Planning Strategies City of Stockholm2.pdf

STADSBYGGNADSKONTORET

Stockholm City Planning AdministrationBox 8314SE-104 20 Stockholm, SWEDENVisiting address: Fleminggatan 4Telephone: int + 46 8 508 26 000

the City ofStockholm

Planning

Strategies

Sept

embe

r 20

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Stockholm City Plan 1999

Stadsbyggn.kont.br.(utskjuten) 02-03-06 12.06 Sida 1

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The planning system in SwedenIn Sweden, physical planning is mainly car-ried out by the local municipalities accordingto The Planning and Building Act.

The Regional Plan is mandatory only forStockholm County. It deals with land and water use and contains general developmentguidelines for the county. It also constitutes abasis for infrastructure planning. It has nobinding force for the municipalities or privateindividuals.

The Comprehensive Plan is mandatory. Itdeals with land and water use and develop-ment and covers the entire municipality. Itcontains general development guidelines forthe municipality and constitutes a basis for detailed planning and rulings on applicationsfor building permits. The comprehensive plancan be detailed for specific local areas. Theplan has no binding force.

The Detailed Development Plan is the maindocument used for all urban development. Theplan regulates land use and the construction ofbuildings and facilities and is a legally bindingdevelopment document. The detailed develop-ment plan regulates where and how the prop-erty-owner may build.

A planning monopoly In principle there is a municipal planning mo-nopoly in Sweden, and the planning system istherefore basically designed for local authori-ties – the municipalities. Each municipality,under the Local Government Act, has to handleits own affairs. This is a fundamental rule ofcompetence for the primary municipalities.Within this Act and the framework of speciallaws, municipalities decide for themselves onorganisation, actions, standards on town plan-ning for instance, etc.

For healthcare and public transportation,there is a regional authority, the County Council.Stockholm County Council is also responsiblefor regional planning for the county. TheStockholm County Administrative Board is theregional state authority responsible for certainplanning control.

Appendices

StockholmArea etc. Stockholm County RegionLand area, km2 187 6.780

thereof parks and green zones approx. 60Population density, inh/km2 4,013 480

Population 750,348 1,823,210

Share of Sweden, 2000 8.4 % 20.5 %Foreign citizens 74,661

HousingStock of apartments 405,000 Dwellings by type of building

Multi-family houses 89.4 %Single family houses 10.3 %

Residents per 100 room units 53

Labour market Stockholm Sweden(Persons 16-64 years) Employed in all 393,000 4,158,600Agriculture and forestry etc 0.3 % 2.4 %Manufacturing and energy production 8.4 % 19.1 %Construction 3.4 % 5.4 %Trade and communications 19.8 % 19.2 %Financial activities etc. 26.4 % 13.3 %Education and research 8.2 % 8.7 %Medical care and social welfare 14.7 % 18.5 %Personal and cultural services 12.0 % 7.9 %Public administration etc. 6.3 % 5.4 %Gainfully employed women in % of all women 78.8 % 72.2 %Unemployed in % of labour force

Men 3.8 % 5.0 %Women 2.6 % 4.3 %

SOME BASIC DATA ABOUT STOCKHOLM JANUARY 2001

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Stockholm – a Capital in Northern Europe . . 4

Towards Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . 5

An era of Rapid Development, 1950 - . . . . . . . 6

A Liveable Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Today’s Trends and Endeavours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

A strategy for the future:Build the city inwards

The new Stockholm City Plan – 1999 . . . 10Strategic Development Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Green Structure Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Urban Design Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Three Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Hammarby Sjöstad KistaThe National City Park

A Regional Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

This publication is based on Stockholm City Plan1999, the Stockholm County Draft Regional Plan2000 and information from the Stockholm CityPlanning Administration.Text: Gunnar Lantz, Architect SAR.Graphic design: Timmer Reklambyrå ABPhotographs: Peter Gullers, Anders Hanser, Jan Inghe, Lennart Johansson InfoBild, Klaus Luukkonen Bildmedia, Nino MonastraPrinted by: Katarina Tryck ABProduction: Cristina Björn, Strategic Planning Department

