houses of the Million Homes Programme have now grown old and many of them are in need for renovation. Over the years, some houses have been torn down and others have been rebuilt, as in the Lövgärdet area (in Gunnared) where half of the high rise
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Fig. 6. Göteborg’s location by the river and in relation to the sea, where the big ships anchored up. The map has been denominated ‘‘Map of Göteborg and its suburbs”. Majorna is marked out with an ‘‘M”. Source: Map from 1815 by A. Lindgren: ”Karta öfver Göteborg och Dess Förstäder”. Maritime Museum Gothenburg.
Fig. 7. Top left: the Haga area which origins from the 1600s is today a very popular area for tourists to visit, since it still rooms some old wooden houses and also a few of the so-called landshövdingehus. Source: Author 2009. Top right: the famous Göteborg Law Courts annex, built in the functionalism style, was conducted (1913–1936) by Gunnar Asplund, one of the country’s most famous architects. Source: Author 2005. Below left: part of the ‘events thoroughfare’ seen from top of the Gothia Tower: the sharp edged building is Universeum, the building further away is the Museum of World Culture. Both are neighbouring the amusement park Liseberg. Its pin belvedere to the left on photo is placed on the park’s mountain. Source: Author 2009. Below right: view of the harbour to the west from the Skanska skyscraper. The Opera house can be seen in the center of the photo, and left of that the lawn covered areas, free after the Göta Tunnel was finished, are to be seen. Far away in the background the suspension bridge Älvsborgsbron can be seen. Source: Author 2009.
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Fig. 8. Diagram showing the population in Göteborg 1795–2007. Note: 5 years interval up to 1990, thereafter annual data (December 31 each year) according to the municipal boundaries each year. Source: SCB (Statistics Central Bureau) and older statistic material.
Fig. 9. Top: the garden of the Katrinelund landeri in the 1880s. Source: Photo by Axel Lindahl, Göteborg City Museum (historical archive). Right: the old landeri structure with buildings, gardens, roads, is replaced by a new structure with new blocks, higher buildings of stone and straight streets. Source: Part of Map from 1890 by A. Södergren, Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg.
buildings were pulled down in 1998, and in the Hammarkullen area (in Lärjedalen), where some high rise buildings were pulled down in the late 1990s and replaced by more small-scale settlements. A constant struggle is under way to increase well-being/satisfaction in these areas. The Gårdsten area (in Gunnared) has undergone radical social and architectural changes from 1997 onwards and has won many awards for its positive work of change. In 2006 Gårdsten won a very prestigious award for repairs and renovations in the eastern part of the area (see Fig. 12). A variety of efforts have thus been made, which have sought to remedy issues that have subsequently been identified in the so-called problem suburbs. But despite this, the image of suburbia is fixed and this image can be seen as a contributing factor to the ongoing segregation processes (Ericsson et al., 2000). Trends in Göteborg, and also nationwide, are producing an increasingly marginalized population in unattractive and geographically distant outer districts and an increasingly prosperous white middle- and upper class living in dwellings near the beach, river, or close to the city (Forsemalm, 2003). The city should therefore in its approach strive to counteract tendencies of segregation as much as possible.
Future issues The population of the Göteborg region is projected to reach 1.5 million inhabitants by 2020, more than 8000 a year. An additional 120,000 homes and 80,000 jobs will be needed to cater for this growth (Business Region Göteborg, 2009). Better connections between the outer areas and the inner city will be required to facilitate commercial expansion and to alleviate the growing incidence of suburban segregation. In February 2009 the city adopted a new overview plan (översiktsplan in Swedish, ÖP) framing land use and urban development in a regional perspective. Fig. 13 outlines the revised approaches for different parts of the Göteborg area. This ÖP plans for the extension of the compact city alongside the banks of the river, and in major centres and hubs. Expansion will occur at key junctions and in areas with good public transportation to further accessibility (Arkitekten, 2009). By 2020 half of all journeys in Göteborg should be made with public transport. In order to facilitate this, a new connection over the river will be needed, the tram ring-road Kringen (construction of which started 1998) will be
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Fig. 10. Both sides of the river are today being considered as a totality in the planning and called ‘‘Älvrummet” (the river space place). The Göta Tunnel is indicated with a horizontally dashed line. Source: Illustration by author based on plan from Municipal Town Planning Office and Älvstranden Utveckling AB.
