Hammarby Sjöstad is Stockholm’s biggest urban development project for many years. Sjöstaden is a natural continuation of Stockholm’s inner city, and this has shaped the infrastructure, urban planning and design of the buildings. The water has inspired the name of the entire project – the town around the lake, Hammarby Sjö.
The first drawings of what would become Hammarby Sjöstad were pencilled in back in 1990. The underlying idea was to showcase a unique opportunity – expanding the inner city with a focus on the water, while converting an old industrial and harbour area into a modern neighbourhood. Once fully built, Hammarby Sjöstad will have 9,000 residential units for just over 20,000 residents. In total, some 30,000 people will live and work in the area.
This expansion has involved extensive reconstruction of the infrastructure, with traffic barriers removed and the old industrial and terminal areas phased out, concentrated or given a new purpose. Another critical factor was achieving agreement between the Stockholm and Nacka municipalities on how the areas on either side of the shared municipal boundary could interact and develop. Traffic and services are concentrated along a three-kilometre avenue linking Hammarby Sjöstad together, from Skanstull to Danvikstull. Parks, quays and walkways in different styles have been laid out around Hammarby Sjö. The water areas at the heart of the town comprise a concentrated visual park – the city district’s blue eye.
Hammarby Sjöstad adds a new “year ring” to Stockholm’s urban growth – a modern, semi-open, block-based city, forming a combination of a closed, traditional inner city with more modernistic and open planning. The inner city street dimensions, block sizes, building heights, density and functionality mix are integrated with a new openness, waterfront views, parks and sunlight. The limited building depths, recessed penthouse flats, maisonettes, large balconies and terraces, and not least the big windows, flat roofs and light-coloured rendering on water-facing facades, all embody applications of a modernistic architectural programme.
Planning work for Sjöstaden’s final major developmental phase, between Lugnet and Danvikstull, began in spring 2004. The phase comprises ca. 2,500 apartments and a shopping mall facility at Danvikstull. Tunnelling the Värmdöleden highway through Henriksdalsberget enables the completion of Lugnets allé, the extension of the “Tvärbanan” light railway link towards Slussen, and new developments on the southern slope down towards Hammarby Sjö.
During the development of Hammarby Sjöstad, investments in the traffic situation and public transport have been crucial aspects of the concerted focus on the environment. In addition to buses and the Tvärbanan light rail link, which runs centrally along Sjöstaden’s esplanade and has four stops in the district, there is also a ferry link across Hammarby Sjö with a crossing every quarter of an hour from early in the morning to midnight. Residents also have access to a car pool in the area.
Living in Hammarby Sjöstad
Public service facilities are gradually being expanded, with a retirement home, preschools, schools, health clinics and a boat-based medical facility. There is also a wide range of commercial services, which now include grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, hairdressing salons, cobblers, dry cleaners, florists and tailors. Close proximity to the Sickla mall will also benefit residents.
Hammarby Sjöstad offers excellent opportunities for active leisure, with mooring places for small boats, a planned sports hall, and a review underway of the potential for building an outdoor sports facility. Close proximity to Nacka nature reserve’s jogging tracks and Hammarbybacken’s slalom slopes also offers a range of tempting and fun activities in both the summer and winter. The district also provides access to a library as well as to cultural and educational activities, mainly for children and young people, at Kulturama and Fryshuset. Sofia parish organises activities in the Sjöstadskapellet chapel for all age groups, while the nearby Dieselfabriken factory building in Sickla offers theatrical venues, a library, concert venues and cultural workshops. A small theatre is located by the bay.
All new construction offers access for the disabled, in line with Stockholm’s city district plan for people with disabilities. Hammarby Sjöstad’s ambitions in this respect are coordinated within the detailed development plan, residential buildings, parks and streets.
