Similarities among harbor developments : An analysis of case-studies in Hamburg, Dublin, Copenhagen and Stockholm

Abstract: Harbor developments have been realized in several European cities over the last years, becoming an important topic in the field of urban and regional planning. Despite their presence in innumerous sites with unlike contexts and backgrounds, those developments look pretty similar in terms of design and form. Are we witnessing the born of a generic and similar city? The aim of this paper is to investigate how similar are these areas and their positive or negatives effects upon the existing cities. Through a review on the main urban theories of the twentieth century it is possible to identify what are the contemporaneous trends in urban planning and how they have been employed in harbor developments. Four case studies were selected to illustrate these similarities, two almost completed: Dublin Docklands and Hamburg HafenCity, and two newly ones: Stockholm Norra Djurgårdsstaden and Copenhagen Nordhavnen. The findings indicated the case-studies share several similarities in terms of discourse, implementation strategy, sustainability, publicity and as well social and income inequalities. Contemporaneous urban discourse preaches for diversity which it is still far to be reached by the case-studies