Fig. 11. Percentage part of foreign citizens 2007. In 2007, in the areas Gunnared and Lärjedalen 67 respectively 65% of the residents had a foreign background. In the area Bergsjön the figure is 72%. On the Hisingen island in the areas Biskopsgården respectively Backa 51 respectively 36% of the residents had a foreign background. Source: Intraservice, population register, Statistisk Årsbok.
completed, and the ‘West Link’ (which is a railway tunnel) will be completed. Road and rail connections to Göteborg’s port will re-
ceive substantial Swedish government funding (Business Region Göteborg, 2009).
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Fig. 12. Map of the 21 city planning committees of Göteborg. Source: Illustration by author based on Statistisk Årsbok.
Göteborg’s current core comprising ‘the city inside the moat’ and areas on both sides of the Göta River will become even more attractive for both people and businesses. It will be a dynamic mixed city near the water, offering diversity, culture, meeting places and green spaces. Both sides of the river are considered as a totality in this planning scheme called Älvrummet (the river space place) to be developed by Älvstranden Utveckling AB. Renewal and development will expand to the areas of Backaplan/ Kville, Frihamnen, Gullbergsvass/Ringön and Södra Älvstranden including Skeppsbron, with dense settlements containing a mixture of housing, work, trade, culture and recreation. The adjacent area Kville, today houses older factories and commerce. Here will be built dense residential areas, plus shops and services, and the vegetation along the rivulet will be extended into the settlement. The Skeppsbron area situated in the heart of the city is a large urban renewal area. This is designed to be an attractive environment
with housing, workplaces, shops, meeting places and stroller friendly quay strings. Other areas also intended to be developed and renewed are further away from the city core, including Frölunda torg (part of the Frölunda), Kärra and Gamlestaden, a part of the Kortedala area (Älvstranden Utveckling AB, 2009). One must presume that future development has been planned in the light of predicted sea level change and intensive storm conditions. A recent study on current weather hazards and future climate change effects for Göteborg highlights the fact that existing embankments and ground levels must be reviewed and measures taken to safeguard drinking water supplies. Most sensitive is the transport network since it cannot be secured against extreme weather events at reasonable costs. Future prospects are seen in the expansion of tourism, which has shown 15 consecutive years of growth. The tourism and recreation industry in Göteborg has traded over 20 billion SEK and
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Fig. 13. The new overview plan, the ÖP, 2009. Red: the city core – with complexity, function mix, and more housing; brown: centrally located regeneration areas – building as in the city core; orange: ‘the middle city’ – buildings, public transport and green areas; blue: coastal areas – complementing and increasing accessibility; yellow: ‘the outer city’ – future development areas, building for the longer term; violet: large industries, port, logistics – no housing, activities with transport needs; green: nature reserves – will be safeguarded and extended. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) Source: Illustration author, based on plan by Municipality Town Planning Office, Göteborg.