Stockholm City Planning Administration

If you want to know more about• Stockholm City Council:

www.stockholm.se

• Planning for the City of Stockholm:

Stockholm City Planning Administration www.sbk.stockholm.se

• the Regional Planning:Stockholm County CouncilThe Office of Regional Planning and Urban Transportationwww.rtk.sll.se

Contents


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The aim of the Draft Regional DevelopmentPlan 2000 is to support three main goals forthe Stockholm region: International competi-tiveness, High and equal living conditions andLong-term, sustainable environment. TheCounty Council defined five areas as strategi-cally important: Economic development, re-newal and integration, Education and research,Co-operation within the Baltic Sea region,Public transport and accessibility and Housing.

The Stockholm region is formally known asthe County of Stockholm, but the functionalregion covers a much larger area. The proposalis to develop the region into a multi-centredregion in order to increase accessibility forworkplaces, service and culture in the differ-ent parts of the region. Contact-intensive op-erations are those that increase most and require densely populated locations with easyaccess. These often benefit from being inte-grated with housing and service in new centres

in different parts of the region. The Plan in-cludes two alternative structures for the futuredistribution of population, housing and work-places in the region: Alternative K – concen-trated and Alternative P – peripheral. In bothcases town planning is based on increasing thedevelopmental density and complementaryadditions

Many people commute to their jobs in theCounty of Stockholm from neighbouring areas, and the housing problem in theStockholm region can be partly solved outsidethe county boundaries. The extensions of theMälarbanan and the Svealandsbanan haveopened up the functional region, which todayincorporates the neighbouring areas ofUppsala and the County of Södermanland. Inthe long-term, an even larger area of theMälaren Valley will become integrated intothe Stockholm region.

The “European Corridor”Co-operation exists between nearly 40 cities,municipalities and regions in southernSweden, eastern Denmark and northernGermany for a high-speed railway fromStockholm via Copenhagen to Hamburg. Thishigh-speed railway will constitute the back-bone of a mega-region where about 5 millionpeople live in the Swedish part. The high-speed railway will be the main part of a systemof inter-city, regional and local trains that con-nect the different sub-markets in the whole region. It will play an important role in con-necting the Baltic area with the northern partsof the European Continent. It is essential tomaintain and develop environmentally sound,sustainable, cheap and effective means oftransport that are necessary for the develop-ment of the Northern Europe region.

A Regional Outlook

Flemingsberg

Kungens kurva-Skärholmen

Barkarby-Jakobsberg

Täby centrum Arninge

Kista-Sollentuna-Häggvik

Regioncentrum

Sickla

Farsta

Haninge centrum

0 3 6 km

Ekerö

Täby

Vaxholm

Lidingö

Nacka

TyresöHuddinge

Botkyrka

Värmdö

Österåker

From the Draft Regional DevelopmentPlan 2000.The proposal to developthe region into a multi-centred region,alternative P – peripheral.

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From an international perspective, the City of Stockholm is a small capital. Nevertheless, we who areworking with the development of Stockholm find to our great satisfaction that our planning and ourefforts are of interest to many people. This presentation gives an introduction to the City of Stockholmof today, to the challenges of the future and the planning for sustainable development.

Stockholm and its buildings are the result of centuries of peoples’ efforts to build one of the mostbeautiful cities in the world. The City of Stockholm is the centre of a metropolitan area that comprises25 surrounding municipalities and 1.8 million inhabitants. The Stockholm region is also a green metro-politan area and owes its unique qualities to the fact that the city is situated at the confluence of LakeMälaren and Saltsjön, together with its vast archipelago.

Stockholm, today a capital city within the European Union, is one of the leading wireless commu-nication cities in the world. The region endeavours to strengthen its position in the Baltic Sea Regionas a sub-region in a growing European Union.

In an international comparison, the region is sparsely developed, and the strategy for our new CityPlan is to build the city inwards in order to preserve the green qualities. The Stockholm City Plan 1999was adopted with political unanimity by the City Council in October 1999. A broad discussion amongstthe citizens, organisations, local authorities, companies and governmental authorities was part of theprocess in making the plan.

