Norwegian City Plans for Zero-Emissions Neighborhood

A coastal district of the Norwegian city of Bergen is preparing to become a zero-emissions neighborhood. As Adele Peters writes, "[t]he project is still in the planning stages, as the city runs workshops to involve residents in the creation of the neighborhood. But a new proposal illustrates what the area, which will include affordable housing, businesses, and other services, might look like."

With much of the land in the area owned by the city, Bergen leaders see this as "the opportunity of the century," a chance "to set high goals for what we want city development to be," says Laura Ve, who leads the development program for the Dokken district. The goal is to create a car-free zone "filled with people on foot and bikes" where "[e]verything is easily accessible based on low-impact mobility" and residents can easily connect to light rail and ferries.

"The design aims to create a 'regenerative' city, not just a sustainable one." The city plans to add new green space to "reconnect the public to the North Sea, with nature-based strategies used to protect the area from flooding caused by heavy storms, heat waves, and sea-level rise." While it's impossible to completely eliminate environmental impacts, the project aims to "find alternatives to fossil fuels in production, capture emissions, and even incorporate emissions into the finished product" for construction materials and "carefully calculate the full life cycle impacts of each decision."

Flemming Rafn, a founding partner at Tredje Natur, the Copenhagen-based architecture firm that worked on the project with designers at Entasis, Matter by Brix, and MOE, says, in addition to reducing carbon emissions, "the new neighborhood can demonstrate how tackling environmental challenges can also improve the local quality of life."