Qaasuitsup Municipality should be an attractive place to live. An active settlement policy is to form the basis for industrial development and education. Our towns and settlements are all different and we want to take advantage of this in the future development of the municipality. It must also be decided where tomorrow's urban development should take place.
Good planning and fresh thinking are to ensure a continuous balance between towns and settlements in Qaasuitsup Municipality. Future urban and settlement development will build on what we do well, while keeping in mind the many unutilised opportunities and potentials.
Our towns and settlements each have their distinctive features and identities and we want to develop and preserve this diversity in the years to come.
Consequently, in Qaasuitsup Municipality, each town and settlement is to work on identifying its special strength, identity and reason for being. What do we do particularly well in this place? What can we invest in the time to come? Such mapping of the development potential of each town and settlement will provide the municipal council with a tool to prioritising various efforts as regards future industrial development, educational possibilities, development of new cultural offers etc.
Qaasuitsup Municipality will include our citizens and work to ensure diversity in towns and settlements across the municipality.
Qaasuitsup Municipality wants to be an excellent place to live, so it is a high priority to be able to offer good, attractive housing or lots to everyone who wants to settle in the municipality.
Focus should be on developing and stimulating private construction of housing. But to overcome the housing shortage, the municipality wants to develop construction of social housing and be able to offer more inexpensive apartments to the less well-off.
It is a massive challenge to improve the general housing standard and many homes across the municipality are in need of renovation. Some homes in towns and settlements are unfit for habitation.
Given that learning and education are high priorities for the municipality, housing for students – dormitories – is given special attention. We are in grave need of fine dormitories for the many young people who want to enter the educational institutions in the municipality.
These years are seeing ever higher requirements for housing. Society is developing, our way of living is changing, and new needs and life styles emerging. For instance, more choose to live alone; senior citizens want to stay in their own home longer; and we are seeing more modern families with children from different marriages etc.
In the future, we must get better at creating a larger, more varied range of housing – in terms of size, ownership and accessibility. We must move away from uniformity and old mind-sets towards diversity.
In the future, we must have the courage to invest in quality. We must get much better at integrating sustainability in new building and renovation works, thereby future-proofing our homes. The energy consumption of housing makes up a large share of the total energy consumption in the municipality. Even small initiatives can result in vast economic gains.
The fact that it is not possible to own land in Greenland is unique. That results in special conditions for the physical layout and character of our towns and settlements. For instance, it is possible to move more freely around towns, moving criss-cross between houses. These special characteristics and patterns are to be preserved and developed in the future layout of our towns and settlements. There must also be room for dogs, room for boats and room for a rainbow of colours.
The architectonic quality of our homes and the physical surroundings must be put on the agenda and given more attention. What does a house contribute to its surroundings? We must remember to appreciate the unique features that we have, and make an effort to preserve high-quality buildings and built environments.
While respecting the Greenlandic construction practices and traditions, we must also create room for new, modern architecture. There is to be a balance between old and new.
The standard of a home is not the only parameter that decides whether it is attractive or not. The physical surroundings of a home are becoming more important. Are there any playgrounds nearby? Do you get a view from the home? Does it come with good-quality facilities and outdoor leisure areas where you can catch up with neighbours and enjoy the view?
Qaasuitsup Municipality will meet the future demands for good, attractive outdoor spaces by involving citizens and preparing a recreational green plan.
