Housing construction at Rosendal in Trondheim causes neighbors to react

Benserten in Innherredsveien disappears. Housing and another grocery store will be built. The plans are under consultation and it is said that a five-storey residential block harmonizes with the buildings in the area. That’s not true: just come and see! Namely, a quarter has been proposed that will be higher than all other buildings in the neighbourhood, apart from the church tower itself, although it is stated that the facade should not draw attention away from the theater or the church.

With more than facades twice as high as Rosendal Teater, the proposal does not take the iconic old cinema into account at all. This is not four floors plus an attic. So the pitched roof is drawn with one too high cornice and many cob housethe entire quarter will be experienced as five full floors.

It completely breaks with the aesthetics of the area, where all the Art Nouveau houses around Lamoparken and the church are three storeys with pitched roofs and few cobbled houses. Not only do the cobble houses have to be scaled down, they also have to be retracted from the cornice.

In the first version of the plans, the building facing Gamle Kongevei was one floor lower – with good reason to harmonize with the wooden housing development facing Bakkaunet.

Lademoen is, according to the county council, the most densely populated area in Trøndelag. It is a district in strong growth, and a socio-cultural site analysis carried out in 2022 for Trondheim municipality points out that it is “a district with a shortage of attractive meeting places and green space compared to other central areas”.

Therefore, zoning plans must give the district what it needs. This quarter does not do that, when the whole backyard is in the shade for half the year and only a small part gets sun during the day from May to August.

Even more will instead use the few parks in the area. The interaction between the backyard and the theater is missing. A wall with a back staircase allows the beautiful theater building to lie on a shady side with waste management and access to the parking basement.

Now this plot of land in Trondheim is to be transformed

The petrol stations are disappearing. That’s just as well

Here, there should rather be a backyard on ground level that opens with a square towards the theater with outdoor seating and chestnut trees.

This district need activity and meeting places, not just grocery stores. There are already ten grocery stores and two large shopping centers 15 minutes’ walk to the east and west, and as it says in the proposed architecture strategy: “the building type is not urban and contributes little to a people-friendly city with good experiences at eye level”.

A quarter must be built with a flexible ground floor where several actors can have space at street level with open facades and several entrances. Miljøgata in Innherredsveien will make it attractive for precisely this: meeting places, small shops and other businesses – not yet another closed large grocery store.

Lademoen is also the district with a greater degree of cramped living among families with children than the rest of the city. Here, not half of new homes can be 1- and 2-room apartments.

In a district there 25 percent move every year, good senior apartments and larger family apartments with common areas are needed for stable relationships and social networks that contribute to a safe local environment.

It is these four points that make the big difference for what the district needs. La’mosatsinga has summarized that Lademoen’s distinctive local character houses a variety of built environments that the residents are very proud of, and keen to take care of.

This quarter will be the face of Østbyen, in the middle between the theatre, Uffa and the church, between Lamoparken and wooden detached houses and between Innherredsveien’s large apartment buildings and Sverre Pedersen’s functionalist blocks on Voldsminde.

Leave the new Rosendalkvartalet invite people to the whole neighbourhood, not overshadow their neighbours. Build something that actually harmonizes!

Yes, it could be worse, but why can’t it be really good?

Silje Naper Salomonsen is a municipal councilor for SV in Trondheim, but signs here as a neighbour.

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