Suburb with sound of its own making

This recording is from Hjalmar Branting’s road in the Fyllingsdalen suburb of Bergen, near the Oasen shopping centre and a sports arena. Construction work is predominate, as well as heavy traffic to and from the multiple nearby construction sites.

Dette opptaket er gjort i Hjalmar Brantings vei i Fyllingsdalen, like ved Oasen senter og idrettsplassen. Lydbildet domineres av støy fra flere byggeplasser, og mye av trafikken i gaten er tungtrafikk til og fra.

Fyllingsdalen once belonged to the Municipality of Fana before being bought by the Municipality of Bergen in 1955. Over the following decades, it transformed from country to a suburb with close to 30.000 inhabitants. In 1968 the Løvstakken tunnel was completed, and Oasen shopping centre opened in 1971. The suburb was planned and constructed similarly to The Million Programme in Sweden as the first expansion of Bergen reaching beyond the seven mountains.

According to Richard Harris, the suburban land is “at once transitional and transitory. (…) Suburban land does not just lie between the country and the city, but in the long run each parcel and tract itself undergoes that transition, begging us to view it historically. Guiding that evolution, almost everywhere, is a land market. (…) It is restless markets that make and remake the suburbs.”¹

Fyllingsdalen has recently ented a new phase of development and densification. Near the location of the recording, tracks for the new light rail are constructed, running in parallel with Hjalmar Branting’s road towards the Fyllingsdalen Terminal. The sound of construction work heard in the recording originates from several subprojects of this building process. Also, on the other side of the sports arena, the Fyllingsdalen High School is upgraded, and across the main road, several new apartment blocks are under construction.

“Simplifying, the transition from rural to urban has three stages: the periurban, the suburban, and the ambiguously urban.” The historical development of Fyllingsdalen aligns with the above description by Harris. Following initial development in the 1960s and 1970s, the suburb was relatively stable for several decades. By now it has turned into an older suburb marked by both of the tendencies described by Harris that push for redevelopment: “Buildings age, deteriorate and become anachronistic. At the same time, land that is becoming relatively more central – even if one of the relevant centres is itself suburban – becomes more valuable. The logic of redevelopment becomes compelling as new types of users, or old users with new tastes and needs, seek to move in.”²

Development in Fyllingsdalen is an interplay between public and private sectors. The construction of the light rail completes in a few years time. The building of the light rail is controversial in Bergen, financed in large part by road tolls. As documented in this recording, private property developers are already responding to the new emerging opportunities. Urban densification is politically intended, in response to population growth and ecological challenges. But the economic complexity to the ongoing processes is difficult to grasp. Harris wrote his text in the aftermath of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. He concludes with an emphasis on researching the suburban land market: “Making sense of how capital flows into, and out of suburban property, and with what consequences, is the biggest and most important task of all.”³

(Please use headphones when listening.)

Fyllingsdalen var opprinnelig en del av Fana kommune, og ble kjøpt av Bergen kommune i 1955. De neste tiårene ble dalen endret fra landbruksområde til en bydel som nå har nesten 30.000 innbyggere. Løvstakktunellen var ferdig i 1968 og Oasen kjøpesenter ble åpnet i 1971. Den planmessige utformingen skjedde etter lignende modell som millionprogrammet i Sverige, og Fyllingsdalen var den første ekspansjonen av Bergen på “andre siden” av de syv fjell.

Ifølge Richard Harris er et karakteristisk trekk ved bydelen at den er “at once transitional and transitory”. Byutvikling medfører at forstaden er i kontinuerlig utvikling. “In the long run each parcel and tract itself undergoes that transition, begging us to view it historically.” Mye av utviklingen styres av markedskrefter: “It is restless markets that make and remake the suburbs.” ¹

Fyllingsdalen er nå inne i en ny fase med oppgradering, utbygging og fortetting. I området hvor jeg gjør opptaket arbeides det med trasé for Bybanen parallelt med Hjalmar Brantings vei frem til Fyllingsdalen terminal. Mye av byggearbeidet som høres i opptaket er fra ulike delprosjekt på dette strekket. På andre siden av idrettsplassen er det også byggearbeid ved Fyllingsdalen videregående skole, og det bygges det nye blokker på andre siden av hovedveien, nedenfor Ørnahaugen.

“Simplifying, the transition from rural to urban has three stages: the periurban, the suburban, and the ambiguously urban.” Fyllingsdalen har en historisk utvikling som samsvarer med hva Harris ser som vanlige utviklingstendenser. Etter utbyggingen på 60- og 70-tallet var bydelen stabil i en lengre periode. Det er nå en eldre bydel med begge trendene som Harris observerer at fører til press for nyutvikling: “Buildings age, deteriorate and become anachronistic. At the same time, land that is becoming relatively more central – even if one of the relevant centers is itself suburban – becomes more valuable. The logic of redevelopment becomes compelling as new types of users, or old users with new tastes and needs, seek to move in.”²

Utviklingen i Fyllingsdalen er et samvirke mellom offentlige og private aktører. Kostnadene med bygging av bybanen, finansiert gjennom offentlige tilskudd og bompenger, er omstridte. Parallelt er det omfattende privat eiendomsutvikling og byfortetting langs trasseene. Som dette opptaket dokumenterer, er byfortetting i privat regi påbegynt allerede før bybanen er ferdigstilt. Byfortettingen er politisk ønsket, som respons på befolkningsvekst og miljøutfordringer. Men det er et økonomisk helhetsbilde som få har oversikt over. Harris sin artikkel er skrevet etter finanskrisen 2007-2008, og avslutter med en oppfordring til å studere hvordan eiendomsmarkedet fungerer i bydelene: “Making sense of how capital flows into, and out of suburban property, and with what consequences, is the biggest and most important task of all.”³

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¹ . Harris, R. (2013). How land markets make and change suburbs. In R. Keil (Ed.), Suburban constellations. Gouvernance, land amd infrastructure in the 21st century (pp. 33–38). Berlin: jovis Verlag GmBH.

² . Ibid.

³ . Ibid.