Late last Saturday I took advantage of the good weather and went fishing in the bay. It was impossible to pass on this opportunity before the autumn storms make it impossible to take to the sea in an old and small fishing boat. The calm was absolute and the sun shone, in between the showers. The fulmars and the seagulls watched attentively, and received their share, although the catch was not that great - primarily small haddock and cod.

But Reykjavík looks different from the sea than from land. From a proper distance one can appreciate the larger picture of the urban landscape. The vastness of the city, which has grown way beyond the original core, becomes clear. Dubious planning decisions of the past become even more dubious - or perhaps simply indubitably wrong.

One of these decisions is the tearing down of old industrial buildings at Skúlagata and the construction of highrise apartments in the quarter of Skuggahverfi. If I remember correctly, this was partly justified precisely by the need to make the city look more "citylike" from the sea - so that cruise ship passengers coming into port would get a feeling of approaching a real city! This must be the epitome of superficiality in urban planning. In fact this occurred in the distant 20th century past. Then came '2007' and all that. The creation of that recent miserable period is a building all too visible from the bay - the glass tower at Höfðatún.

A few years ago I read a thought-provoking book by the US author James Kunstler: "The Geography of Nowhere". Kunstler describes how financial interests and planning follies conspired to lay the central parts of US cities to waste in the 20th century. Here many people now realise how misguided the development and planning of the urban area has been over the years. But despite that there is still some life left in old Reykjavík - and now we have an opportunity to adopt new and more balanced practices in urban planning. Geographers, planning professionals and others who think about the use and allocation of space need to join their forces to make this happen.