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34 ’SCAPE 2 / 2007 Melting ice puts arctic city Tromsø on the map The city has been growing at an average of 6 per cent a year, especially since the establishment of the University of Tromsø in the 1970s. Prospects for the city are good; climate change will open up new sea routes and create a more habitable north. Tromsø - located on an island - is rapidly expanding onto the mainland. climate Source: Dahl & Uhre architects and planners

Melting ice puts arctic city Tromsø on the map

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In the middle of the northern arena is Tromsø, an expanding city of 65,000 inhabitants, which is located at close to 70 degrees latitude in the remote part of Norway, where the winter sun disappears for weeks on end. Here climate change means a change of the landscape. In the coming decades the white scenery will begin to change into a green one.

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Page 1: Melting ice puts arctic city Tromsø on the map

34 ’ S C A P E 2 / 2007

Melting ice puts arctic city Tromsø on the map

The city has been growing at an average of 6 per cent a year, especially since the establishment of theUniversity of Tromsø in the 1970s. Prospects for the city are good; climate change will open up new sea routesand create a more habitable north.

Tromsø - located on an island - is rapidly expanding onto the mainland.

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Page 2: Melting ice puts arctic city Tromsø on the map

2 / 2007 ’ S C A P E 35

The climate is changing. The extentof these changes is still debated, andgovernments around the world arehesitating about what measures totake. The Arctic region, however, is aclear showcase for the inevitability ofwhat is to come. Here are someexamples. The south of Greenland isturning green again. Farmers areexperiencing longer growing seasons.Agriculture is increasing and yieldingbigger harvests every year. At thesame time in Greenland, reindeerherding is getting tougher, while theherds are migrating further north.Helicopters are needed to locate thecattle and move them to the pastures.

Museum of Finnish Architecture, whowere in charge of the exhibition, didnot see what we saw.’ It seems, as theprinciple goes, that something bad,like the New Orleans flooding, has tohappen first before a prediction isreally taken seriously. It holds sensefor Tromsø, because no great disastershave yet occurred. Tromsø is evenparticipating in the competition tohost the 2018 Winter Olympics which,naturally, would not be possiblewithout snow and cold temperatures.

The situation raises a question:what is happening in Tromsø,considering all the talk about meltingglaziers and rising sea levels? Someanswers are given by the research ofthe Norwegian Polar Institute, whichis located in this city. Jan GunnarWinther, who is the director of theinstitute, explains that despite thepredictions of sea level rise ‘inNorway there is not such a bigproblem. Of course there are citiesclose to the sea, like Bergen and Oslo,but they are mostly situated onslopes. The largest effect will be inflood areas around the world, like theNetherlands, Bangladesh, and indeedNew Orleans. In Tromsø we have afew buildings very close to sea level,but most of the building mass is wellabove it.’ Winther predicts that thebiggest changes for the area will bedealing with temperature andprecipitation. ‘Due to the increase oftemperature, the tree line will move

up to higher altitudes but alsomigrate further northwards’, explainsWinther, ‘like in Greenland, in thenorthern-most county of Finnmark, itwill change the conditions forreindeer herding of which there is animportant indigenous tradition.’ Samipeople live in these remote regions,and they are expressing concernsabout climate change, like thespokeswoman for the Canadian Inuitpeople who was invited as a speakeron the United Nations EnvironmentalDay, held at the University of Tromsøthis year. ‘ ‘The indigenous peoples ofthe Arctic live in close contact withnature, and although we are veryresourceful, at some point in time wewill no longer be able to live the waywe used to do for centuries’, she said.The Sami and Inuit people areconfronted with climate change wellbefore the inhabitants of the urbanregions of the Arctic are aware of it.Together with a rise of temperature

there will be a change in precipitationfrom snow to a combination of wetsnow and rain. From this time on thesnow depth will gradually decrease.‘Most probably not in 2018 with theOlympics’, says Winther, ‘but towards2050 the effect will be verynoticeable.’ A good example is theTromsø building code. Builders haveto adhere to a characteristic snowload, which is established based onmeasurements of snow fall. Theseregulations will become less strict,because the snow fall is decreasing,

Also on the permafrost soils ofnorthern Russia, big changes aretaking place at this time. Major areasare thawing, destroying roads andbuildings that rely on a solidfoundation of frozen soil. Now theyare slowly subsiding or simplycollapsing, and the region is changinginto a giant wetland.