Ingela LindhManaging Director Stockholm City Planning Administration

Creating a sustainable city


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Stockholm – a Capital in Northern EuropeSituated at Latitude 59° North, Stockholm isthe capital of Sweden, which in turn is one ofthe four Scandinavian countries. Sweden has8.9 million inhabitants with a density of 20 inhabitants per square kilometre. Sweden hasbeen a member of the European Union since1995.

The Stockholm CountyThe City of Stockholm, with a population of750,000 inhabitants, is the historic heart andcentre of gravity in a region that encompasses1.8 million people. The County Region coversan area of 6,780 km2 and extends 160 km in anorth-south direction and 80 km from east towest. The 26 municipalities in the county arelinked to each other in a network of growing,mutual dependency.

The Stockholm-Mälaren RegionThe process of internationalisation is movingquickly and the region is dependent for its development on great openness towards othercountries. The competition within the EuropeanCommunity for growth-creating activities andbranches will play an increasingly greater rolein the future. The Stockholm-Mälaren Regionwith 2.4 million people living in its towns andcities has the possibility – with new high-speed train connections – to develop into aneffective region where the housing stock, jobpotential, recreation and education resourcessupplement each other.

The Svealandsbanan railway today linkstowns like Eskilstuna, Strängnäs and Söder-tälje with Stockholm, and makes it convenientto travel daily the 110 kilometres from Eskils-tuna to Stockholm. A second regional trainsystem, Mälarbanan, north to Mälaren, is nearlycomplete.

Stockholm – a node in the Baltic regionEarlier historical relationships and trade linkswith the Baltic countries and Russia have beenre-established and are growing. Countrieswhich until a short time ago were almostwholly closed for trade and cultural exchangehave now become a part of Sweden’s immedi-ate surroundings – and Stockholm has majorpossibilities to play an important role in theBaltic Sea co-operation as a node in the Balticregion. For example, Stockholm is meetingthe expansion of freight-traffic from across theBaltic into the region by developing harboursnorth and south of the city.

[ For more facts, see page 19 ]

500 km0

FINLANDSWEDEN

UNITED

KINGDOM

ICELAND

IRELANDDENMARK

ESTONIA

LITHUANIA

POLAND

FRANCE

SPAIN

NORWAY

LATVIA

GERMANY

ITALY

SLOVAKIA

NETHERLANDS

SWITZERLAND

CZECH REP.

HUNGARY

BELGIUM

LUXEM-BURG

AUSTRIA

BELARUS

ROMANIASLOVENIA

CROATIA

BOSNIAAND

HERZEG.

YUGOSLAVIA

UKRAINE

RUSSIA

Copenhagen

London

Oslo

Amsterdam

Helsinki

Paris

Brussels

Bern

Prague

Berlin

ViennaBudapest

Warsaw

Vilnius

Riga

StockholmTallinn

St.Peters- burg

Kaliningrad

Örebro

Fagersta

Västerås

Enköping

Uppsala

StockholmSödertälje

EskilstunaSträngnäs

Nyköping

Norrköping

Katrineholm

Köping

Gävle

Borlänge

Avesta

Sala

Arlanda

0

50 km

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existing in the area. Also social and ethnicconnections are essential. A co-operative pro-gram with job-matching between the growingadvanced IT-industry in Kista and the housingareas south of it has been successful in pro-viding jobs to unemployed people, mainly immigrants, and providing the firms withcompetent staff.

A landscape park is planned with the aim oflinking the developing Kista area with poorersuburban areas south of it. The idea is to pro-mote social connections. It will be designed to be an ecological and cultural park with meeting-places like restaurants and recreationfacilities.

The development of Kista is also very im-portant for the development of the surround-ing municipalities. It is essential to establishplanning in co-operation between several mu-nicipalities - in close dialogue with differentinterests and the inhabitants in the area.

The National City Park A vast historic landscape in the immediateproximity to Stockholm’s Inner City was des-ignated as a National City Park on 1 January1995, Ulriksdal-Haga-Brunnsviken-Djugården.The area contains magnificent natural, culturaland recreational values and is as large as theinner city. The park is one of the most fre-quented natural and cultural landscapes inSweden.

