Kiruna and Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg: Sustainability in exemplary urban development projects

How do you prioritize who will get the opportunity to build a city from scratch? Meet the project management team for two highly visible construction projects at Nordbygg Sustainable Days 2014.

Göran Cars, professor of urban development and project manager for Kiruna Municipality, is coming to Sustainable Days to talk about the project and the overall planning process, which includes sustainability in environmental, social and economic terms.

"When it comes to ecological sustainability, it's a dream situation to get to do everything from scratch. Nothing is already built. We are trying to think of the environment in every step of the planning process: building technology, energy supply, transportation and water and waste management.

"We are trying to fulfill the social dimension by having a dialogue with the residents of Kiruna. Out of this will come planning proposals to make the city a venue of social encounters, as well as thoughts on integration and social harmony," explains Cars, concluding:

"We are responding to the economic dimension by planning the new city in close cooperation with private stakeholders who will invest and give the city its content in the form of housing, commerce and workplaces.”

All of this will be taken up in greater detail in talks and exhibitions at Sustainable Days.

First development plan
White Architects won the design competition for a new urban structure for Kiruna. Krister Lindstedt is the architect responsible for the project and will also be speaking at Sustainable Days.

"The project will be developed at a fast pace, in an extreme climate. We have the unique opportunity to think in a completely new way and do things the right way from the start”, she says. 

One example of the new track is exploitation of the mining industry's enormous amount of waste heat to supply energy, which would enable the creation of a climate-neutral city. 

"We will be showing the development plan for the first phase, which includes the square and the city hall. It will be the first time it will be shown publicly outside of Kiruna," explains Lindstedt, who adds: 

“Kiruna is a project involving people from Kiruna, the rest of Sweden and abroad. 

"The dialogue with Kiruna residents has been going on for a long time and is a linchpin of our work. Now the project group is very much looking forward to meeting the industry and bringing up the sustainability issue, from plan to action.”

From landfill to sustainable residences
An extensive urban development project in the Wilhelmsburg district of Hamburg will also be presented at Sustainable days.

The speaker is Uli Hellwig, CEO of the Hamburg International Building Exhibition IBA (Internationale Bauausstellung).

Wilhelmsburg is situated on an island in the Elbe River. Despite its idyllic location, this district of Hamburg was long considered unattractive as a place to live. The island was dominated by industrial buildings and was used as a waste landfill area until the 1970s.

The International Building Exhibition IBA in Wilhelmsburg has made the district into a model of integrated and sustainable urban planning. 

Comprehensive development concept
“Now a 30,000 m2 area on the island has been the subject of an urban development concept. The focus of the plan was on sustainability," says Alrun Griepenkerl, project manager for the German-Swedish Chamber of Commerce.  

Wilhelmsburg is to be completely energy self-sufficient by 2050 via innovative forms of energy production and recycling.

FACT BOX

About Sustainable Days 
Nordbygg Sustainable Days 2014 is a top-level arena of knowledge-sharing, where Swedish urban developers will meet some of the most renowned German architects and structural engineers.

Sustainable Days is a new feature of Nordbygg, which will take place at Stockholmsmässan on April 1–4, 2014. It is a conference with international scope held annually during the fair, addressing a specific theme. The 2014 conference will focus on Germany and is being organized in association with the German-Swedish Chamber of Commerce.

Sustainable Days Program Overview 

April 1, 2014 
Sustainable urban planning for a healthier society from an ecological, social and economic perspective. 

April 2, 2014
Real estate development and sustainable financing

April 3, 2013
Architecture and research: urban construction of the future

April 4, 2014 
Green living: building materials of the future.

For more information:
Peter Söderberg, Event Manager Nordbygg, tel.+46-8-749 4393 peter.soderberg@stockholmsmassan.se