In the middle of this northernarena is Tromsø, an expanding city of65,000 inhabitants, which is locatedat close to 70 degrees latitude in theremote part of Norway, where thewinter sun disappears for weeks onend. Here climate change means achange of the landscape. In thecoming decades the white scenerywill begin to change into a green one.Recently the city has teamed up withtwo other arctic cities – Kiruna inSweden and Oulu in Finland – toparticipate in the tenth VeniceArchitecture Biennale that took placein 2006. Norwegian architect KnutEirik Dahl, who has been living inTromsø since 1971 and is involved inorganising the exhibition, explains:‘During the dialogues between theNordic participants on how to presentthe ‘Arctic Cities’ theme at theBiennale, the Swedish architectAnders Wilhelmson came up with theproposal to fill the Nordic pavilion,designed by Sverre Fehn, with a giantblock of ice. The ice would thengradually melt during the time of theexhibition, creating a symbolicreference to climatic changes in theArctic.’ If this had gone through, theNordic pavilion together with theAmerican pavilion, which pictured theNew Orleans flooding, would be theonly participants paying attention toclimate change. ‘Unfortunately itdidn’t come off’, says Dahl, ‘The

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Page 3: Melting ice puts arctic city Tromsø on the map

36 ’ S C A P E 2 / 2007

and the snow is melting faster. Thishas great impacts when it comes tobuilding and transportation.According to Knut Eirik Dahl: ‘If youlook at the most recent statistics fromthe Polar Institute, but certainly alsofrom the United Nations, you willconclude that the icy Arctic landscapethat shaped and created Tromsø nowdisappears, and another landscapeappears. The city is literally relocated.’Nevertheless, most of the recentplans for the city do not anticipatethe projected changes.

Tromsø has opened the shutters tothe outside world with participationin the Biennale, and the hosting ofthe United Nations EnvironmentalDay. Furthermore, with theNorwegian Polar Institute and theuniversity, Tromsø has put itself onthe map of knowledge andcompetencies on the Arctic. Now itincreases the pressure on itself evenmore by competing for the Olympics.Since recently the city has becomeknown as Polar Capital City ofNorway. It is a position that drawsattention to the city. Both Wintherand Dahl belief that Tromsø shouldset an example for the whole country,or even globally, on how to deal withclimate change. While the city willcontinue to grow because theenvironment is getting morehabitable, a fundamental and difficultquestion arises. Do we go for theBarents Sea’s fossil fuel reserves, that

are getting more accessible with themelting of the ice? Or do we utilisethe knowledge and competencies wehave to strive for a sustainabledevelopment of the city and theregion? At present, hesitatingly, it isgoing both ways.Knut Eirik Dahl, who talks regularly

with Jan Gunnar Winther, anduniversity director Jarle Aarbakke,asked the latter concerningNorwegian dependency on oil andgas: ‘How can it be that we have allthis knowledge in Tromsø, and still weare not taking up the challenge ofclimate change?’ Aarbakke gave anexample: ‘There is a Norwegiancompany called REC, which is makingsolar panels. They are flourishingeconomically. Their success is becauseof the German economy, whereeverything is clear for buyingsustainable products. There is nogreen market in Norway yet. Butwhen such conditions arrive, ourattitudes will change.’

Joren Jacobs

The article is based on an interview withKnut Eirik Dahl, who works as a professorof architecture at the Oslo School ofArchitecture and Design. In Tromsøtogether with Kjerstin Uhre he runs theoffice Dahl & Uhre Architects. Dahl hasbeen involved with the Venice Biennaleand plays a central role in the public plan-ning debate in Tromsø. See www.north-erngateway.no for more information.

In an attempt to draw attention to climate change in the Arctic, the Swedish architect Anders Wilhelmson proposed to fill the Nordic pavilion at the VeniceArchitecture Biennale with ice. It would give symbolic expression of what will be happening in the Arctic in the coming decades.

The new harbour terminal designed by Spacegroup and West 8.

Tromsø city hall and public library: builders have to adhereto a characteristic snow load.

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