Thanks to royal ownership of the groundsand the long history as a hunting park, largeparts of the landscape have more or less been

preserved since the 17th century. During the1780’s, King Gustav III realized his dream of making Haga into the most beautiful park ofall in the English style. Finally, during the 20thcentury, many institutions, museums and somehouses were built in the park. The park has attracted much attention internationally.

The National City Park is also sometimescalled the Eco-park. The caring of the park isindeed permeated by an ecological view thatwill contribute to a sustainable city.


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The City of Stockholm, located where LakeMälaren meets the archipelago of the BalticSea, has an unmatched character as a city ofgreen and blue – large preserved green areasand blue waters around the islands that the cityis built on. This character is important as a ba-sis for future development. The annual growthrings of town-planning and architecture can bewell distinguished in Stockholm’s built envi-ronment. All this composes values that wetrust are important for people who choose tolive and work in this city. The goal is to con-tinue to develop the city while these specialurban landscape characters are preserved andenhanced. Stockholm is facing new challengesin creating a modern sustainable city for thefuture.

Public TransportAs a result of systematic investments in railsystems and subsidised fares, 70% of peopletravelling to work during the rush hour fromthe suburbs to the inner city use public trans-port. The aim is to maintain that figure – and ifpossible make it even better, which is a realchallenge as the number of private cars increases. A way to achieve this is to furtherimprove the public transport system and to develop concentrated, mixed-use areas, closeto public transport.

Towards a more environment-oriented cityAdapting the City to long-term sustainabilityis a question of decreasing the use of resources,closing the eco-cycles, increasing recyclingand of improving the urban environment. Themost serious environmental challenge forStockholm are disturbances caused by the motorcar.

The City’s technical infrastructure – roads,public transport, technical services such aswater, sewage, waste treatment and districtheating – have been built over a period ofmany years. These large-scale systems func-tion well and are efficient. Today the level ofair pollution is low and the sea water is soclean that you can fish and even swim in themiddle of the city.

Unemployment, economic pressure andwelfare problems have also been felt inStockholm during the 1990’s. Social differ-ences and housing segregation are increasingand there is a thinning out of services. Trafficnoise, crowding, littering and vandalism havehad an influence as to how people feel in thephysical environment.

In the new Stockholm City Plan, particularattention has been paid to vacant land as a limited resource, the re-use of brown-fields,the treatment and protection of the green struc-ture and open waters, as well as the preserva-tion of bio-diversity.

Towards Sustainable Development

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Three ExamplesHammarby Sjöstad –a sustainable district developmentThe first of the strategic development areas isHammarby Sjöstad, “Hammarby Sea City”, anew part of inner Stockholm where the focusis on the water. This run-down port and indus-trial district is being transformed into a mod-ern, ecologically sustainable part of the city.Hammarby Sjöstad is Stockholm’s largest on-going urban development project. An olddockland and industrial area is being trans-formed into a modern city area that will forma logical extension of the city districtSödermalm, with 8,000 apartments housing apopulation of 20,000. After completion of allparts of the project in 2010, there will be30,000 people living and working in the area.

Environmentally, Hammarby Sjöstad willbe a well-planned area with its own recyclingmodel and its own local sewage treatment

plant. Hammarby Sjöstad will have an inner-city character with new, exciting architecture,establishing classic urban qualities in a mod-ern shape. Hammarby Sjöstad marks a breakfrom the modernistic policy of building sub-urbs to a policy of re-establishing urban valuesincluding streets with shops and restaurants,meeting-places and a mix between work andleasure. Unique qualities and opportunitiesflow from the waterside location and the prox-imity of both the inner city and the open recre-ation areas nearby. In a further response to environmental concerns, Hammarby Sjöstadwill be well provided with transportation options including the new peripheral tramline,ferries across the Hammarby Canal, and carpooling arrangements. Plans also include ahighly developed network of pedestrian andcycle paths.

Kista Science City – the “wireless valley”Kista, located in the north-western part ofStockholm, is one of the world’s most impor-tant IT-clusters. Companies like Ericsson,Nokia, Intel, Microsoft, Motorola have chosento locate their development in wireless tele-com and wireless Internet in this area. Kista isthe result of planning activities in the 1970´s.It was originally an industrial area, dividedfrom a residential area by a motorway. Parts ofthis residential area are among the disadvan-taged living areas of Stockholm, as are thesuburban areas south of Kista.

