Social Ecological Urbanism Design Studio 2021. Volume 1. Kära-Backa (Part 2).

SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL URBANISM 2021 FINAL REPORT I VOL.1 I HISINGEN (PART 2)

Colophon Chalmers University of Technology Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering Social Ecological Urbanism Studio 2021

Course coordinator: Ioanna Stavroulaki Examiners:

Design studio ARK 142 Meta Berghauser Pont Tutors: Studio participants (Backa-Kära groups): Cornelia Ahlstedt Lina EL-Rifai Linnéa Forsmark Maja Lindroth Najoud Nanaa Karl Sandman Sarah Schoberleitner Matilda Svensson Yige Qin Tove Wik Linda Wirth Chunlu Zhu

Lars Marcus Ioanna Stavroulaki Meta Berghauser Pont Guest lecturers: Martin Allik, Mareld Landscape architects Johan Colding, Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics Job van Eldijk, Chalmers/Rambol Alexander Gösta, Liljewall Åsa Gren, Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics Oskar Kindvall, Calluna Anna-Johanna Klasander, White Ann Legeby, KTH Lukas Memborn, Gothenburg municipality Eva Minoura, Sveriges Arkitekten Martin Nordahl, Okidoki Guest critics: Anna Olsson, Gothenburg municipality Anna-Johanna Klasander, Chalmers/White Julia Halldin, Mölndal municipality Evgeniya Bobkova, Chalmers

Contents Introduction

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Group 1 Rebirth the city

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General context & Vison Background research Masterplan Improve physical connections Re-strengthen mental connections Density of residential as connector

8 10 12 14 22 30

Key projects Flood district (Sarah Schoberleitner) Directing streets (Linnéa Forsmark) Not a local place (Linda Wirth) Bridging the gap (Karl Sandman)

118 132 145 160

Group 3 Shifting scales

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General context Masterplan Spatial analysis / Proposal Gentrification Comparison Key projects

184 186 188 204 206 208

Key projects The green transition (Najoud Nanaa) Neighbourhood renaissance (Yige Qin) Link to green terraces (Chunlu Zhu) Group 2 Spongefication

General context Main Challenges Masterplan Flooding Scenario Green Structure Landuse Connections Key projects Reflection

36 48 66 82

Key projects 84 86 88 92 96 104 108 114 116

Arödsgatan (Tove Wik) Meeting at “ours” (Cornelia Ahlstedt) The green spine (Maja Lindroth) Norra Avenyn (Matilda Svensson)

210 226 244 266

Area 1. Backa-Kärra

Some focus areas Nature areas Water body Take a walk along t Interesting pedest Tuve

Bus 17,46 Kvillebacken

Skogome Hj.Br. Bus 52,44,47 Brunnsparken

Backatorp Backa Brunnsbo Bus 18,19,45

Bus 46

Some focus areas Nature areas Water body Walk along the bus route Interesting pedestrian link

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Kärra

INTRODUCTION

Current global urbanization processes put acute stress on urban and ecological systems. The challenge is not only how to accomplish this, but also to determine which qualities we want to see emerge, which puts unprecedented expectations on urban planning and design and brings knowledge demands that these practices are not always well prepared for.

This book presents the results of the Design Studio 2021 where students, in teams, developed five Masterplans for two areas in Gothenburg. Two areas are selected for the development of Masterplans. The first north of the river starting where the new bridge lands and links the city centre to Brunnsbo, Backa and Kärra. The second location is south of the river linking the city centre to Mölndal.

The challenge addressed this year was to transform these disconnected and less dense areas into more vital and connected places, where besides socio-economic performance, ecological performance is also in focus.

Social Ecological Urbanism Design Studio The main goal of the Design Studio is to strengthen students’ understanding of how urban form provides a framework and creates conditions for social and environmental processes. Theories and methods in analytical Urban Morphology, especially network analysis (Space Syntax) and density analysis (Spacematrix), are used to arrive at what can be called an evidence-based-design methodology.

The studio is organised around a sequence of workshops, laboratories in GIS, lectures, literature sem-

inars and a design studio. Workshops give room for experiments, lectures transfer knowledge and offer inspiration, laboratories in GIS gave the technical knowhow to conduct advanced spatial analysis, literature seminars deepened the understanding and critical reading of theories and methods, which is synthesised on the Masterplans and key-projects.

This year, the studio focused on both socio-economic and ecological sustainability. For this purpose, it is crucial to understand how urban form impacts people’s movement patterns and creates different arenas for people to meet, from local squares where it is more expected to meet your neighbours, to places with a strategic role in the city’s communication and where you can meet people from all neighbourhoods of Gothenburg. To be able to foresee movement flows and co-presence patterns is key to urban design and planning, as it is the driver for other economic activities, such as the development of local markets, but also for the development of social infrastructure, such as service from schools to public transport. To also address ecological processes, the green and blue infrastructure is discussed through the lens of urban ecosystem services, including both cultural services (e.g. recreational, therapeutic) as well as supporting and regulating services (e.g. pollination, biodiversity).

Masterplan (group work) During the first seven weeks of the studio, five Masterplans were developed for two areas located in what is defined as the intermediate city in Gothenburg’s Development Strategy (2014) with potentials for densification. The objective in Gothen-

burg’s Development Strategy is to add 45 000–55 000 new housing within the entire intermediate city, which asked for a proposal that allows for such densification and at the same time improves social-ecological sustainability. We challenged the students to especially take into account the ambitions in the Transport Strategy of Gothenburg (2014) to supplementing the current radial infrastructure with cross-connections in what we can call a network city. This also includes its linkage to the Mölndal and developments here. This will relieve the inner city of Gothenburg, strengthen the qualities of Mölndal, reduce the vulnerability of the system and contribute to greater equality between city districts as well as to increased possibilities for integration of the city’s parts into one whole.

Urban design project (individual key-project) During the second half of the studio, individual key-projects were developed. A specific objective for these projects is that they should, in a convincing way, demonstrate that they help realise the visions set out in the Masterplan. Furthermore, the iterative character of design is emphasized, where students test different design solutions, evaluate these using the analytical tools and adapt the design proposal for the plan to support the aimed for directions in the masterplan. Through the workshops and lectures, students are supported to arrive at a solution that supports the social, economic and environmental goals, though the careful design of streets, green and blue infrastructure, building types and public-private interfaces.

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GROUP 2 SPONGEFICATION

General context Main Challenges Masterplan Flooding Scenario Green Structure Landuse Connections Key project 1 Key project 2 Key project 3 Key project 4 Reflection Bibliography

Linnéa Forsmark Karl Sandman Sarah Schoberleitner Linda Wirth

GENERAL CONTEXT

The focus area of this project has been the north-eastern part of Hisingen, between Ringön and Kärra, including Backa and Brunnsbo.

Green Structure

Residential Highway Industrial River

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The area is located along the river of Göta älv, limited to the west by hills and forest and to the east by the river itself. Along the river the area is characterized by industrial use bordered by the presence of heavy traffic along the E6. The western side of the E6 is where the residential areas are located, which fade out into nature as a result of the challenging topography.

one of the main reasons for this “cake effect”.

Bordering the river banks and taller hills, the area is exposed to the risks of flooding and rain water run off from heavy rainfall.

Due to climate change this will be an even more important issue to tackle in the future.

With this in mind the focus was set on creating an area that would work with the water instead of against it. To do this a worst case scenario of 3.8 m sea-level rise and heavy rainfall was taken into consideration.

Together this all shapes what we as a group have called “the cake effect”, meaning an area with clearly divided layers. The E6, going straight through the area connecting Malmö with Oslo, has a large barrier effect on the area, leading to it being

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Spongefication

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Hjalmar Branting

Göteborg Center Brunnsbo

Backa Kärra

General context

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MAIN CHALLENGES

During our two site visits, discussions, readings and analysis three main problems were identified. These are future sealevel rise and heavy rainfall, monofunctional layering and the overall car-dependency within the area.

Sea level rise and extreme weather being issues that large parts of the world will have to deal with due to ongoing climate change, these issues were early on decided to focus on within this masterplan. Large parts of the area that has been worked on is located just next to Göta älv that in a future worst-case scenario will be flooded. Other parts of the area is located next to larger hills, resulting in rain water run off issues (flooding and other damage).

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The area is also clearly separated into monofunctional layers (nature, residential, infrastructure, industry, and water) that to a large extent is hard to navigate between. One of the reasons for this clear separation is the E6 highway running through the area. This in combination with a general clear division between functions results in a non-mixed-use area.

Lastly, also a direct cause of the E6 highway, the area is to a large extent made for cars and not for pedestrians and bikers.

This of course has an effect on the kind of service you can find in the area.

Spongefication

PROBLEMS

OPPORTUNITIES

sea-level rise and heavy rain

monofunctional layering - no interconnection between layers

car-dependency

flooding of industrial area

separating highway

good bike lanes but unattractive

rain run off

no access to blue structure

weak connection to the city center by bike & public transport

no access to green structure

Main Challenges

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MASTERPLAN | Vision

To cope with the main challenges pointed out, two main visions have been developed; creating a water resilient area where we shift from car focus to human scale. To fulfill the two visions, several aims were developed, which in turn were broken down into five strategies. All of the aims and strategies are interconnected. In the diagram to the right the strongest connections are showcased.

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All of the aims and strategies focus strongly on social and ecological values. They all seek to improve pedestrian and bike use within the area, while also improving the green structure, which together works towards an area on the human scale, as an example.

Flood Resilience

Connect and Introduce Green Structure

Connect East and West of the Highway

Better Interconnection between Centers

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WATER RESILIENT

HUMAN SCALE

VISION

Water resilient urban space

Introduce accessible green and blue structure

Connect east and west of the highway

Extand centrality to Backa

Strenghten the suburban qualities of Kärra

AIMS

Create flood resistant street network

Introduce sponge wetland

Connect green and blue with social and green corridors

Densify current industrial area into mixed use

Strenghten connections to Göteborg center

STRATEGIES

Vision

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MASTERPLAN | Proposal

With the strategies in mind, while doing site visits, space syntax analysis, flooding analysis within the program Scalgo Live and round table discussions, the master plan was developed.

Referring to evolutionary resilience, as stated by Romice, Porta and Feliciotti, (Romice, Porta and Feliciotti, 2020) a green buffer zone is proposed as a way to adapt and transform due to future flooding. Based on the “Sponge City” approach, the aim is to locally handle the water by positioning green areas where most needed. The green riverbank additionally acts as a recreational area for the local residents, but also for all of Gothenburg. It is of importance that this green buffer zone is usable and attractive both during normal conditions and flooding.

Furthermore, green corridors are proposed along the largest water flows. These also act as pedestrian connections between the two sides of the highway.

Connections, mainly focusing on pedestrian, bikers and public transport are also key aspects of the masterplan. The aim has been to keep the betweenness and integration low for the motorized network, and the opposite for pedestrians, bikers and trams. The localization of the area and how it is currently connected to its surroundings makes it difficult to achieve high betweenness and integration for pedestrians use without introducing a new tramline. Therefore, the introduction of a tramline was crucial.

To create stronger reasons for movement between the two sides of the highway, mixed use densification is proposed where the current industrial area is located. This densification continues along the highway and the river almost all the way to Kärra. Close to Kärra parts of the current industrial area is left untouched to preserve the suburban qualities of Kärra.

The four strategies will be further explained in the following pages.

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Spongefication

0 Green Structure

Landuse

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Network

Residential Use

Existing Green Areas

Highway

Residential and Commercial

Existing Nature Reserves

Main Streets

Offices and Commercial

Green Corridors

Main Pedestrian Streets

Public

Wetland

Secondary Streets

Urban Industry Urban Farming

High Density

Open Grassland Light Forest Bird Reservat Dense Forest Urban Park

Medium Density Low Density

Activity - based Open Land River

Density

Proposed Tram stops Existing Tram stops Existing Tram Line Proposed Tram Line Social Green Corridors Ecological Green Corridors Local Centers Existing Centers New Centers

Master Plan Proposal

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FLOODING SCENARIO | Proposal

North eastern Hisingen is not the only area within Gothenburg that is at risk in a future extreme flooding scenario, this is something that the city of Gothenburg is well aware of (Göteborgs stad).

