Every design for Sandnes

Sandnes is the bicycle town. Den Beste Sykkel, better known as DBS, started making bikes here, and the Nordsjørittet race still finishes in the centre. Long before the bikes there was clay: the town first made its name on brickworks and potteries, then on textiles, and today much of its work is tied to oil and gas.

For people who grew up here, Sandnes has a homely, practical feel, a place that sits right next to Stavanger yet never quite merges with it. When the city council was asked to join its neighbours in one big municipality, it said no. Summer brings Blinkfestivalen, when skiers and biathletes gather in the streets, and Krossens Havremølle keeps an older working Sandnes alive. Out by Stokkalandsvatnet dyrefredningsområde the birds are protected, and inside Vitenfabrikken generations of children have pressed every button they could find.

If you learned to ride a bike on these streets, at the head of the Gandsfjord, you already know which part of the map is yours.