The city is now working, in co-operationwith the Royal Institute of Technology andStockholm University, with a project to trans-form these areas to an attractive place for workand life. New physical connections like pub-lic transport and roads are important to in-crease availability, e.g. an extension of thenew peripheral tramline is planned in an effortto over-bridge cultural and ethnic barriers


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An era of Rapid Development: 1950 -Stockholm, a city with a medieval core, hasgradually evolved since it was founded in thethirteenth century. The character of the InnerCity block structure was set during the expan-sion periods of the 17th and late 19th centuries.

The Stockholm of today is mainly the resultof planning efforts and development strategiescarried out during the last century. Sincearound 1920, the City Council has taken an active part in providing people with affordableand decent housing. An important part of thisstrategy has been to purchase land for devel-opment, recreation purposes, etc. The strategyand the planning have been inspired by mod-ernistic ideals with clear separation betweendwelling, work and business areas, followingthe principles of zoning, and with high acces-sibility to public transport.

Planning for a metro cityIn order to outline a strategy for the growthoutside the inner city, a city-wide comprehen-sive plan was approved by the City Council in1952. New suburbs were planned along metrolines like pearls on a string. The land neededwas owned by the city. Each suburb was designed as a neighbourhood unit with a social and commercial core, high density housingclose to the station, and in the periphery workareas and lower density housing, together withself-built one-family homes. The new conceptof ABC-suburb stood for work-housing-centre.A green structure was established with greenareas and parks dividing the neighbourhoods.

Major investments were made in establish-ing an efficient public transport system, basedon a network of metro lines, and later on, com-muter trains out into the region. The idea wasto make it possible for people to live pleasantlyin the suburbs and take the metro to work inthe city centre or in special work areas.

The post-war era has essentially been char-acterised by economic growth, but also byoverheating and inflation. Particularly duringthe 1950’s and 1960’s, Stockholm had to copewith a high number of people moving in, aswell as a rapid growth rate concerning bothpublic economy and urban construction.During this time, Stockholm developed abouttwenty-five new neighbourhoods for about10,000 residents each, served by the newmetro system. The Central Business District was renovated, and older housing in the innercity refurbished. In the 1980’s a change wasnoted in Stockholm’s economic structure, withthe virtual disappearance of the manufacturingindustry, while private services and businesseswithin the financial and media sectors demon-strated significant growth.

The planning strategies from 1952 haveserved the development of Stockholm wellduring several decades, providing good housingconditions and a healthy environment.

The regional settingA star-shaped regional development patternand a system of green wedges in between, pro-vide the conditions necessary for a residentialenvironment with good communications andsimultaneously good access to green areas.

The City of Stockholm currently has an annual population growth rate of just over onepercent. All land within the city, except parksand green areas, is used for built-up areas, andnew development projects involve densifica-tion of previously developed land. In recentdecades, the majority of growth in theStockholm area has taken place outside thecity limits in neighbouring municipalities.Stockholm dominates the region’s labour mar-ket with 500,000 workplaces, of which almost300,000 are in the inner city. Many workerscommute to these jobs from the surroundingsuburbs.

The Stockholm County constitutes an im-portant part of the Stockholm Mälar Region.The Stockholm Mälar Regional Council(Mälardalsrådet), an association for voluntaryco-operation of four county councils and 41municipalities, is promoting the developmentof the area as a region in an integrated Europe.

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Urban planning and design categories Different annual growth rings and urban plan-ning and design categories can be distin-guished in Stockholm’s plan-patterns andways of building. The characteristics of thesedifferent characters are summarized intotwelve urban planning and design categories.Guidelines are given for each category.

Four of the urban planning and design categories are illustrated here.

The Central, Grid-pattern City, 1880-1930, is givenits main character by ‘closed’ blocks with unified heights withbuildings from different periods in time.

The garden city developments, 1910-1945, containboth the classic garden city areas and the later, small-cottageareas.