The city of Gothenburg is counting a 3,8 m sea-level rise as an extreme situation that could potentially occur around 2100, but is more likely to occur around 2150-2250 (Göteborgs stad).

This sea-level rise in combination with heavy rainfall creates a future situation in which current uses on North eastern Hisingen will not be able to function as they do today. This means that changes and adaptations will be necessary to keep the area usable in some way.

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Instead of trying to work against the water, the aim was early on set on working with the water. This would mean that the area might not be suitable for the current functions, since they will not function in a flooding scenario. Instead of aiming at preserving the current functions we decided on changing the character of the area and let it flood where it eventually will flood.

To do so, a large floodable green area/park is proposed along the river banks. To prevent rain-water run off from flooding current and future residential areas green corridors are proposed along the main water flows. These have the potential of both cleaning and slowing down the water, but also to highlight the qualities of water in your surroundings.

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4 km The geographical analysis tool SCALGO simulates a sea-level rise of 3,8 meter and heavy rain of 70mm. It shows that big parts of our area are at risk of being flooded.

Legend Rivers/lakes/floodpoints Sea-level rise 3.8m Main rain water flows Need for extra protection

Flooding Scenario Analysis

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FLOODING SCENARIO | Sections

The conceptual sections shown in this spread seeks to explain what the proposed changes would mean for the area of north eastern Hisingen.

Today, as mentioned earlier, the layers of the area are clearly divided. This division is maybe particularly noticeable when it comes to the green structure, which in turn leads to a lack of possibilities for water infiltration in certain areas.

In a extreme weather scenario, when current systems for handling rain water gets full, they risk overflowing. (Hoyer et al. 2011, 8)

area in the area as a whole would increase and it would also “break the pattern” of hardened surfaces in certain areas.

The aim with these proposals is to achieve an area that is sensitive to extreme weather scenarios. The area should also be able to function to a large extent even when extreme weather scenarios occur. Finally, the proposed solutions aim at adding qualities to the area, both during normal situations and extreme weather scenarios.

To tackle this issue, large green areas are proposed both in the shape of a floodable park/green area but also by introducing green corridors along the main flows of rain water. By introducing these proposals the amount of green

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Spongefication

The three scenarios show how the area is transforming in an extreme weather situation today and in our new proposal.

HIGHWAY

NATURE

RESIDENTIAL

NATURE

RESIDENTIAL

HIGHWAY

NATURE

RESIDENTIAL

HIGHWAY

Flooding Scenario Sections

INDUSTRY

RIVER

HIGHWAY

NATURE

Today normal

INDUSTRY

RIVER

HIGHWAY

NATURE

Today extreme weather

RIVER

HIGHWAY

NATURE

Proposal extreme weather

MIXED-USED

GREEN BUFFER-ZONE

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GREEN STRUCTURE | Proposal

As mentioned in the previous part of this report, the green structure and flood sensitivity has a lot to do with each other and cannot be discussed completely apart from each other.

Future flooding and extreme weather lay the foundation for a green transformation of the area and were the main drivers where to position new green areas. Additionally, the green areas do not only help to manage flooding but also add other social values to the area such as recreational space and new, diverse outdoor activities.

There are multiple green corridors proposed, with the ambition to strengthen the connection to green areas within the area both for people and different species. One of the green corridors is proposed to be a bit larger than the others, to give room for wildlife. This corridor leads up to a narrow part of the river, giving the opportunity for animals to cross the river and continue into the green areas on the other side of the river. For this to work a green corridor is also proposed on the other side of the river, to better connect to current green areas.

The large floodable buffer zone next to Göta älv will house different functions depending on their relation to their surroundings, as an example; the part around Ringön is proposed to take the shape of an urban park, and closer to Kärra the area is proposed to become wilder with less human use, giving place for animals that are disturbed by human presence.

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Legend Existing Green Areas Existing Nature Reserves Green Corridors Wetland Open Grassland Light Forest Bird Reservat Dense Forest Urban Park Activity - based Open Land River Social Green Corridors Ecological Green Corridors

Green Structure Proposal

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GREEN STRUCTURE | Analysis Comparison

Attraction Distance Today the distance to the closest park/green area varies a lot throughout the area. The area that stands out the most is the industrial area, in which the distance to the nearest green area is large. This has partly to do with the low amount of parks/ green areas within this part of the area, and partly with how this area is connected to the other side of the highway. Having only distance access to the next park might be reasonable for an industrial area. But we are planning to transform the upper part of this area into dense residential and mixed use area and therefore closer access to the parks is needed.

The proposed changes has a large effect of this situation as can be seen in the analysis to the right. The mixed use densification that is proposed would have a high accessibility to parks and green areas du to the newly introduced floodable buffer zone which can be used as a park and recreational nature area. The green corridors are connecting this buffer zone with the existing nature reserves in the west and thereby also increasing the closeness to the next park in the already existing residential areas in Backa and Kärra. In our proposed scenario the vast majority of both new and existing buildings have the next park in less than 250 meters which not only increases the attractiveness of these areas for investors but also serves the people’s health and well-being living in the areas (Braubach et al. 2017)

Attraction Betweeness Today, even though large nature reserves are existing nearby, the residential areas in Backa and Kärra feel disconnected from these green areas. This is also visible in the Attraction Betweenness analysis to parks where most streets show low potential as social green corridors. The streets having the biggest potential are either next to the highway or cardominated main traffic streets.

In our proposal the added green areas change the situation clearly. In general the area is better connected in regard of green areas and has a higher potential of becoming a green lung for the citizens living there but also coming from other parts of the city. The streets high in betweenness were worked

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with and especially the one next to the highway is now surrounded by a green strip reducing the noise from the highway and making it more interesting and relaxing to work there. The pedestrian bridge over the river will also be crucial in people’s movement towards parks as shown in the analysis.

Therefore, a future development of the other side of the river is necessary to take full advantage of the riverbanks. Without going in detail because this would be beyond the scope of our masterplan, we propose to have a mirrored strategy on the other side of the river in the future.

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Legend 0-250 250-500 500-1000 1000-3000 Parks and green areas Water GOT_NMS Today AD to parks

Proposal AD to parks

Legend 0-19 19-64 64-137 137-279 279-566 Parks and green areas Water Buildings New buildings Today AB to parks 3k

Analysis Comparison

Proposal AB to parks 3k

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GREEN STRUCTURE | Analysis Comparison

Different kinds of green areas are added in our proposal in order to create a variety of habitats. For the floodable green buffer-zone the aim was not to create a continuous habitat from existing forests but rather to introduce new habitats working with the conditions of a wetland. Therefore we divided the green zone into different smaller patches. The closer to the city center the more open grass land is proposed, the further to the north the more dense and high the green structure gets.

In between there is a variation of open land, light forest and denser forest, all specialized on wetland conditions, to ensure diversity in plants and animals, but also to maximize the use value for the human. E.g. a denser forest is positioned next to the industrial strip in between Backa and Kärra to reduce noise

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and pollution coming from the highway. Several wetlands all over the green strip handle small sea level changes and normal rain events in an everyday scenario. The system is designed in a way that it is adaptable to future changes and can be easily developed further in the future if needed. This adaptability is highly needed to be able to cope with stress scenarios and achieve resilience (Romice, Porta and Feliciotti, 2020).

All our changes are based on a very fruitful discussion, we had with Oskar Kindvall, ecologist and environmental consultant during the development of our project.

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4 km 0,000-0,019 0,019-0,053 0,053-0,107 0,107-0,316

Today AB to landcover 3k 0,000-0,019 0,019-0,053 0,053-0,107 0,107-0,316 Parks and green areas Water Buildings New buildings 2 41 61 111 115 116 117 124 125 126 127 Proposal AB landcover 3k

Attraction Betweeness Landcover Analysis

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GREEN STRUCTURE | Sections

Today’s section shows that the riverbank is inaccessible and blocked by the industry. No measures to deal with flooding are taken so far.

In our proposal the added green buffer-zone can transfer into a huge wetland giving the possibility to the river to extend without harming people and built environment. Parts of this area are then inaccessible to people, but can still be used by fish and birds. A higher walking path through the park remains accessible.

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In an everyday scenario the green buffer zone hosts a variety of activities and functions as a green lung for the whole city.

Additional parks and green corridors in the residential and mixed-used areas increase the accessibility to green spaces and create a coherent system of green streets.

Spongefication

The three scenarios show where green areas are added and how they can adapt to a future flooding scenario.

HIGHWAY

NATURE

RESIDENTIAL

NATURE

RESIDENTIAL

HIGHWAY

MIXED-USED

NATURE

RESIDENTIAL

HIGHWAY

MIXED-USED

Green Structure Sections

INDUSTRY

GREEN BUFFER-ZONE

GREEN BUFFER-ZONE

RIVER

HIGHWAY

NATURE

Today

RIVER

HIGHWAY

NATURE

Proposal flooded

RIVER

HIGHWAY

NATURE

Proposal normal

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LANDUSE | Proposal

When the future flooding scenario is taken into consideration in the way this project has done it, new opportunities for future land use emerge.

In this future scenario most of the today’s industrial area will be flooded, preventing the area to function as it does today. This in combination with Gothenburgs ambitions towards moving away slightly from being mainly an industrial city (Thörn and Holgersson, 2016, 672), gives the area room for change.

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The parts of the former industrial area that is not in risk of flooding is viewed as a good location for mixed use densification.

Parts of the industry is proposed to remain closer to Kärra, with the intention to strengthen the suburban qualities of Kärra, while the densification closer to central Gothenburg aims at extending the centrality into the proposed area. The density of the mixed-use area varies throughout the area. The closer to the highway, the higher density, the closer to central Gothenburg, the higher density.

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Landuse and Density Residential Use Residential and Commercial Offices and Commercial Public Urban Industry Urban Farming High Density Medium Density Low Density Greenery River Green Areas Network Highway Existing East-West Connections Added East-West Connections Secondary Streets

Land Use Proposal

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LANDUSE | Analysis Comparison

Angular Integration 2k When analyzing the new street network, it shows a higher angular integration than in the present network. That applies both to the 2k-scale analysis and the 5k-scale analysis. The increase of angular integration in both these scales means that the streets within the area has become more integrated within the existing network than they were before. The improved integration on the 2k-scale shows that the area has improved in integration in the local scale, and the improvements in the 5k-scale shows an improved integration in a larger, city-scale.

In the 2k-analysis, we see a glow up of the area east of Backa and Selma Lagerlöfs torg. This is a result of the increased number of pedestrian connections across the highway. Compared

to the rest of the area, this is the part that shows the highest angular integration overall. It is therefore planned to be a local center, containing not only housing, but offices and public / commercial buildings as well.

Despite its closeness to the center of Gothenburg, Ringön is very low in angular integration in this scale. The area has few connections that requires a shorter walk of 2 km. Also, the ones that exists connects to streets with little integration.

Hence, the network of Ringön can’t benefit of the surrounding of the area to get a higher angular integration. Therefore, it will probably not act as a local node for the inhabitants.

Angular Integration 5k In comparison to the 2k-analysis of angular integration in the proposal network, Ringön is the most central area in the 5k-analysis. Meanwhile, the area east of Backa and Selma Lagerlöfs torg is much lower in angular integration. Benefitting from the surrounding networks, that in this scale are high in integration, Ringön has the potential of becoming a center. This gives the project area two centers.

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In the proposal, the two centres are assigned the same type of land use, meaning offices and public/commercial buildings.

