Fixfabriken breathes new life into Majorna

Williamsburg in New York, Shoreditch in London and Belleville in Paris are three examples of city districts that have become red hot destinations for urban tourists from all over the world. It will be a while before Majorna in Gothenburg can measure up to the competition, but with Fixfabriken leading the way, urban renewal is now in progress.

“There are too few people in Majorna today, we need to breathe new life into the district which has stagnated and become a bit one-dimensional,” thinks Björn Siesjö, City Architect in Gothenburg.

The spade will soon be put in the ground for the new residential blocks in Fixafabriken. The old industrial area will be converted into a lively and vibrant city district. Balder will construct a total of 280 new apartments on the former factory site in western Majorna, close to Älvsborg Bridge’s southern abutment. There is strong interest in the area. The Bränneriet block, where sales have already commenced, is Balder’s most popular new construction project to date.  

The blocks have been designed by the architect’s office What! arkitektur, with inspiration drawn from the different character and scale of the surrounding buildings. The low closed blocks of the County Governor buildings and Klippan's higher brick architecture have been moulded together into a new typology specifically for Fixfabriken. Three- to four-floor blocks with high tower blocks on top will complement the current range of housing, with something that has not existed before.

According to City Architect Björn Siesjö, this is a welcome and necessary development. Low density and poor apartment turnover have made the district increasingly one-dimensional. Siesjö points to the problem of the thinning of city centres and the fact that in the 1920s and 1930s, three times as many people lived in the same apartments as today.

Fixfabriken and the surrounding blocks will revitalise Majorna. The district is popular and highly regarded today, but will become even more attractive by offering a more vibrant city life.

“We are incredibly proud and humble ahead of the task of developing and managing Fixfabriken and its historic site in the best possible way. We look forward to integrating a modern new area based on the design of the existing blocks,” says Karin Henström Project Manager at Balder.

Gentrification is a commonly used term when it comes to urban development of older city districts that have changed their spots and are attracting new residents. The effects of gentrification are controversial and City Architect Siesjö is aware that this will also happen in Majorna. However, he is not worried about a drastic change and believes that it will provide a good basis for allowing a lively district to emerge surrounded by older buildings.  

Peter Hulting, the responsible architect at What! arkitektur has a similar view.

“This is how cities traditionally develop. By connecting the new blocks together with the existing buildings, the new and old enrich each other and the perceived distances are reduced. For this reason, we have a big advantage compared to other areas that were built in Gothenburg, e.g. Norra Älvstranden, where the city life has taken a long time to develop because there was no surrounding residential development to begin with.”

Facts about Majorna: 

• Majorna is a generic name for the area and consists of the four smaller city districts of Stigberget, Majorna, Kungsladugård and Sanna (Sandarna) and extends from Bangatan in the east to Kungstensmotet in the west.
• The population is just over 30,000 people.  
• The rental apartment is by far the most common form of housing.
• Fixfabriken will consist of 500 apartments, where construction will start during 2019, with first occupation expected in 2021.

The same zoning plan includes a further 750 apartments, of which some will form part of a land allocation from the City of Gothenburg and a few blocks will be built by HSB, east of Balder’s area. Accordingly, a total of 1,000 new apartments are planned in the area and when everything is finished, the city district is expected to have grown to about 2,300 new residents.

For further information, please contact:
Head of Communications Sandra Nilsson, telephone +46 3110 95 80
City Architect Björn Siesjö, telephone +46 31 368 18 21
Project Manager Karin Henström, telephone +46 31 83 94 89

Fastighets AB Balder is a listed real estate company which shall meet the needs of different customer groups for premises and housing through local support. Balder's real estate portfolio had a value of SEK 123.2 billion (104.1) as of 31 March 2019. The Balder share is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, Large Cap.

Fastighets AB Balder (publ)
PO Box 53 121, 400 15 Gothenburg
Tel: +46 31 10 95 70
Corporate Identity No. 556525-6905, Registered office Gothenburg
balder.se