created more than 16,000 full-time jobs. The city’s major festivals, city celebrations, meetings, sports-, cultural-, and entertainment events today attract world interest. Göteborg has hosted the world championships in athletics, Europe championships in football and athletics, the finish of Volvo Ocean Race, world championship in figure skating, Göteborg International Film Festival, the world youth cup Gothia Cup, Göteborg Horse Show, the Göteborg book fair ‘Bok & Bibliotek’, U21-Europe championship in football, together with concerts featuring well known international artists like Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston and Iron Maiden. The city plans to strengthen the Göteborg brand even more through the acquisition of congresses, fairs, conferences, corporate events and other meetings (MICE), as well as new cultural, entertainment and sports events, city break travel and the promotion of Göteborg as a summer holiday destination (Göteborg & Co Verksamhetsberättelse, 2006). For the future, local and regional features must be processed into useful symbols of the city and region. Successful promotion must stress the city’s unique qualities and port heritage. As yet, however, compared with other European port cities the use of
quays and riverfronts has been poorly utilised in Göteborg. Much needs to be done, not only for the Göteborg inhabitants but also for the tourists who are expected to arrive in ever greater numbers. Attractive development should involve not only good walking and bicycle paths along the quayside, but also welcoming cafes and restaurants next to the water. The land released by the Göta Tunnel construction remains to be successfully incorporated into city’s port and quayside areas. Forthcoming renewal and densification of the central area on both sides of the river should act to restore the city’s natural and living contact with the waterside. While a start has been made in the importation of a ferris wheel from Australia, to be erected on the Opera plot, this initiative mimics the recreational initiative of others such as the London Eye and Singapore Flyer. The city should look towards its own heritage, for instance it could provide a permanent exhibition home for the Swedish East Indiaman Götheborg which ran aground at the entrance to the port in 1745. Following a marine archaeological excavation the dream of rebuilding the ship was realised by a fundraising foundation established in 1993. The construction project began in 1995, and
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Fig. 14. ‘‘The East Indiaman Götheborg is sailing again!!”. Source: Photo by Åke Fredriksson.
the launch finally took place in 2003 (see Fig. 14). While Götheborg will periodically sail away from the city it should take pride of place in a revitalized exhibition of the city’s maritime heritage which will intrigue both residents and future tourists in the years to come. From previously having been industry-dominated, Göteborg is today increasingly changing to be a knowledge centre with a vibrant economy. Yet, a large proportion of Swedish trade still goes via the port of Göteborg, Scandinavia’s main port and largest container terminal. It is the only port in Sweden catering for oceangoing vessels. From the Skandia harbour, large cargo ships sail around the world (Mediaplanet, 2009). The city must celebrate this historic maritime heritage and actively promote it as a central theme of its urban restructuring efforts. The cultural investments made should be inclusive, stimulating participation and seeking multiple alliances and partnerships with cultural organizations and other sectors to make the city livable and vibrant. Planners can’t make blueprints for the prospering of the civil society, but a strong civil society can curb and steer the planning processes. References Almquist, H (1929/1935) Göteborgs historia: Grundläggningen och de första hundra åren. Part 1, Från grundläggningen till enväldet (1619–1680)/Part 2, Enväldet och det stora nordiska krigets skede (1680–1718). Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum I. Göteborg. Andersson, B (1996) Göteborgs historia: näringsliv och samhällsutveckling. Del I, Från fästningsstad till handelsstad 1619–1820. Göteborg. Arkitekten January and March (2009) The Swedish Association of Architects’ Journal. Stockholm. Bjur, H (1984) Stadsplanering kring 1900 med exempel från Göteborg och Albert Lilienbergs verksamhet. Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg. Business Region Göteborg (2009).
Göteborg: De små stadsdelarnas stad (1993) Stadsbyggnadskontoret Göteborg. Janson, E (1988) Donationsjorden i Göteborg och vissa närstående kameralistiska institut. Adm. avd., Enh. för arkivutveckl. Göteborgs fastighetskontor. Lilienberg, A (1928) Stadsbildningar och stadsplaner i Götaälvs mynningsområde. Från äldsta tider till omkring adertonhundra. Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum, VII. Göteborg. Mediaplanet, theme journal, February and March (2009)
Maps Map 1644 by Kiättel Klason: ‘‘Geometrisk affritningh uppå Giöteborghs stadh”, Land Survey Board Archive. Map from c. 1790 by A Södergren, In: Historiskt kartverk över Göteborg upprättat för jubileumsutställningen i Göteborg 1923 av andre stadsingenjören A. Södergren. Sheet No. 3. Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg. Map from 1815 by A Lindgren: ‘‘Karta öfver Göteborg och Dess Förstäder”. Maritime Museum Gothenburg. Tourist map from 1862: ”Plan af Götheborg”. Gothenburg University Library. Map from 1890 by A Södergren, In: Historiskt kartverk över Göteborg upprättat för jubileumsutställningen i Göteborg 1923 av andre stadsingenjören A. Södergren. Sheet N:o 8. Municipal Town Planning Office Göteborg.