Thou the analyses show that these places will probably be used in different ways. With one being central in small scale and the other being central in larger scale, the two centres will probably allow different types of urban characters, enabling different activities. In what way they will do so is further explored in the key projects.

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1-152 152-285 285-425 425-575 575-746 746-970 970-1640 Parks and green areas Water Buildings New buildings Today NM AI 2k

Proposal NM AI 2k

1-395 395-723 723-1080 1080-1484 1484-1926 1926-2391 2391-3537 Parks and green areas Water Buildings New buildings Today NM AI 5k

Angular Integration Analysis

Proposal NM AI 5k

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CONNECTIONS | Proposal

To achieve the set out ambitions for the area, the connections are crucial.

Today, due to its relation to the highway, the area is to a large extent car centered. By strengthening pedestrian- and public transport access the proposal aims at achieving a human centered area, with slower movement, which in turn allows for uses more suitable for pedestrians and bikers.

movement within the area to improve the conditions for a variety of functions within the area and on the roads leading down to the floodable buffer zone.

The main pedestrian and bike flows are proposed to go along the same road as the tram-line and through larger paths within the floodable buffer zone. The two distinctly different main paths provide different atmospheres and functions, aiming at attracting people to travel through the area.

The tram-line is proposed to be connected to Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen, as a way to better connect the proposed development to central Gothenburg. It is then proposed to continue to Kärra, as a way to decrease the car dependency of Kärra and its surroundings. The placement of the tram-line is proposed to be within the mixed area, with the aim of increasing

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Network Highway Main Streets Main Pedestrian Streets Secondary Streets Proposed Tram stops Existing Tram stops Existing Tram Line Proposed Tram Line Social Green Corridors Ecological Green Corridors Local Centers Existing Centers New Centers

Connections Proposal

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CONNECTIONS | Analysis Comparison

Network Betweeness Non-motorized Streets Today, the most used non-motorized streets are often the ones going right next to the highway as visible in today’s spatial analysis. The only road standing out a bit is the one going from Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen to Selma Lagerlöfs torg. In general the area is not showing high betweeness. This is mainly caused by the few connections over the river to the city center and by the various highways cutting through the area.

With our proposal of a new grid in the former industrial are we are introducing a new urban corridor going mostly next to the wetland. This street invites to bike and walk as it is positioned

in a nicer surrounding close to green and blue structure. It also gives the possibility for local shops and restaurants to position themselves next to this road as it will have the highest amount of people passing by.

We see a quality in the suburban character of Kärra and therefore did not aim to increase its betweeness, but put the emphasis on adding a path through the wetland which allows to travel to the city center by bike through nature and without traffic lights.

Network Betweeness Motorized Streets As visible in the spatial analysis our masterplan area is divided by the E6. We decided to not remove the highway because it is an important connection on a national scale (going from Oslo to Malmö). Also it gives us the opportunity to make the new neighborhoods in Ringön and east Backa less car centered.

Here, the streets are designed in a way that they do not allow for transit shortcuts but primarily are used by the people starting or ending their travel in one of the neighborhoods.

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0-2778363 2778363-10456237 10456237-23914596 23914596-67024760 Parks and green areas Water Buildings Today NM NB 5k

Proposal NM NB 5k

New buildings

0-325810 325810-1041382 1041382-2382179 2382179-9419362 Parks and green areas Water Buildings New buildings Today MOT NB 5k

Network Betweeness Analysis

Proposal MOT NB 5k

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CONNECTIONS | Tram Analysis Comparison

As mentioned earlier, the area as it is today is car centered, both when it comes to its different connections but also to the functions housed in the area.

To be able to achieve the human scale that the project aims at creating, while still staying connected in an efficient way to central Gothenburg and further, a tram line is proposed.

The intended main road, on which the tram-line is located obviously gets strengthened in use when public transportation stops are added. But also the crossing roads leading in eastwest direction gets strengthened, resulting in a possible increase of movement flows on these particular streets, which in turn can be benefitted from by proposing suitable uses along these streets.

To the right is two angular betweenness analysises showing the proposed street network with its mixed use densification area, before and after adding public transport stops within the area. These analysises are weighed from buildings to public transport stops and then shows streets that will be more used while moving between these functions with a darker color.

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0-17 17-60 60-148 148-385 Today TRAM AB 3K

Public transport stops 0-17,5 17,5-65,0 65,0-161,5 161,5-385,0 Parks and green areas Water Buildings New buildings Proposal TRAM AB 3K

Attraction Betweeness Analysis

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KEY PROJECTS

We have four proposed key project sites each with their individual challenges and opportunities. They have in common that they are all crucial to make our masterplan work and to reach a water-resilient and human scale masterplan area.

1. The project Flood District explores how future challenges can be transformed into opportunities and possibilities for creating greater ecological and social qualities.

2. Not a local place deals with a leftover concrete desert which will be developed into an water-sensitive, lively activity park where both human and nature can thrive.

3. Design of a local center rich in variation, by the use of a network system where streets act as main parameters.

4. This project seeks to connect todays natural areas with the proposed wetland along Göta älv, and in the continuation give the possibility of future connections over the river itself. To do this a large amount of infrastructural barriers have to be overcome, and connections between green and built environments has to be thought through in order for the natural environment to be able to thrive.

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REFLECTION

Key Project 1

Key Project 2

Overall, the master plan provided good guidance for working with the key area. Our main goal of flood resilience continued to be one of the main goals in developing the project. The area was not clearly defined in the master plan, which opened up a lot of possibilities, but also provided a little too much freedom.

Throughout the process, minor changes were made to the density and land use of the area. The northeast connections defined in the master plan will need to be further reviewed based on more information about future developments.

The masterplan gave a clear vision what is most important for this area: human-scale and water-sensitvity which was a very helpful guideline on a rather undefined keyproject location. In general was the analysis done for the whole masterplan area very important for a good understanding of the plot and its challenges. The masterplan did not give a clear answer how the keyproject area should be handled except from it being part of the green area. This gave lots of freedom to experiment within the boundaries of the vision. There were still some unsolved connections in the masterplan which lead to some minor adjustments of the motorized streets to be able to cross the highway. The park network also needed some changes now that the place was filled with program, but this does not disrupt the big picture and is still in line with the vision.

Flood District

Not a local place

However, the analysis that was conducted helped to better understand the area and its opportunities and made it easier to be able to define the area.

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Key Project 3

Key Project 4

The masterplan was of great help throughout the key project process. Already knowing the goals of the area, investigation of different theories and methods for design could start straight away. This provided more time to see how the problems of the area could be solved, rather than finding out the problems first.

In the masterplan we already had decided on some specific elements that were fixed. It also had suggestions of how certain problems could be solved. Having some elements already decided also helped with the problem-solving process. What could be criticized about the masterplan visions is the vison of human scale. It is a vague expression that could be interpreted in many ways. If you as city planner give such vague instructions, you might end up with a result far from what you imagined. That can be a good thing! But for this specific expression some clarification would probably have been useful. The water resilience goal is better. It opens up for many different design solutions, but the practical benefits would still be the same.

As a whole the masterplan gave very clear guidelines for what the key project should consist of. But in order to make it function, adjustments to the road network, exact placement of the ecological corridor and which functions should be housed directly next to it needed to be changed.

Directing streets

Bridging the gap

Reflection

In order to ensure that the infrastructural network functions correctly already at the masterplan level, more time would likely be needed to be spent at this stage. This gave me an understanding of the importance of making the correct decisions at the masterplan level and the complexity of working on that scale, because the decisions made there has a large impact on what follows.

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FLOOD DISTRICT SARAH SCHOBERLEITNER The project Flood District explores how future challenges can be transformed into opportunities and possibilities for creating greater ecological and social qualities.

Problem description and Context

This key area is the entrance area of the master plan presented in the previous chapter. The site today is an industrial area called Ringön on Hisingen which is connected to the center of Gothenburg via the Göta älv Bridge and is surrounded by infrastructure elements. Although the area has always been dominated by engineering companies, creative businesses in fashion, design, architecture, art, film and music have settled there in recent years, affecting the overall character of Ringön.

In addition, a new tram depot is being planned, which will be an important contribution to Gothenburg’s expansion of railbased public transportation.

The future of Ringön requires thinking of short term goals as well as long term goals and future challenges. As stated in the previous chapter the area of our master plan is in increasing risk of flooding in the future and therefore requires strategies and solutions for further development that tackle the upcoming challenges.

In our master plan, we analyzed that this area will be heavily affected by future flooding and is also a heavily polluted area

affected by soil contamination. Therefore, our main goal was to prepare the area for future flooding and to protect the soil, which is why we removed the industrial area and created a floodable green buffer zone. Our analysis makes it clear that Ringön is the area most affected by future flooding scenarios, which means that the entire key area will be flooded in the worst case scenario. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to develop a flood resistant neighborhood.

Despite its central location, Ringön is poorly integrated into the city’s street network and is a rather segregated area close to the city’s geographic center. According to previous street network analyses, it is not very accessible, does not generate strong flows, and therefore gives Ringön the character of an island. This explains the current development of Ringön (settlement of start-ups, low rents). These parameters and conditions make it possible to treat it as small town within the city rather than a continuation of the city. Thus the second aim of the project is to strengthen and support this local character and thereby allowing, among other things, some of these low key activities to remain.

Aims:

Flood Resilience

Strengthening the local character of Ringön

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FLOOD DISTRICT | Urban design proposal The design proposal suggests a simple grid that follows the main road of the area. The main street serves as the area’s main connection on a city level, linking Ringön and the rest of the master plan to Hjalmar Branting platsen, and will be the street where the suggested new tram line will run.

Angular Integration NM 2k showcasing the low integration of the street network on a local scale

to high density with residential buildings and public and commercial/industrial buildings that complement some of the eliminated spaces and reinforce and support the local character of the Flood District. By implementing different typologies from current landuses it is offering room for coworking spaces, ateliers and other small industries. The urban type used is the perimeter block. Within the different blocks the building types vary (industrial types, housing types, mixed types with commercial, residential and public types).

The neighborhood is surrounded by green infrastructure that serve both flood and recreational purposes. The streets along the main connector and the cross streets are calmer, floodsafe green streets that provide easy access to the green zones.

The overall area aims to support soft movement while still allowing for motorized movement. In response to the area’s flood strategy, on-street parking was removed and replaced with underground parking which allows for calmer streets for pedestrians and bicyclists only.

In addition, the proposal worked to create clearer territorial boundaries, following Eva Minoura’s work “uncommon ground.”

The Master Plan proposes two new northeast connections that will need to be reviewed based on more information about future developments.

The proposal furthermore suggests a mixed use area - medium

Betweeness Analysis NM 5k suggesting the southern street of the proposed grid as a main connector

Tram Depot

Green Buffer

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Future Connections

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FLOOD DISTRICT | Flooding Strategy Considering all flooding scenarios, the overall strategy for this key project focuses on water-sensitive urban space and water attenuation, i.e., capturing floodwater and stormwater and releasing it slowly at a rate where it can easily drain away. In this way, the further danger of flooding is averted and additional ecological, social and aesthetic qualities are created.

The green buffer zone proposed in the Master Plan is one of the most important strategies to achieve the goal of creating a flood resilient area. The proposed green zone will act like a sponge and allow for flood and stormwater runoff in future scenarios. The buffer zone is divided into two areas: The Urban Park and the Urban Stormwater Wetland. Restoring wetlands in this area not only helps manage stormwater, but also creates recreational space for the city and valuable wildlife habitat.

Thinking long term, the car dependency in the future will decrease however we cannot assume a total disappearance of cars. Therefore, the proposal suggests underground parking in the blocks most affected by flooding. The underground parking is considered a sacrificial area and therefore serves both for parking and, in worst case scenario, as a flood basin/tank that absorbs and slowly drains the floodwater.