The ‘narrow-block’ housing areas, 1930-1950, withboth parallel and open plan-patterns as neighbourhoodunits, as well as with multi-family housing block groups inmore ‘closed’ forms of lay-outs.

The metro system suburbs, 1950-1975, with the”Work-Housing-Centre” suburbs, group-housing areas withterrace housing, semi-detached housing, and point block areas from the 1960s.There are also the more large-scaleareas from the 1960’s and 1970’s with tall, slab blocks,3-storey slab blocks and single-family houses built in groups.


1900 300 000 inhabitants 1930 600 000 inhabitants 1950 1 000 000 inhabitants 2000 1 500 000 inhabitants

The growth of inner Stockholm Region

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To be aware of Stockholm’s distinguishingfeatures is especially important when dis-cussing changes within the already existingurban landscape. The Urban Design Guide-lines presents the character of the urban land-scape and the built environments, with the objective of contributing to an overall approachto protect and enhance Stockholm’s beautyand character for the future.

The Design Guidelines transform generalregulations of the Planning and Building Actconcerning care and respect for the urban andnatural landscape etc, to the local level to beimplemented in the City of Stockholm.

GuidelinesThe Urban Design Guidelines indicate a num-ber of approaches for preservation and changeas guidelines when the City is to be modified,renewed and developed. The guidelines alsohave the intention of promoting the new cre-ation of quality city planning and architecturewith the following general guidelines as a basis:• Stockholm will be developed into a city

with long-term sustainability.• Stockholm will develop in an interplay

between preservation and new building.

• The clarity and character of the natural landscape will be protected.

• New environments should have architecturaland artistic quality.

• Character-creating urban areas and build-ings will be preserved and renewed with care.

• The attractiveness of public spaces and openareas will be strengthened.

The character of the urban landscapeThe Urban Design Guidelines deal with thenatural landscape together with the water areas– and how these leave their mark on the Citytoday. Stockholm’s silhouette is formed by thetopography, the vegetation and the buildings.Also included in the urban landscape are thegreen spaces in the parks and areas of unspoiltnature, and the public spaces in the form ofstreets and squares. The City’s light and thecolour-scale of the buildings also play a part inthe shaping of the unity of the urban land-scape. Guidelines are given for these characters.

Urban Design Guidelines


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A Liveable PlaceStockholm has good qualifications to functionwell for daily living, for work and leisure, as ahome town and a good environment for chil-dren to grow up in. There is also a large andvaried labour market, extensive public trans-port and a large number of attractive housingareas – containing flats as well as one-familydwellings and a wide access to green areas andunspoilt nature. As a capital city, Stockholmcan offer a rich cultural life – especially withinthe arts, music and theatre. The environmentalstandards are high.

Social integration Problems which are characteristic of manylarge cities throughout the world also exist inStockholm, although on a considerably smallerscale. Social differences and housing segrega-tion between different parts of the city exist.The economic boom during the 1970’s made itpossible for some households to move out toown houses, draining some of the large-scalesuburban housing areas, and leading to emptyflats. In most housing districts, however, thereis a social mixture.

The Outer City ProgrammeTo meet social and ethnic problems in the outersuburb districts, the Stockholm City Councilmanages a special program, the Outer CityProgram, in co-operation with the tenants,supporting them in improving their situation.Focus has also been put on education and job-matching in co-operation with companies toimprove the inhabitants’ situation – with somegood results. One result is that the built envi-ronment and the design and standards of thebuildings have been largely improved follow-ing tenants’ initiatives. In some suburbs andneighbouring cities, a development of theirown identity and a new culture can be seen.

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Unlike many other metropolitan regions,Stockholm has retained a great deal of its nat-ural and cultural landscape. The waterways,Lake Mälaren and the inner archipelago of theBaltic Sea, contribute to the city’s character –as do the green open land areas and greenerypresent all over the city and integrated into thebuilt-up environments.

The green structure is important for thehealth and recreation of people living inStockholm; it allows us to experience naturalqualities and scenic beauty in the city, catersfor a rich flora and fauna, creates a good urbanclimate and provides a basis for a sustainablecity.