Further reading Améen, L (1964) Stadsbebyggelse och domänstruktur. Svensk stadsutveckling i relation till ägoförhållanden och administrativa gränser. Meddelanden från Lunds universitets geografiska institution. Diss. 46 Lund. Améen, L (1985) Stadens gator och kvarter: Stadsmiljöns geografiska grunddrag. Liber Förlag, Andra uppl., Malmö [1972]. Bebyggelsehistoriska undersökningar i Västsverige 1973 (1974) History Museum, Göteborg. Bjur, H (1988) Göteborgs stadsutveckling. In Göteborg. Yearbook Architecture Museum 1988. Bodman, G (1923) Göteborgs äldre industri. Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum IX. Göteborg. Book, T (1974) Stadsplan och järnväg i Norden. Meddelanden från Lunds universitets geografiska institution. Diss. 69. Studentlitteratur. Lund. Bæckström, A (1923) Studier i Göteborgs byggnadshistoria före 1814. Ett bidrag till svensk stadsbyggnadshistoria. Svensk Byggnadskultur II. Nordiska Museet, Stockholm.
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Fischer, E (1923) Göteborgs landerier. Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum XIII. Göteborg. Fog, H and Helmfrid, S (1982) Kulturlandskap och samhällsförändring. Liber Förlag i samarbete med Delegationen för långsiktsmotiverad forskning. Stockholm. Fog, H (1992) Mark, politik och rätt: om plan-och bygglagen i praktiken. Statens råd för byggnadsforskning, Stockholm. Göteborg En översikt vid trehundraårsjubileet (1923) över stadens kommunala, kulturella och sociala förhållanden samt viktigaste näringsgrenar. In Wimarson, N (Ed.), Skrifter utgivna till Göteborgs stads trehundraårsjubileum XX. Göteborg. Göteborg (1948). In Svenska stadsmonografier, P Harnesk and O Thulin (eds.). FörlagsAB Religion & Kultur, Uppsala. Göteborg Uppkomst och äldre historia, O (1976) Göteborgs hembygdsförbund, 5 ed. Göteborgs historiska museum, Göteborg. Hansson, S (2002) Den skapande människan: Om människan och tekniken under 5000 år. Studentlitteratur, Lund.
Jakobsson, G (1965) Stadskartor och donationsjordsförhållanden i Karlstad. In Värmland förr och nu. Meddelanden från Värmlands fornminnes och museiförening. Årg. 63. Uppsala. Lönnroth, G (1984) Stadsbilden – praktfulla palats och usla kåkar. In För hundra år sedan – skildringar från Göteborgs 1880-tal. Göteborgs historiska museums årsbok 1982–84. Göteborg. Rydqvist, CM (1860). Historisk-statistisk beskrifning öfver Göteborg, från dess anläggning till närvarande tid. C.F. Arwidsson, Göteborg. Statistisk årsbok Göteborg [from 1902–]. Göteborgs stadskansli, Göteborg. Städernas donationsjord (1956). Betänkande avgivet av donationsjordsutredningen. SOU 1956:7. Stockholm. Städernas särskilda rättigheter och skyldigheter i förhållande till staten. (1962). Betänkande avgivet av 1955 års stadsutredning. SOU 1962:9. Stockholm. Sveriges Nationalatlas.