Sustainable drainage systems (SUD’s) and other smaller scale interventions are integrated in the streets to create water sensitive urban space. Small scale interventions such as plant beds, green roofs, green facades, permeable pavements and sunken activity areas which allow activities like ball courts and skate parks but also hold surplus flood water if necessary.

Sunken activity areas Closed SUD’s (drainge system)

Flood Ponds

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Underground parking serving as flood basins/containers

Plant beds woven through the streets Green Facades for Industry where possible

Green Roofs Permeable Pavement

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Residential groundfloor raised

Open SUD flood canal

Green buffer zone consisting of an urban park and a topography wetland

Commercial groundfloor floodable

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Flooding Urban Strategies for areas needing extra protection:

Permeable Pavement

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Sustainable Drainage System (SUD), open/visible

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Sunken acitivity flood basins Legend River Sea-level rise 3.8m Need for extra protection

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Urban Park The urban park is equipped with a main bicycle and pedestrian path. It is a park for recreational spaces like various sports fields and other public spaces such as playgrounds, picnic areas, hiking trails and event spaces.

Sports Fields like Tennis courts, Basketball courts, Padel courts and a Skate Park are accommodated in sunken flood basins. All other facilities must be able to be flooded.

An open flood channel is located at the edge of the flood district, as this area is in need of special protection and is intended to receive surface runoff from the main connector.

Urban Stormwater Wetland Designing a topographic wetland not only slows down and evenly distributes stormwater, but also creates space for unique programs on the landscape that allow for diverse habitats (due to the different gradients of wetness and dryness) and a variety of public and recreational spaces.

Legend Plots Entrances Permeable Pavement Green Roofs Use of Flooding Strategies Urban Park Urban Stormwater Wetland Flood Ponds

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FLOOD DISTRICT | Urban Rules/Flooding Strategies

Residential groundfloor raised above flood risk level (flooding & privacy)

Parking garages used as water storage tanks in case of flooding

Entrances towards street to achieve presence and eyes on the street

Legend Industry/ Commercial Residential Public Commercial Ground Floor A B C D

5-7 floors 4-5 floors 3-4 floors 1-2 floors

Green Roofs, Green Facades supporting runoff

Implementing different typologies from current landuses

Set back/continous facade to create a lively streetscape

Urban Park/ Public Good Public Squares / Public Good Semi Public / Common Good Courtyards/ Club Good 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Konsthall Co-Working, Workshops Ateliers, Studios Brewery Urban Farming Data Center Produce Center Public Services

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Topography wetland slows down the stormwater and evenly distributes its flow

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Well connected street network to enable good accessabilty of green zones

Commercial ground floor to create a lively street

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FLOOD DISTRICT| Typologies The design proposal suggests 3 different urban blocks: The residential block, the semi industrial block and the public block.

The urban type used for all 3 types is the perimeter block.

The residential block has a private courtyard at its center generating a club good. Different zones/divisions within the courtyard can be created by using small scale community buildings, different vegetation or different ground surface.

The groundfloor of the residential buildings is raised above the existing flood risk level to prevent from flooding but also to generate more privacy. Entrances are on ground level placed towards the streets in order to achieve more presence and to generate more safety. Green roofs and green facades should be implemented where possible.

The semi industrial block is a combinition of different building types, mixing residential with commercial and small scale industrial buildings. Different typologies from current landuses of Ringön like breweries, co-working spaces, workshop spaces and ateliers are implemented within this block to complement some of the eliminated spaces. Residential buildings and

Residential Block

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industry must have a certain distance from each other in terms of daylight and noise. Industrial buildings (light industry) must be planned in such a way that they cause as little noise and pollution as possible to residential buildings. Ground floor levels of residential buildings in close proximity to semi public spaces can be further increased to generate more privacy. Green Facades towards semi public spaces should be implemented where possible to decrease noise and to purify the air. Transitions between industrial and residential should be designed given the landuses. Green Roofs and Permeable Pavement should be integrated where possible.

The public block aims to integrate public types from current landuses like an art hall, small museums and a local cinema, but also incorporates building types with services that support the residents of the flood district like small health centres, daycare, libraries, post offices etc. It is a open block structure generating a public square that creates space for the new public transport stops of the area, cafes, restaurants and markets. Green Roofs and Permeable Pavement should be integrated where possible.

Semi Industrial Block

Public Block

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Transition 1: Urban Farming Block

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Link: boundary made through wall with gate can still be opend up and interconnected. Landuse of industrial spaces are urban farming facilities. Residential courtyard can serve as additional urban farming space. The groundfloor of the residential buildings facing the semi public courtyard can be utilized to serve these purposes.

Interconnection: soft boundary made through ground surface and vegation. Landuse of industrial spaces are mainly workshop (carpentry, metall workshop) and co-working spaces. The groundfloor of the residential buildings can serve as associated studios and ateliers. The upper floors of the residential building could be partially used for artists in residence.

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Transition 3: Dependent Block

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Invisible Connection: The residential block is completely closed.

The landuse of industrial spaces are mainly server spaces, data centers. The heat generated by the devices can be stored and used by the residential block or other surrounding buildings.

The first floors of the residential buildings can be raised to create more privacy.

Groundfloor Link: The residential block is completely closed.

The industrial spaces are used by an today existing coffee roastery and a baking industry. The residential first floors facing the semi-public courtyard can be used as commercial spaces for goods produced in the industrial spaces, such as a bakery and a café. The entrances are replaced by a portal that leads to another access possibility.

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DIRECTING STREETS LINNEA FORSMARK Design of a local center rich in variation, by the use of a network system where streets act as main parameters.

Problem description

Following key project is an urban design proposal visualising how a local center can be designed, based on pre-conditions set by the masterplan Spongefication. The visions of the masterplan seeks to reach a water resilient city area, designed with a human scale in mind.

Water resilience is important in this key project area. It is set to be the place that handles big parts of the rain water run-off comming down from the higher terrain in Backa. It is already suggested from the masterplan that this could be done by “green/blue”-corridors. How these corridor could be designed is left for investigation. The key project aim for these corridors is to make them an integrated place in the urban space. Both as a practical feature, and as an aesthetical and activity driving element, meant for interaction .

Human scale can be interpreted in many different ways. For this project, human scale is chosen to be defined as rich variety in the urban setting. The reason for this definition is the limitation of space. It is a narrow area, only two blocks wide. This limitation is what is challenged in this project. How can variation be obtained, despite the small size of the area?

The last aim is to make the two previous goals, integration of water and rich variation, to blend together. Perhaps by letting the handling of water run-off contribute to the variation of the neighborhood, acting as a source of richness.

Masterplan Visions

Water resilience

Key project Aims

Water integrated in urban space design

Directing streets

Human scale

Rich variation in urban space

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DIRECTING STREETS | Urban design proposal This urban design proposal is a result of studies and analyzes of individual streets and how they could work as main prameters in a street network system. The project is the sum of the different streets and the outputs created when streets are intersecting or enclosing, referred to as places and blocks. Being a significantly narrow area, one of the main concernes in the design process was to create a proposal that would feel rich and varied despite its spatial limitations. The method of working with the streets as individual parameters is in this project argued to result in just that.

Looking at the analyzes of the masterplan it is possible to see that this area has the potential of a local center. Althou, the centrality in relation to the rest of Gothenbourg is low. Two factors that were considered in the design of the neighborhood. Taking advantage of the local center quiality, streets and

adjacent buildings are design to fit an urban context. At the same time, blocks between the streets are big. As the centrality of the area is low, density doesn’t need to be very high as a result of expensive land and demand for many dwellings. This leaves room for large, private green areas within the blocks, complementing the public wetland park next to the area.

As a summarization of the result, the design proposal is coherant, yet rich in variety. The system of unique streets, puzzled together in a logical order makes for an area that has common elements throughout the whole neighborhood. Still it changes every time you turn around the corner. An avenue, handling rain water leads you to an urban main street, that then leads you to a quiet alley. And on your way, you will pass several different places. All uniquely charactarised by the intersection of streets creating the place.

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In the initial phase of the design process, the conditions and visions set in the masterplan where analyzed. What kind of area is this, really?

Masterplan

Having a clear view of what the masterplan asks for, project specific strategies where set to obtain its visions.

Key Project Area

AIMS AND VISIONS

DIRECTING STREETS | Design process

A street network, consisting of fixed streets from the masterplan, and added, key project specific streets, was put together. When analyzed, all streets in the network turned out to have individual characteristics.

A catalogue of individual street designs, based on the street analyzes, was created to act as a stock of “puzzle pieces” in the design proposal.

Streets: Fixed from masterplan and key project specific.

Streets

The urban design proposal can be described as the sum of the streets, places and blocks.

Not being able to exist withouth eachother, they all make a up a coherant unity. Althou, their origin, based in the uniqueness of every street, makes it an area of rich variation.

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Places

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Urban design proposal

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Places: Where fixed streets meet.

Blocks: Space enclosed by streets.

RESULT

Places and blocks where identifyed where fixed streets intersected and enclosed space. Being dependent on the streets, these components also turned out unique.

METHOD

Putting togheter the street puzzle pieces mentioned above, the physical form of the places and blocks was revealed.

Proposal: Streets + Places + Blocks

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19 UNIQUE ENVIRONMENTS In the table to left all fixed streets from the masterplan are being catogrized. Factors from the angular integration and network betweeness analyzes area represented by color (see masterplan chapter for further explination). Physical factors such as green/ blue elements, closeness to the highway and main street character (decided in the masterplan) are marked with a yes or no.

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Categorizing fixed streets - Argument for method

Looking at the table it is possible to see that all streets have unique characteristics. This indicates that they all would be suitable for different designs. Naturally, this makes all places and blocks unique as well. When adding all components together, the final design would consist of 19 different environments. This indicates that working with the streets as individual elements could be a sucesfull method to obtain variation.

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DIRECTING STREETS | Streets A Street Catalogue Given from the categorization, every fixed street in the project area has unique allowances. When cosidering this factor among with the aims of the project, a design catalogue, consisting of five different types of streets, was created. Four of them originating from the fixed streets, and one, key project specific street, added to obtain desired block size. These five street types is to be considered as pieces in a puzzle, or stocks in a system. They are combined according to the street network, making up the urban design proposal.

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1. MAIN STREET Main urban street characteristics.

High capacity with room for tram lines.

Well used with high publicness.

Surrounding plots are large.

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The streets vairy in capacity (width), how intensely they are used (wich effects the desired capacity), their level of publicness (a result of a combination of how often they are used and their overall design) and size of surrounding plots. Larger plots offer a higher flexibility than smaller plots in terms of use.

Streets that are well used might prove usefull as commercial streets at some point, meaning it could potentionally need the extra space some day. More private, spairingly used streets are less likley to have to adapt to such conditions. The combination of factors mentioned above gives every street its individual characteristics.

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Surrounding plots are small.

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High capacity, handling rain water.

Well used with high publicness.

Surrounting plots are large, with comercial use in floor level.

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Small surrounding plots. Mix of rowhouses and multifamily houses.

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Medium capacity. .

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Surrounting plots are large, with offices filling in the gap between the blocks to shield the area from the highway.

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DIRECTING STREETS | Places

Places - Where Streets Intersect Where streets meet, places are made. What kind of place is created depends on the streets making up the space. By looking at the table of categorization, presented in in the design process chapter, it is possible to get an indicator of how the places might behave and what they might give allowance for.

For example, one place might show to be well used, due to being a combination of two streets with high network betweeness. Since many people are likley to pass by this intersection it could be a suitable place for commercial use. Examples of these types of places are Blue Green Corner and The Center, see representations to the right. They are both well used. However their other characteristics divide. Blue Green Corner is a combination of two streets that both contains green/blue elements. It is also a place with a lot of sun. The combination of these factors makes it a perfect place to hang out, perhaps at a café in the corner. The Center has a more urban feel to it, being

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a result of the intersection of the main street of the area and the almost avenue like water street. This is a good place for a tram stop of larger scale and maybe area defining artwork. Surrounding floor level use would preferrable be facilities typically associated with neighborhood centers. For example a library, health center etc.

