Från Skeppsbron till Arendal En stadsmorfologisk studie av rumsliga transformationsmönster kring ett skeppsvarv

Abstract

One of the three major wharfs in Gothenburg, Götaverken, started out as a mechanical workshop on the south shore of Göta älv in 1841. At that time this part of the shoreline was not yet integrated in the city. The construction of the workshop constituted a starting point for an industrialization of the site and later generated conflicts with the management of the growing city and the construction of a harbor. Due to a non-existent expansion potential, the workshop was moved to the northern banks of the river. Gradually developing towards shipbuilding, the facility expanded while the surrounding wide marshy reeds fields where drained to create more usable land. Götaverken had a crucial role for the emergence of a working-class neighborhood at the site. The company was highly involved in urban planning and could amongst other things contribute to the electrification of the settlements and had a major influence in the formal incorporation of the area in the growing city. However, the city management chose to locate new harbors and a railway line on the river´s northern shore which together with the growing wharfs gradually put an end to the continuing expansion of the young neighborhood. The main parts of the buildings where torn down in the 1960s. At that time the growing industries and the harbors once again made it impossible for Götaverken to expand any further. This lead to the construction of a new shipyard facility. Arendalsvarvet, further out along the river mouth which prompted the city´s peripheral expansion for the third time. Unfortunately, the area of Arendal significantly contained a lot more than marshy reeds fields. The construction of Arendalsvarvet and the high degree of exploitation that the facility paved the way for, generated a process of deletion of the provincial community Arendal that is still ongoing, even if the shipbuilding industry is long gone and the continuing transformations of the former shipyard facilities forms central elements in the evolving city. This thesis shows that Götaverken has had a major impact on spatial transformation processes in peripheral areas of Gothenburg as the city has grown. This fact and the partly dissonant stories connected to it can hopefully vitalize and broaden the contemporary picture of heritage connected to the shipyard industry in Gothenburg, which in many ways is a far too neglected heritage today.