The indication of the City Plan is to retainthe overall green structure areas with guide-lines for continued planning and preservationof the overall green structure.

The overall green structure consists of thefollowing areas:• Larger nature and outdoor activity areas• Nature and park shorelines• Nature and parks between and adjacent to

different parts of the City• Built environment areas where the greenery

is important for the City character and/or bio-diversity.

Stockholm’s green structure is a part of theunified regional structure. Green areas in theneighbouring municipalities are also impor-tant for Stockholm.

Local green structuresThe overall green structure is supplementedlocally by a network of smaller parks, parkstretches, nature areas and open areas close tohousing and workplaces. The qualities thatthese give to their districts are important to retain, and also to create new qualities whereneeded.

Bio-diversity Nature in a large city is particularly vulnerableto changes. A sustainable use of land and waterresources demands attention to importantfunctions and processes in the ecological sys-tem. Large sections of landscape in the periph-eries of the City are of vital importance for theCity’s bio-diversity since they contribute tothe spreading of plants and animals betweenthe green areas in Stockholm and those in theadjacent municipalities.

The Green Map – a new planning basis for green qualities Based on the guidelines of Stockholm CityPlan, the Green Map goes further and definesthe green qualities as a basis for forward development planning in the districts of theCity. The Green Map defines the values ofparks and green areas from a bio-diversity aswell as a social perspective. New methodshave been used in the work. Results from research on biotopes as a basis for planning forbio-diversity in urban areas have been imple-mented. The social aspect has been focusedupon with a “sociotope” approach.

Green Structure Guidelines


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From a general decline in the financial situa-tion in the early1990’s, Sweden has regainedeconomic strength. Stockholm is currently fac-ing a situation of increasing development de-mand. There is an upward trend in employmentin Stockholm, thanks to operations where theregion is considered to have special prerequi-sites: research, education – particularly withinthe branches of biotechnology and informationtechnology, financial operations, and consult-ing, as well as visiting industry and media.

Meeting new housing demands During the new 1990’s an average of 20,000people moved to the Stockholm region anually.Residential building now taking place inStockholm is mainly concentrated to exclusivecentral locations with good communicationsand a waterfront view. Simultaneously, therehas been a redistribution of households with-in the existing housing stock during recentyears, which has led to growing segregation incertain older neighbourhoods that in turn areincreasingly dominated by economically weakhouseholds. The integration of immigrants is afocus of the municipal policy.

Mixed and varied urban developmentThe city planning strategy has been formulat-ed on the main principle to build the City in-wards. The objective is to abandon the existingideal of mono-functional structures and to create a living and varying urban environmentwith workplaces, housing, parks, culture andservice. The transformation of old work areasinto areas with more mixed uses can take placevia successive changes that can proceed hand-in-hand with business and industry’s own development.

The traffic issueThe regional traffic system – the metro, com-muter trains and the road network – are inprinciple radial, with the City’s central busi-ness district as their hub. These networks arebeing expanded outwards. But the limited railand road capacity across the water where theBaltic Sea meets Mälaren tend to separate theregion into two sub-regions, which can inhibitthe region’s economic development. A newfast tram line has recently been constructed in

the form of a semi-circle. The system connectsdistricts within the semi-central zone as wellas the radial metro and commuter train lines.The line is to be extended to the east as well asto the north. To increase the capacity of thedouble-track railroad right through Stockholm’scentral core alternatives are under intensivestudy, either on the surface or as a new tunnelfor commuter trains.

As for roads, the foremost discussion isabout whether to complete the motorway ringaround the inner city and to construct a new by-pass road to the west of the city. Major parts ofthese motorways will be built in tunnels.

Development in IT and biomedical industrySweden is a leading country in the use of advanced Information Technology. The Cityof Stockholm has installed an extensive fibre-optic cable network to enable all IT-players tooffer their services to the business sector, thepublic sector and homes. The net will sooncover the entire region. Kista, located in north-western Stockholm, is one of the world’s mostimportant clusters in the mobile IT sector andis expanding very rapidly. Research in the bio-medical industry is strong in the Stockholm region and is thought to have a brilliant future.