One exaple of a place only moderatly used is the Urban Corner.

Only one of the two street that makes up this place is high in network betweeness. Having great flux of movement from just half of all possible entrances will probably not result in a good place for commercial use etc. However, being a result of two streets with urban characteristics still might make it “a corner to remeber” as the capacity (size) is high. Maybe a school could have its entrance facing this place, making use of the capacity?

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DIRECTNG STREETS | Blocks

Blocks - Space Enclosed by Streets The enclosed space between the streets of the network are what makes up the blocks. This meens that many times one block has three, or even four different sides with different use and characteristics. Rather than just assigning every individual block with a certain property that goes for all sides, the blocks are adapted to adjacent streets. The hypothesis is that this approach to block design would result in an urban area where all streets and blocks are functioning well. It would lower the risk of poorly placed land use, that could occure when deciding building typology and facilities only based on overall block location and not on individual sides.

All blocks in the urban design proposal consist of the puzzle pieces presented in the street catalogue, surrounding a common yard in the center. This means that the people residing the block both has acces to the private plot yard, and the block shared common yard. This way of design guarantees all recidents an outdoor space with direct sunlight, even though they happen to live on one of the plots mostly covered by shadow. It also makes sure that if an exploiter of a plot decides to expand the buidling, and therfore turning parts that used to be a yard into built space, people living in the buidling will still have quite

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good acces to outdoor space in the common yard. The common space also provides the overall block with a larger capacity with a wide range of possible outdoor activities. Maybe not every private plot yard could afford to accomondate a greenhouse,.

Then the common space could be a great place for that. Or maybe the people of the block goes together and decide that they want to build a football field or a tennis court.

Using Eva Minouras way of deviding space into different levels of privacy, both the plot yards and the common yards are concidered club good. This means that they are meant for the people living in the surrounding buidlings. The plot yards are for the people living on the plots, and the common yards are for the people living in the block. Minoura writes that yards that have clear boudaries of who is allowed to enter and not are used more frequently by the residents than yards open for anyone. However, the blocks in this project are open at some places, as seen in the example block to the right. This is to enable ambulance and firetrucks to reach all parts of the buildings. As a way to make the common yards feel more private, the opposite side of the openings is always a buidling. Not an opening, that might invite people to use the yards as a shorcuts through the area.

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NOT A LOCAL PLACE LINDA WIRTH Transforming a leftover concrete desert into an water-sensitive, lively activity park where both human and nature can thrive.

General Context

The keyproject is situated in Northern Gothenburg next to the river Göta Alv between Ringön and Backa. It is in close proximity to the City Center (4km to Brunnsparken for Pedestrians) and Brunnsbo Center (2km).

its importance to function as a connector between Ringön and the newly developed East Backa. In our masterplan we envision this area as a part of our wetland green area. Due to its noisy, polluted and segregated character, it is not suitable for residential housing but will serve the city of Gothenburg as a central green lung.

Tingstadstunneln, Marieholmstunneln and the E6 highway to Oslo surround the area as well as various rails leading to central station giving the keyproject the feeling of an island with the highways on various levels as clear borders. Today the area is characterized by industrial buildings and fallow land due to the recent tunnel construction. It is a completely sealed surface with concrete and asphalt pavement.

Highways as clear borders

We have chosen this location to be crucial for our Masterplan because of its non-human scale, high risk of flooding as well as 0

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NOT A LOCAL PLACE | Problem Description

The area, as it is today, is very unique and not commonly found in such a central location. This also implies some specific challenges that need to be addressed.

Due to its location next to the river, the area is at high risk of flooding. Rain water run-off can happen in certain areas where water is running off collectively from the highway. Climate researcher forecast that heavy rain and flooding will increase in the future due to climate change. Therefore a water-sensitvie design is needed.

polluted and car-dependent zone. The connection to the city center by bike and public transport needs to be improved.

On a local scale the area is, even though quite centrally located, not very well integrated mostly because of the separating highways and few streets (see AI NMS 2k).

Today the area is a leftover piece of land without its own identity. The human scale is missing between the rather unpersonal industrial buildings and the massive infrastructure constructions. There is no access to green and blue structures.

As visible in the Network Betweenness Analysis of the motorized network, the car network is very dominant in this area. It is surrounded by several highways and railways creating a loud,

From left to right: Scalgo Flooding Analysis MS NB 5k NMS AI 2k Arial View (Google Maps)

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Risk of Flooding

Heavy infrastructure

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Strategies

The main vision for the masterplan is to create a water-resilient and human scale district of the city. Taking up on this, three strategies have been developed for this keyproject with its particular challenges in mind.

First, taking the risk of future flooding seriously leads to a comparable large green area functioning as a buffer zone. No buildings are established up to a safe line and permeable ground is the first choice whereever possible. Different flooding levels are looked at and are giving the base structure for the park.

Depending on the flooding scenario, the park transforms and different activities are possible.

Second, the aim is to create a green park that embeds blue structures where both human and nature can thrive. For humans the focus is on activities which are having a hard time finding space in the city because they might be dangerous, loud

Lastly, to be able to create a lively and well-used public space, the area must be integrated on a local and city scale. Locally it serves as a green connector between Ringön and East Backa.

From a city perspective, the focus lies on creating a strong pedestrian, bike and public transport network to the city center as well as to the other side of the river.

WATER RESILIENT

MASTERPLAN VISION

KEYPROJECT STRATEGIES

or space consuming. To guarantee a sustainable development of the area, the plot provides space for active citizen engagements and bottom-up projects. Parts of the area are designated for wildlife with a specific focus on building habitats for two rare but local bird species suffering from disappearance of their natural habitats. Included in the park is an educational path about climate change, flooding risks and treatments.

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NOT A LOCAL PLACE | Urban design proposal

The three strategies presented on the previous page form the basis for the urban design proposal of this keyproject.

Flooding levels structure the plot in three area: the wetland area closest to the water serves birds and other species as protected habitats, the activity area next to it functions as a buffer zone for heavier flooding and as a social catalyst engaging citizens to built their own projects, the zone closest to the highway is at low risk of flooding and therefore hosts a building with space for indoor activities and parking. It also works as a noise, pollution and view barrier.

Thereby, the street typologies follow a clear hierarchy. Starting with car, bus and tram movement, the closer you get to the water the slower gets the movement, ending with a highline over the wetland only accessible for pedestrians and animals.

The keyproject aims to put emphasis on an often forgotten and leftover piece of land by transforming it into something valuable for the whole city and its ecological and social well-being.

The zones are divided by streets serving different purposes.

Depending on the need, fast or more scenarios ways of travelling from Ringön to Newbacka and vice-versa are possible.

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The keyproject aims to put emphasis on an often forgotten and leftover piece of land by transforming it into something valuable for the whole city and its ecological and social well-being.

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FLOODING SCENARIO | Distribution of flows

own freshwater ecosystems the sponge city allows stormwater to be absorbed by the soil, which also naturally purifies it and stores it as groundwater,” explains Filippo Boselli of Germany’s World Future Council (2016). “This reduces the burden on urban sewage systems, and during extreme weather events, improves the capacity of the city to absorb water and as such decreases the risk of flooding.”

Temperature rise and climate crises will make future flooding and heavy rain events more likely, also in Gothenburg (Länsstyrelsen Västra Götaland 2021). The city of Gothenburg is already investing lots of time and money into protective measurements, at the moment mostly high-tech solution such as the opening gate outside of Gothenburg (Sweco Environment AB 2016). We aim to propose a natural solution with our huge green area that has multiple function and can bring additional value to the city on an everyday basis.

To identify the areas at risk of flooding and heavy rain the analysis tool Scalgo has been used. This led to different scenarios of flooding as visible in the sections to the right. The wetland and the part of the park closes to the water are first to become flooded while the activity park and most of the paths and streets are still usable. In the worst case scenario only emergency roads and the pedestrian highline are accessible.

Inspired by Chinese local storm water management systems, we found a suitable solution in the sponge city concept. The sponge city concept aims to treat occurring water locally by absorbing as much as possible through permeable grounds on the side (Workman 2017). “By regenerating and expanding its 0

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CONNECT RINGON AND BACKA| Streets

To serve as a lively recreation area for the whole city, it is crucial that the park is well integrated on a city and a local scale.

A new tram line going from Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen to this area will make the area easily and fast accessible by public transport. This is from particular importance as car traffic needs to be reduced in the future and should not be the first choice of travel. A generous pedestrian and bike road going through the whole green area (from Frihamnen to Kärra) makes it attractive and convenient to use the bike from the city center to the park. A pedestrian and bike bridge slightly north of this area connects the other side of Göta älv with the keyproject area.

Ringön and East Backa. To connect these two, three different streets are introduced. The position of the streets was determined by the flooding scenarios.

First, the main motorized street is connecting the two neighborhoods on the shortest and fastest way possible. Crossing a highway intersection and the railway bridge gives a feeling for the heavy infrastructure surrounding the park. Through the middle of the park goes a broad pedestrian and bike street inviting people to promenade or do physical activities such as running or skating. Lastely, a nature experience highline goes over the wetland offering interesting views over the city and the nature and providing educational information about the nature around.

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Main routes Tram Stop Zoom-In Entrance Situation Main motorized street Main pedestrian street Nature-experience highline

Crossing the highways from East Backa to enter the park area

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PARK FOR THE PUBLIC | Zoning

Potential flooding gives the base structure for the streets which are then dividing the park in three parts. Each of them is very different and serves another purpose.

The first area closest to the highway consists of a parking garage combined with a building for indoor sports activities. The building functions as a view, noise and pollution barrier from the highways. The second part hosts outdoor activities which would normally be hard to find inside the city because they are loud, dangerous and/or spacious. The paths are all straight but angled dividing the area in many smaller plots with various sizes. The speed in this area is rather high with lots of activities going on. Especially compared to the last part which is left

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more natural providing a protected habitat for birds and other animals. No paths are going through this area on the ground and some parts are marshy allowing Göta älv to adapt to the weather conditions.

On the following pages, each part of the park will be presented more in detail.

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The streets are dividing the park in three parts: The building for indoor activities towards the highway is next to the part focussing on outdoor activities. Closest to the river is a nature area designated for birds and wildlife.

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The zone closest to the highway is the only one that is save to build on in regards of flooding. But it still needs a water-sensitive approach because of rain water run-off from the highways and surrounding hills. The proposed building hosts a parking garage on the ground floor and indoor sport activities on the upper floors. Having parking on the ground floor allows for water to flow through the building. The facades and the roof of the building are green and are able to store water and give it slowly back to the air through evaporation. To fully integrate the sponge city concept a pipe connection to the river would make sense to be able to circulate water as needed.

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The heights and the structure of the building are positioned in a way so that the building protects the park from the highway, its noise and its pollution. The form and design of the building are rather simple aiming for a low-cost building to leave as much money as possible for the rest of the park.

Zone 1: View and noise barrier

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Parking garage in Tübingen-Reutlingen

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PARK FOR THE PUBLIC | Activity Area

Zone 2: Outdoor Activities

The middle zone is designed for various outdoor activities to happen. The clear straight streets are in contrast to the organic shapes of the rest of the park highlighting that there is something different in this part of the park. They also divide the big area into smaller zones which can then be occupied by different groups and activities. The proposed activities such as urban farming, skateboarding or rowing are just exemplifying what could happen here but the idea is to give room to the citizens of Gothenburg to fulfill their own projects and become active designers of their city. As Jane Jacobs already said in 1961 “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody”. Taking up on this idea, the park could function as

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a catalyst for citizen engagement and thereby strengthen the identity and care for this area. The whole area would be managed by the city of Gothenburg to guarantee a fair and sensible distribution of space all year around.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody” Jane Jacobs (1961)

Legend Green permeable ground Water Walking paths Possible activities

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Active Citizen Participation - All year around Sunny, warm days are rare in Gothenburg.

