Nature is a part of the urbanity of Tromsø. The mountain peaks serve as public places of encounter and the shoreline constitutes a continuous zone of activities. The Tromsø skyline is formed by the mountain ranges surrounding the town, turning it into a city of skyscrapers – enticing and challenging skyscrapers that take part in the everyday-life of its inhabitants.

The Sky Line
To include the mountain peaks into the town’s urbanity presupposes awareness about old knowledge and received local competency. The municipality’s sports and leisure department, the schools and a number of hiking clubs work actively to strengthen knowledge about the mountains and to facilitate use of the surrounding areas. Outdoor enthusiasts make websites on which they post photos and trail descriptions. We are practising a type of urbanity that requires skills and special equipment, maps and a compass. The term ”big city jungle” acquires special significance here. People risk having to be rescued by helicopters when taking an afternoon walk. 

”The sea front of Troms is an eldorado for people who hike, regardless of whether they are propelled by oar, sail, motor or foot. Masses of islets and shoals, sandy beaches, boulder shores, edges or mountain walls.  Plenty enough to take the breath from the most blasé hiker.”   Bent Svinnung, turliv.no

The Blue Line
A calm cycling trip around Tromsø Island, Tour de Tromsø, takes about one and a half hours. It is a trip that brings you through the town centre, industrial areas, marinas, residential areas, boathouse environments, parts and unspoilt nature
You pass forgotten places, neglected places and places of the heart.  
Telegrafbukta is such a place and a place to hiking, and it is in intense use all through the year. It is the site of Buktafestivalen – Tromsø’s new rock festival – and it can now be developed to a hyper-landscape on the southernmost point on the island with the sea and the mountain ranges as part of the scenography.
The blue line is in the process of transformation, of being up-dated and subject to an increased pressure from housing development.
The new maritime Tromsø is on the agenda in the city centre during the Year of Urban Development. A specially accommodated cycling path encircling the entire island will be in constant use, serving also a defensive line for free public access to the beaches and the tidal zone. It will lead to the development of beach promenades and a number of new attractions in the transitional zone between land and sea.

The Green Line
Along the ridge of Tromsø Island there runs a band of continues woodlands – the Tromsø Common – which in size and extension corresponds to that of  Central Park in New York. The fact that we have an urban park of an international format is the most visible urbane trait in Tromsø that necessitates a further urbanisation. The Green Line bind all the city areas together, in winter functioning almost as a metro for cross-country skiers and families on a hike.
In the Park there are skiathlon arena, training halls, a ski jump, a ski escalator for children and hot spots for out-door activities such as Charlottenlund and Prestvannet. Knowledge production and research and the University Botanical Garden are found next door. 
Due to this cut in the topography we experience being on the top of the island as being placed in the middle of a spectacular scenography without seeing any built-up areas. But in a similar way as in New York we have a backdrop of skyscrapers – the mountain peaks.