Changing commercial service structure in the regionNew development can be seen outsideStockholm, especially in the surrounding mu-nicipalities close to the city border, i.e. shop-ping malls, draining nearby smaller centres ofcustomers, and large working areas that arebadly provided with public transport and thatdepend on private car traffic. This calls fornew ways of planning co-operation betweenthe City of Stockholm and these municipalities.

A new land policy In coming years, new development will takeplace on land not owned by the municipality.The City Council will therefore have a differ-ent role than previously, when the City was developed entirely on City Council owned land.The planning monopoly remains as the maininstrument for the municipal influence.

Today’s Trends and Endeavours

12

Just about all land within Stockholm City istoday planned for urban use and, with the ex-ception for parks and green areas, is made upof built-up areas. In order not to hamper thecity’s development as new needs continue toarise with time, space for new construction fornew activities must be found.

Semi-central work areas – transformedinto mixed and varied urban buildingdevelopments The de-industrialization of the City has im-plied that the production of goods has largelydecreased with fewer disturbing activities. Theactivities have more of an office character requiring less space. In the City Plan, twelvestrategic development areas have been identi-fied, many of them in a circle around and closeto the inner city. In these areas, the city is planning mixed-use areas with attractive hous-

ing and business facilities. The idea is to re-use and redevelop old, partly abandoned industrial and harbour areas and to also takeadvantage of existing investments in infra-structure.

Many of the areas are directly linked to theplanned ring-road and the new fast tram sys-tem surrounding the inner city. It will opennew possibilities to develop urban nuclei inthe nodes where the tram connects to the radiallines. These areas have major location quali-ties, such as being close to water and publictransport, which render them interesting formore intensive land-use.

Together, the strategic development areasare calculated to house some 40,000 – 70,000apartments, at the same time as the existingfloor-areas for workplaces can increase with-out a higher level of development than around50% of the level in the inner-city.

Developing attractive focal points with qualified activitiesOne way in which to achieve greater balancebetween the Central Business District and otherparts of Stockholm is to attempt a long-termdevelopment of the basic structure of the trafficsystem and the living and working patterns.Good public transport locations offer specialpossibilities. New cores or focal points in theouter-city with a high level of accessibility canemerge with qualified activities such as edu-cation, research, cultural institutions and future-orientated branches.

Strategic Development Areas


10

The Stockholm City Plan is a comprehensive plan forland and water uses and for development. It coversthe whole of the municipality and is mandatory according to the Planning and Building Act. The planfunctions as a guideline for further planning and decision-making, and is the basic plan for future landuse and development in the Swedish planning sys-tem. The new City Plan was adopted by StockholmCity Council in October 1999.The plan is the answer to the planning strategy for thefuture: To promote sustainable development bybuilding the city inwards.

The strategy will be realized by: • re-using already developed land (”brown-fields”);• respecting and enhancing the character of the City,

e.g. the city-scape, the built environments and the green structures;

• redeveloping semi central areas, transforming older industrial areas into urban areas of mixed uses and variation;

• establishing focal points in the suburbs; • concentrating new development to areas with good

access to public transport;• meeting local demands.

The main part of the plan consists of theGuidelines for Planning and Building, whilesections like Urban Design Guidelines andGreen Structure Guidelines highlight certainaspects of the strategy.

Guidelines for Planning and Building The plan prepares for growth and change, while high-lighting the qualities of the already existing city. Theland use is based on the present distribution of devel-opment and open land. The plan concentrates on is-sues that are of interest to the whole of the City, suchas strategic development areas that will be consideredfor major changes in the future (see page 12), the over-all green structure with areas that will begiven long-term protection, and the overall traffic system. Mainroads and tracks are presented as reservations for fu-ture extensions of the traffic system including alterna-tives, as a basis for decisions on future traffic invest-ments. The map indicates twelve categories of areas,each category with a written planning indication.

The strategy and the planning indications provide abase for forward planning schemes at district levels inconnection with the granting of building permissions.

The new Stockholm City Plan1999

A strategy for the future:Build the city inwards

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Planning Strategies City of Stockholm2.pdf

Documents

detailed planning

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planning monopoly

infrastructure planning

stockholm county council

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