So it is important to think about activities that can happen all year around and benefit from different weather conditions such as a water playground which only comes truly to live when it is raining.

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Urban Farming Himmelbeet Berlin Rowing on a lake RainwaterPlayground Renströmsparken Göteborg Warming Huts The Hole Idea Toronto

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PARK FOR THE PUBLIC | Natural Habitat

Zone 3: Focus on nature and wildlife

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Today, urban expansion and the associated loss of natural habitats are putting local species at risk and are increasing the loss of biodiversity in the city (Kindvall 2021). Therefore, the zone closest to Göta älv is renatured and designated for birds and other wildlife to stay and breed. Taking up on Mareld Landscape architects analysis of Jubiläumsparken in Frihmanen, two bird species from their list have been chosen to work with in this project: The common moorhen and the little ringed plover. Both species are suffering from the decline of suitable habitat in Gothenburg. In this proposal both their natural habitats are integrated in the green area. Of particular importance are ponds and shallow waters which, together with dense reed vegetation and open gravel areas, provide suitable breeding sites for the birds.

A highline path going through the wetland makes the area accessible for human without disturbing the wildlife. It invites the pedestrian to observe the nature. Information boards provide additional information about the local ecosystems.

Common moorhen

Little ringed plover

Habitat: shallow water bodes with dense reed vegetation on the banks and larger floating leaf on the open water surface

Habitat: open gravel areas near freshwater

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A highline going through the wetland makes the area accessible for human without disturbing the wildlife.

Legend Open gravel area Substrate Clay pressure bank

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BRIDGING THE GAP KARL SANDMAN This project seeks to connect todays natural areas with the proposed wetland along Göta älv, and in the continuation give the possibility of future connections over the river itself. To do this a large amount of infrastructural barriers have to be overcome, and connections between green and built environments has to be thought through in order for the natural environment to be able to thrive.

General context and approach

The project is located just north of Bäckebol, in between the proposed residential and industrial areas put forward in the master plan.

In the master plan this area was identified as a potential link between different green areas within Gothenburg; the large forests and farmlands on Hisingen, to the proposed wetland along Göta älv and in the continuation the nature on the eastern side of the river.

Today these varying forms of green areas are divided by large scale infrastructural elements, such as the E6, and spread out smaller roads, separating the area into smaller islands. Due to its relation to the E6, the area has developed into becoming a car centred area, not giving much attention to soft movement such as bikers and pedestrians.

To create ideal paths for local species and animals, the approach has been to put the green corridor at focus, and to minimize disturbance, but to still allow for an increased quality of soft movement in the area. To do this, the relation between built environment, human movement and green areas is crucial.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Main problems This key project sets out to propose a solution problems that the area is facing. The main issue is the lack of “green” connections, meaning connections between different green areas. Today the larger green areas of Gothenburg is divided by large infrastructure and other man made elements, preventing different species from moving in between them.

Another issue is the overall car dependency of the area. The services and functions within the area, in combination with the communication network is all made with motorized traffic in mind. This is an issue since the masterplan aims at prioritizing soft movement over motorized. The final issue that this key project sets out to solve is the future flooding situation. The key project will not focus much on the future sea-level rise, but instead on heavy rainfall, which the built environment today has a negative impact on, making the issues larger.

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To work with these issues the project takes its starting point around a green corridor and ecoduct, which aims at connecting the nature west of the E6 and the proposed wetland along Göta älv. To make this connection possible the current street network has to be changed, to make sure to minimize disturbance on natural life. When doing this the changes in the network aims at strengthening the usability for soft movement and public transport.

Finally the E6 and other streets prevents water from reaching Göta älv. In order minimize negative impacts from future heavy rainfall a stream is introduced within the ecological corridor.

First and foremost these changes aims at improving the connections between natural areas, but it also aims at creating liveable areas where the built environment respects nature.

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The connection

The area that the masterplan is working with is strictly divided into different layers consisting of different functions; such as nature, residential, infrastructure etc. This division also results in a barrier effect preventing wildlife and nature to spread from the forests in the west to the proposed wetland in the east , and in the continuation across Göta älv.

This key project aims at breaking this barrier by introducing an ecological corridor as pointed out within the masterplan reaching from the forests in the west to the wetland in the east. To bridge the barriers an ecoduct is necessary.

Added nature Bridging the gap

Existing nature

This connection can be viewed as crucial since it would provide one of very few undisturbed connections over todays infrastructure and Göta älv, making it possible for animals and other species to move as they could do before human exploitation of the landscapes.

To make this connection possible to function as desired, the connection between nature and todays and proposed built environment is crucial. This key project will further explore and propose way forward.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Urban design proposal

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This project has mainly focused on the green corridor and how its surroundings should relate to it. To showcase the natures relation to the built environment the blocks closest to the green corridor has been developed within this key project.

Apart from what was pointed out in the masterplan, densification within the residential area west of E6 is proposed. Here the aim was to break the current structure by working towards creating smaller private gardens for the residents.

The green corridor stretches across what is today former industrial plots, fast food restaurants and a gas station. Just north and south of the green corridor there is today open grass fields, fields for spruce cultivation and space for agricultural plots/urban farming. These natural values has been of key importance within this project, particularly how they can develop and relate to the ecological corridor to create a suitable environment for both animals and human life. Within the master plan the nature within this area is proposed to be of a wilder character, in which human movement is more limited than in other parts of the master plan. This character is preserved within this key project, giving priority to wildlife and nature, while still aiming at creating a human scale development with accessible natural areas

On the eastern side of the highway, south of the green corridor, offices are proposed along the E6 and residential buildings facing the inner streets. Closest to the wetland development in the shape of townhouses is proposed to create a smooth transition between the built environment and the nature.

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East of the E6 and north of the green corridor was pointed out as industrial area within the master plan. Within this key project the first block is pointed out as suitable for urban farming instead of heavy industry, to better relate to the green corridor.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Main outdoor functions

1. Ecological corridor: The main part of this key project has been the ecological corridor/ecoduct which stretches from the forests in the west, down to Göta älv.

2. Spring: In the middle of the ecological corridor a spring is proposed as a way to carry rain water run off from the hills to Göta älv, a pond to slow down the flow is also proposed.

3. Extension of agricultural plots: To invite to human use of the southern part of the ecological corridor, an extension of current agricultural plots is proposed.

4. Urban farming: Just north of the ecological corridor the decision of keeping the industrial area was made in the master plan. To create a smoother transition between nature and industry, the first plot is proposed to be dedicated to urban farming.

5. Urban park/path: The slope leading up to the ecoduct, from the residential area east of the E6 is proposed to become an urban park, with seating and other relevant installations, in order to invite to human use of the southern part of the ecological corridor.

6. Green social corridor: Within the master plan a green social corridor was proposed stretching from west to east.

Here it is proposed to take a more park like shape, to strenghten the human use of the outoors in this otherwise quite wild forest landscape.

7. Current spruce cultivation 8. Farms: Just north of the ecological corridor there is a few farms of cultural and natural value which are proposed to be preserved.

9. Dense floodable forest: This part of the wetland is proposed to be of a wilder character, both within the masterplan and this key project, to prioritize wildlife.

10. Wetland: Where the ecological corridor meets Göta älv, the green area is proposed to be in the shape of a wetland, in order to invite biodiversity.

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The ecological corridor has the potential to bring natural and human life to the area.

But to function it needs support from its surroundings, meaning that the ecological corridor and its surroundings must work together. Below follows an explanation of the strongest “contributors”.

1. Agricultural plots: The extension of the agricultural plots are mainly proposed to attract human movement to the southern side of the ecological corridor, but they also have the potential of adding to the biodiversity of the area.

2. Farms: The western part of the ecological corridor is surrounded by farmlands.

Farmlands are very important for the biodiversity in Sweden and is home to a large part of Swedish natural species (WWF). By working together, the ecolocigal corridor can work as a safe passage for these species.

3. Spruce cultivation: This area provides a different environment for particular species to thrive. By having access to the ecological corridor they have the opportunity to spread.

4. Residential gardens: Private gardens has a large potential for creating environments that endangered species can live and thrive in. (Länsstyrelserna 2019, 2). Together with the ecological corridor this has the potential of strengthening the biodiversity.

5. Urban farming: As mentioned above, farmlands can contain a large biodiversity.

The urban farming plot can add and benefit from the surroundings through the ecological corridor.

6. Green buffer zone/wetland: This area is large enough to consist of a variety of habitats. This area as a whole will benefit and contribute to the surroundings. The ecological corridor provides the opportunity for species to move between here, and into the forests in the west and on the other side of Göta älv.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Distribution of flows

The main motorized movement will continue to be on the E6 motorway, passing straight through the area from south to north. On each side of the E6, the streets have been reworked in favour of non-motorized movement. Most of the streets allow for pedestrian and bikes to travel safely in their individual lanes/sidewalks. Apart from this the area already as it is today provides a relatively good street network for nonmotorized movement, but additions have been made in order to motivate people to travel without motorized vehicles. Closest to the river the where the ecological corridor is, the pedestrian movement is concentrated to one spot to not disturb animal movement

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One of the largest additions to the street network is the tram line, stretching through the master plan as a whole. The location of the tram line was decided to be central in the residential area in order to create movement in this otherwise relatively calm area, and by not proposing it to be located next to the green buffer zone/wetland a calmer natural area is achieved.

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One of the main initial focuses of this key project was to rework the road infrastructure in a way so that the ecological corridor and ecoduct gets disturbed by traffic and movement as little as possible.

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The approach was to concentrate most roads passing the ecoduct close to the E6 so that they all can be bridged simultaneously by the ecoduct. Some disturbance from smaller roads was viewed as acceptable.

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Roads within the former industrial area was of a scale no longer necessary since the proposed development is mainly residential and partially commercial/offices. Therefore larger scale infrastructural elements such as roundabouts are proposed to be replaced with smaller crossings that don’t take up as much space, the aim is also to limit motorized movement which a crossing does in a better way than a roundabout.

Furthermore, new and strengthened pedestrian and bike roads was implemented both within the proposed densification east of the E6, but also along the southern parts of the ecological corridor and ecoduct to create more attractive ways of moving in the area. A possibility for human movement across the ecoduct is also has the aim of creating stronger incentives for the construction of the ecoduct in itself.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Plot division

West of the E6 the densification is proposed to take place on individual plots separated from the larger original plot structure. The aim here was to create a clear distinction between private and public use, as a contrast to what today, with the large open yards, could be viewed as unclear. (fig 1) As Eva Minoura states in her research “Uncommon Ground”, the access to the yards, the size of the created spaces and how it relates to neighboring areas in the form of enclosure play a role in the territorial performance outcome. (p.19).

This view on spaces was taken into consideration when coming up with this proposal.

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East of the E6, apart from the industrial development, there are two distinctly different kind of block structures. West of the main road, apartment -and office development is proposed. The aim here was to create backyards that would be used all time of the day, either by office workers or by residents. The aim was to shared gardens, with an building extrusion creating a framed off private space only intended to be used by residents. (fig 2) The town house development consists of distinct private yards with the buildings being placed almost in line with the street and the main private gardens facing inwards.

Between the two rows of town houses a shared “club good” park/path is proposed in order to encourage interactions between neighbors. (fig 3)

Private good Club good Public good Fig 1

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As can be seen in the analysis below that were done for the masterplan, the movement within the area is predicted to be relatively limited. With this low amount of movement, no major commercial functions are suitable. Therefore the area is proposed to mainly consist of residential -and office buildings, with the exception for industrial development in the north and a part of the block neighboring the tram-stop that could be suitable for commercial use on the bottom floor, with the tram stop likely being a source of movement in itself.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Urban and natural rules

1. Along the E6 the development should be primarily offices within taller buildings.

The aim with this is to create a barrier against noise pollution from the heavily trafficked E6.

