ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the troubled relationship between the green ideology of the contemporary urban discourse and the car-based ideology of modernist urbanism. It highlights how a set of interesting car-based planning principles from the past have been hidden by a one-dimensional focus on sustainability and contemporary manifestations of green urbanism. The chapter explores this issue by studying the significance of 'driving spaces' in relation to the idea of the green city, in architectural and urban history and contemporary manifestations of the constellation. To understand the relationship between the road and the idea of the green city, it is necessary to make a historical journey back to when this connection became a real force in urban theory. The major paradox of Kirkeveien is it simultaneously generates and prevents green qualities. In comparison with most of the other urban roads in Oslo, it stands out like driving space of great historical significance, a cultural monument representing many layers of aesthetic sensitivity.