2. Within the area the development should be residential. Since movement within the area is estimated to be quite limited there is not much basis for commercial use in the bottom floors.

3. All buildings east of the E6 should have elevated first floors to allow for a higher degree of privacy within the housing units.

4. The buildings should decrease in scale in a gradient the further away from the E6, and the close to the wetland you get. The aim with this is to create a smooth transition between built environment and wilder nature.

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6. Human -south nature - north

6. To decrease disturbance of wildlife and nature human movement (both motorized and non motorized) should be concentrated to be able to be bridges by the ecoduct.

7. The width of the ecoduct allows for human movement to coexist with nature and wildlife. But to create a safe-zone for the nature and wildlife, human movement should be concentrated along the southern side of the ecoduct, transitioning into more wild nature as you move north

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Transition between built and nature Parts of this key project will on the following pages be explored in more detail.

The dashed line outlines these area. This includes the ecoduct, and how it relates to its surroundings and the proposed mixed use area east of the E6. These areas was chosen due to their central part within this key project, and how they function determines the outcome of the project as a whole.

The render below shows the area of transition between the built environment and the ecoduct. With the ecoduct itself being the edge/transition from the residential area to the industrial area.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Ecoduct sections

The ecological corridor stretches all the way from the forests in the west, down to the wetland by Göta älv in the east. In order for wildlife and humans to be able to cross todays heavy infrastructure the ecological corridor has to transition into an ecoduct.

To minimize the length of the ecoduct, the roads are proposed to be concentrated along the E6, to be able to be bridged all at once.

In order to achieve slopes that are accesible for everyone including disabled persons the ecoduct is proposed to be approximately 450 meters long. A wider spring is proposed to be dug out to carry rain water from the hills in the east, to Göta älv in the east. The spring should run in a tunnel underneath the ecoduct, and open at ground level in the other parts of the ecological corridor.

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Pedestrian/bike path on ecoduct visualization

This render is showing the pedestrian/bike path on top of the ecoduct, on the estern side of the E6. The path leads all the way down to Göta älv.

This path is where the human movement is thought to take place, and to the left in the picture the wilder nature part of the ecological corridor is located, in which animals and other species can move and thrive undisturbed by human activities.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Building sections The proposed densification within this key area is the edge of the proposed mixed use development within the master plan. North of the ecological corridor/ecoduct the current industrial area continues.

This makes this area particularly interesting, since it is dealing with a transition between two quite distinct uses.

The area consists of taller 5 story office/ commercial development with elevated first floors facing the E6, acting as a barrier against noise pollution from the heavy traffic.

On both sides of the areas main road the proposal consists of 3 story development with elevated first floors to increase the level of privacy within the housing units.

West of the main road the residential buildings consists of apartments, east of the main road development in the form of town houses is proposed.

The intention is to create a gradient of building scale as it transitions into nature, with the gardens of the town houses adding to the biodiversity of the area.

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Densification visualization

This conceptual render shows the residential and office development to the left, and the proposed town house development to the right.

Between these buildings a street with priority for pedestrian, bikers and public transport is proposed. The area is accessible by car, but they share the lanes with the proposed tram line, in order to decrease speed and car use. The aim with this is to create an area in which pedestrians and bikers can move freely.

The main entrances to the buildings are facing the main road with the intention of creating movement and possible spontaneous interactions between the areas residents.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Ecoduct sections

The southern side of the ecoduct and the ecological corridor is where human movement is mainly concentrated.

The road used by cars and trams passes underneath in a tunnel, neighbored by a bicycle path for those that want to take the quickest way ahead.

The ecoduct gently slopes towards the residential area with a landscaped path, creating an urban park atmosphere to invite people to use the ecoduct as a walking/ biking path. The slope takes a zig-zag pattern in order to achieve an incline that meets the standards of regulations regarding disabled accessibility in Sweden.

To achieve an ecoduct that is usable by humans at the same time as it provides a safe and undisturbed passage for animals the ecoduct has to be wide. During a tutoring with Oskar Kindvall a width between 60 and 100 meters was proposed in order for an ecological corridor/ecoduct to function with limited human movement. The width of the proposal is approximately 80 meters, which should be sufficient.

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Spongefication

Ecoduct slope visualization

This conceptual render shows the slope leading down toward the residential area from the ecoduct. As mentioned it is proposed to take a more park-like shape, in order to invite to human use of the southern parts of the ecoduct. It is of importance that this part of the ecoduct acts as a contrast to the wilder parts of the ecoduct to make it obvious that human movement is strived for and encouraged.

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BRIDGING THE GAP | Building density

Building density within the dashed lines are: FSI 1.15 GSI 0.31 OSR 0.6 Within the masterplan this key project area consisted of both high density development (FSI 1.5, GSI 0.3) and medium density development (FSI 0.6, GSI 0.2). The aim was to stay within the boundaries that the masterplan put out, and to achieve an area that of a medium density, with a relatively large amount of open space per resident/ user within the development itself.

The relatively high open space ratio value implies that the size of the outdoor space within the area is large in comparison to potential users, which was the aim given the areas relation to the city of Gothenburg and its low centrality overall.

The main entrances should be located along the main streets, to create as much movement as possible

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BIBLIOGRAPHY MasterPlan + Key Projects Allik, Martin (2021) Lecture Landscape Architecture and Urbn Ecosystems

Romice, O., Porta, S. and Feliciotti, A. (2020) Masterplanning for Change. 1st edn. RIBA Publishing.

Braubach, Matthias; Egorov, Andrey; Mudu, Pierpaolo; Wolf, Tanja; Thompson, W; Catharine; Martuzzi, Marco. (2017). Effects of Urban Green Space on Environmental Health, Equity and Resilience. Springer, Cham.

Thörn, Catharina; Holgersson, Helena. (2016). Revisiting the urban frontier through the case of New Kvillebäcken, Gothenburg, City.

Göteborgs stad. Göteborgs Stads arbete med klimatförändringar. https://goteborg.se/wps/portal/start/byggande-lantmateri-och-planarbete/kommunens-planarbete/verktygfor-stadsplanering-2/miljo-och-klimat-i-stadsplaneringen/ klimatforandringar-och-extremt-vader/stadens-arbete-medklimatforandringar (Accessed 2021-10-05).

Hoyer, Jacqueline; Dickhaut, Wolfgang; Kronawitter, Lukas; Weber, Björn. (2011). Water Sensitive Urban Design Principles and Inspiration for Sustainable Stormwater Management in the City of the Future. Berlin: Jovis jovis Verlag GmbH Kindvall, Oskar (2021) Lecture Urban Development and Biodiversity Länsstyrelsen Västra Götaland (2021) Riskhanteringsplan Göteborg 2022 – 2027. https://www.lansstyrelsen.se/dow nload/18.3b289fbb1791c77a3a3156/1619685458991/ Samr%C3%A5dsunderlag%20-%20G%C3%B6teborgs%20 riskhanteringsplan.pdf (Accessed 2022-01-12).

Sweco Environment AB (2016) Rapport Granskning av genomförd kostnads-nyttoanalys av översvämningsatgärder i Göteborgs Stads Hydromodell samt förslag till värderingsmetodik. https://goteborg.se/wps/wcm/connect/ cbbd5d75-ab31-42d2-9df7-e51d6acd25dd/2_KNA+%C3 %B6versv%C3%A4mningar+G%C3%B6teborg+160527. pdf?MOD=AJPERES (Accessed 2022-01-12).

Workman, James (2017) Sponge cities: can China’s model go global? https://www.thesourcemagazine.org/sponge-citiescan-chinas-model-go-global/ (Accessed 2022-01-12).

World Future Council (2016) Sponge Cities: What is it all about? https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/sponge-citieswhat-is-it-all-about/ (Accessed 2022-01-12).

WWF. (2021). WWF arbetar för ett hållbart jordbruk. WWF. https://www.wwf.se/mat-och-jordbruk/hallbart-jordbruk/ (accessed 2021-01-05)

Länsstyrelsen. (2019). Receptsamling för biologisk mångfald i parker och trädgårdar.

Minoura, Eva. (2016). Uncommon Ground : Urban Form and Social Territory (PhD dissertation)

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General context Masterplan Spatial analysis / Proposal Network Land use Social cohesion Green/Blue structures Gentrification Comparison Angular Integration Network Betweenness Key projects

Cornelia Ahlstedt Maja Lindroth Matilda Svensson Tove Wik

GENERAL CONTEXT

This project takes place on Hisingen, north of Gothenburg city centre. The transformation area (red) includes parts of Kvillebäcken, Hildedal, Aröd and Frihamnen, involving known places such as Backaplan and Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen.

The vision for future Gothenburg development is “a sustainable city, open for the world”, achieved through three strategic goals: creating proximity, cohesiveness and resilience.

(Hulting, Gustavsson & Olsson, 2021). Major transformations on Hisingen and along the Göta älv river bank are recently finished, under construction or upcoming.

Today, the area is planned for and dominated by car dependency, the related car-sequences and infrastructure.

The land is used for industrial and commercial interests accommodated in low buildings. The built structures on the

Traffic-dominance

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Green background but no access

site have different characters, the unit footprint is smaller in the north and bigger in south. These typologies also differ in character from the connecting areas. This is illustrated in the map to the right where the physical elements (buildings) have been inverted and instead shows the corresponding pattern of spatial elements in black, e. i. “negative space”, similar to an example by Hillier (Hillier, 1996). In reality, the current ratio of white/black is experienced as undefined space.

The prime potentials for transformations in the area are 1. the central geographic location in line with a logic expansion pattern, 2. the amount of residents (158 000, 2020) moving in the area, 3. sewing Hisingen together internally as well as with the mainland 4. marking of the entry/departure of Hisingen.

Designed for the car

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Topographically, the area is situated in a valley, defined by the assets of wooded mountains in the east and west, Hökällan nature reserve in the north and Göta älv in the south. A stream called Kvillebäcken crosses the site diagonally.

These green-blue assets are restricted by man made infrastructure which all together creates barrier effects, generating isolated land use islands.

The highways are important for regional connectivity, which is reflected by the establishment of global economic clusters.

These connections, however, generate local barrier effects.

The broader context Project area Main roads Ongoing development Ferry

Proportion of spaces

FIGURE 1. Aerial photo underlay, scale 1:70 000. Download, raster ©Lantmäteriet (2021)

General context

”Negative space” Buildings

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MASTERPLAN | A development towards a humane Backaplan-Aröd

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The vision with this masterplan is to shift the hierarchy between human and infrastructure; prioritizing human scale movement. Hence this project is a proposal for a masterplan with the focus on reducing the physical and perceived barriers created by infrastructure existing in the area today.

3 - Strengthen social ties 4 - Strengthen green and blue structures.

Based on site visits and space syntax analysis four main problems with the area were stated: 1 - Weak connections 2 - Isolated and monofunctional land use 3 - Social disconnection 4 - Invisible and inaccessible nature.

The masterplan shows a new network, strengthened green areas and developed land use, with new housing, commercial spaces and offices. One important action is to remove the car access to Lundbyleden from Brantingsmotet. As the “street spaghetti” (slip roads) is removed, a simplified city centre connection in human scale is enabled, with potential to become a welcoming entrance to Hisingen.

These four aims form the base of the proposed masterplan and together they intend to realize the vision.

In order to develop Backaplan-Aröd in line with the vision, an aim for each of the problems was formulated.

1 - A cohesive network 2 - Cohesive and mixed land use

Based on the proposed density, assuming two residents per dwelling with an average area of 100 sqm, the masterplan makes room for a total of approximately 18 000 new residents.

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Added/strengthened green/blue structures Kvillebäcken / Ponds New ecological park Urban farming / Allotment Sport areas New green areas Existing green areas Main land use Housing Housing, offices and commercial Public building Public square Offices Exisiting commercial and industrial area with potential for future development Existing, saved land use Number of levels 2-3 3-5 6-8 FSI* A B C D E F

1.8-2.5 1.0-1.7 0.8-1.3 0.6-1.3 0.4 0.4-0.6

13 000 < New residents < 22 300 (two residents per dwelling assumed)

*block/island including streets

Masterplan

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SPATIAL ANALYSIS | Weak connections

Backaplan-Aröd is surrounded by large roads that have a big importance on a regional and national level. These roads show up as more red on the Network Betweenness map while the streets within the area have a low level of betweenness apart from the few existing East-West connections (similar to a “bridge-effect”). Backaplan-Aröd appears as an isolated island within a bigger network you can easily pass by, but not through. It is affected, as described by van Eldijk (2021), by the “accessibility paradox” which is when “motorways and railways increase regional and urban accessibility but often reduce local accessibility.”

The street system [network] appears to have gradually expanded to support the buildings, and is well adapted to car use, similar to other industrial areas close by, e. g. Ringön and

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Bäckebol. Compared to the immediate housing districts, this fabric is very large scale and weak in its form and connections.

Although these larger roads are important and have a potential to be connected to the area, Hillier (1996) writes that also fine structures of the grid give rise to inter-relation between grid structures. Further, Hillier points out the street grid as the single most power determinant of urban movement.

Looking at the integration map it is clear that Backaplan-Aröd is lacking the fine structure grid as well as good connection to surrounding areas which is the reason for the island effect or as Legeby et al. (2015) puts it: a ruptured interface between local and global accessibility.

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Network Betweeness 5k < 2 760 000 2 760 000 - 10 000 000 10 000 000 - 23 500 000 > 23 500 000

Spatial analysis I Network

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PROPOSAL | A cohesive network

In order to create a more cohesive network, the internal network needs to be strengthened as well as the connection to the surrounding areas.

In the handbook, Romice et al (2020) defines different street types which have been used in this project; High speed, Urban main, Local main and Local. In the project area the first step is to add a new Urban main street connecting Litteraturgatan in the East to Björlandavägen in the West. The section in the bottom left corner shows the main characteristics of this street with traffic separation, greenery and ground floors for commercial and public usage.

The second step is to introduce a Local main street running North to South through the area which will be important for the internal connections. In the southern part this street looks very much like the Urban main, while up north it is narrower and without ground floor activities as seen in the right section.

Lastly a finer grid is added creating better conditions for development through movement within the area.

The network is more small-scale compared to before which gives better conditions for human scale accessibility. The direction of the streets and how they meet surrounding networks makes the area easy to navigate through and creates clear vision to where the street is heading.

Legend Pedestrians Cyclists Traffic Parking Greenery + water management

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Section A-A

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Network Betweenness 5k - Proposal B B

New network High speed road Existing road elevation Urban main road (outside project area) Urban main road Local main road character A Local main road character B Directions to connect areas

Proposal I Network

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SPATIAL ANALYSIS | Isolated and mono-functional islands

Within the project area, the plots are big and one use only, e. i. “mono-functional”. The map to the right illustrates the current land use. One obvious reflection is how non-residential land use frames established areas from Brunnsbo and up North.

The majority of the plots in this zone consist of huge hardened surfaces, which is good for parking but undesired for humans and ecology.

Two types of land isolation were identified. The first happens when land uses are located on opposite sides of an infrastructure. When infrastructure divides land it requires crossings, which makes the infrastructure a physical barrier.

The second type happens when large plots or several monofunctional plots together make big areas inaccessible. One example is when functions on big plots have a need to fence the property with barbed wire making the land impossible to move through, resulting in detours and perceived impression of unsafety as consequences.

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Through the process four conclusions have been made regarding physical and perceived barriers.

1. Infrastructure itself isn’t automatically a barrier, but becomes one when creating unwanted separation of two destinations 2. That physical barriers or additional structures can cause perceived barriers 3. That physical built or natural barriers from land use should be possible to decrease by planning 4. Perceived barriers seem to emerge from either missing structures or emotional connection, metric/topographic distance or irrational feelings.

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Current land use Residential land use Residential - workspace commercial land use Workspace land use Public land use

Spatial analysis I Land use

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PROPOSAL | Cohesive and mixed land use

Cohesiveness is the opposite of the current situation. To achieve this, a combination of built form and land use is proposed. Built form and land use have a great potential to erase the issue of missing structures and therefore decrease perceived barriers.

Buildings can be arranged in a continuous structure, and by the form create cohesive urban space. Where there is potential for concentration of movement and a need to direct flows, support movement and create defined space, generally the density and building heights are higher. Building heights are lower towards Kvilletråket to provide better sun conditions and a human scale de-escalation in the intersection of it.

Closed- or semi closed blocks are suitable for facing streets and framing courtyards in integrated areas. Units towards Kvillestråket are also closed in order to separate public leisure

from private yards, which otherwise could be fluent and unclear. Open blocks are suitable where the integration is lower.

It has been of interest to not create new central land use barriers, and also review the existing ones (where interventions are unproportionate or unjustified) as preconditions.

In the new plan, land use has been transformed from big monofunctional islands into a smoother, smaller scaled land use for housing, commercial, industrial, public and greenery purposes.

The section below illustrates how commercial and workspace functions (currently land use) is integrated in buildings along the main streets on the lower floors. Along Lundbyleden, office buildings create a buffer zone towards the residential area and are at the same time close to public transport.

Legend Housing Offices Commercial

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Buildings along the main streets have a closed building typology to create a distinction between higher movement and calm neighbourhood, but also to bring a continuous silhouette along the streets for easy orientation.

Main land use Housing Housing, offices and commercial Public building Public square Offices Fixed street GSI* A B C D E F

Number of levels

0.31 0.27 0.34 0.19-0.26 0.21 0.20

2-3 3-5 6-8

*block/island including streets

Proposal I Land use

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SPATIAL ANALYSIS | Social disconnection

The Angular Integration analysis of the current situation shows an in general weak network in the area. Neighbourhoods have become separated and introverted clusters with low opportunities for movement between them. Today there is a sharp border where the local (the neighbourhood square) meets the large-scale anonymity (Gothenburg city center) and since all the neighbourhoods are the same scale, offering similar environments and services, there are little reasons for interaction between them.

Legeby et al. (2015) points out the importance of a variety of situations of co-presence in public space as they are all playing a crucial role for development of social inclusion and cohesion.

Attraction Distance Address to Schools < 0,5 0,5 - 1 1-2 2 - 5 [km]

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Thus, what is missing in the area is this variety of urban life: a nuance between the local and the anonymous large-scale; an intermediate stage where the neighbourhoods meet each other, a common meeting place for the area.

The weak network within the area and lack of public meeting places leads to a social disconnection and lack of the feeling of belonging. Also the weak connection to the south side of Göta Älv created by barriers such as the river itself, infrastructure and industrial areas create a social disconnection to central Gothenburg. Even though the physical distance is short the perceived distance becomes high.

Attraction Reach Address to Local markets 0 0-1 1-3 3-5 >5

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Angular Integration 2k < 150 150 - 280 280 - 415 415 - 570 570 - 740 740 - 965 > 965

Spatial analysis I Social cohesion

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PROPOSAL | Strengthened social ties

To Strengthen the social ties a nuanced public urban life is developed in the area. Three notions for urban life is created: “mine”, “ours” and ”everyone’s” where a “mine” place stands for the local small-scale in the neighbourhood and “everyone’s” stands for a place that belongs to everyone and accounts for the large context and anonymity. “Ours” place is what is in between these two, a larger social context than your neighbourhood, where both primary and secondary relations are present. This creates conditions for a strengthened community and sense of belonging in an area.

and left for bottom-up development. A “mine”-place can be a smaller public square, a local park or a group of seatings along a street.

Fixed public places in the categories of “ours” and “everyone’s” are added at locations where people from different areas will pass by, based on analyses. Places desribed as “mine” are flexible and will develop together with the people bringing life to the area. Small social spots for interaction are difficult and unneccessary to define at this scale of planning, but are flexible

As the land use transformation develops the former industrial and commercial area of Backaplan-Aröd into mainly housing, analysis shows the need for increased access to services.

Hence new local markets and schools are introduced in the area. Two preschools, one elementary school and one upper secondary school are added.

Attraction Distance Address to Schools < 0,5 0,5 - 1 1-2 2 - 5 [km]

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Analyzes of the new network were made to determine where these different types of public places should be located as the level of mix of urban life in public space is encouraged by closeness to streets with high centrality, well integrated neighbouring areas, centrality at different scales and spatial reach (Legeby, 2021).

Attraction Reach Address to Local markets 0 0-1 1-3 3-5 >5

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Angular Integration 2k - Proposal

Added social spots Public building School Sports / Recreational area

Square, everyone (fixed) Square, ours (fixed)

Proposal I Social cohesion

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SPATIAL ANALYSIS | Invisible and inaccessible nature

The green structure in the area always seems distant, usually present to some extent but never accessible. The current access to green entrance analysis underlines this false perception of green showing how few households that have a green area close by.

Analysis of the current situation shows a great potential in Kvillestråket that runs through the whole Backaplan- Aröd area, not only for ecological benefits but also the social aspect of closeness to green and blue structures. Today this stream already has a walking path running along it, but it is fairly hidden and surrounded by industry and car parks making it poorly integrated and not that enjoyable.

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It is important while developing this area to bring forward the existing green and add new green patches and corridors.

Colding et al. (2021) proposes that local neighborhoods should be “dense enough” without compromising on vital green elements and thereby deal with the negative effects on the environment and human well-being that could come with densification.

As this area is at risk of flooding from rising sea levels and stormwater, making space for green structures is a simple approach to deal with this. Adding trees, reducing hard surfaces also has benefits for reducing the heat island effect that can occur in dense cities (Colding et al., 2021).

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HISINGSPARKEN

ARÖDSBERGET

KEILLERS PARK

Flooding risk in the area (Göteborg Stad)

Attraction Reach - Green entrances < 100 100-200 200-300 300-500 > 500

Spatial analysis I Green and blue structures

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PROPOSAL | Strengthened green and blue structures

The plan of creating better integrated blue and green structures in the area is taking off from Kvillestråket, which has been referred to as the green spine. By giving it more space, strengthening green patches and better integrating the walking path into the grid increases its value as a green route connecting north to south and also decreases the distance between residents and green areas. Kvillestråket is also meeting perpendicular running green streets acting as important social corridors connecting green areas.

creating a calmer zone.This brings a different characteristic to Kvillestråket that focuses more on the ecological aspect where connecting to the natural reserve in the north.

Beyond the social benefits gained from Kvillestråket it also has a positive effect on heat reduction, water management and not the least its ecological value. To strengthen the latest the walking path is being reduced from running on both sides of the stream in the south to only one side towards the north

Further other urban parks have been added along with an area for urban farming and sports areas, with a higher social value. Ponds have been added to reduce the effect of future floodings.

In the South the stream ends near Frihamnen which has been transformed to an urban park which holds importance for a greater area in the city due to its central location. Given its size this park can become a diverse place both social and ecological.

Though the functions have not been specified at this stage.

Section A-A

Section B-B

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Added/strengthened green/blue structures Kvillebäcken / Ponds Public parks (Social + Ecological) Ecological parks Urban farming / Allotment areas Sport areas Buffert zone (close to roads)

Proposal I Green and blue structures

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GENTRIFICATION | A discussion

Gentrification is a phenomenon where either an entire district or an area undergoes a character change. The change makes the area more attractive, which leads to an increase in property value and therefore rent. (Andersson & Collby, 2019) Users with lower socioeconomic status are forced to move out.

(Hedin, 2010) The picture belows illustrates two processes.

Gentrification often happens in “urban fronts”; districts close to the city centre which are cheap and uninvested. These areas can have a worn and plain appearance but be fully functional.

A municipality has the right to control how the land in the municipality is used, even if they do not own it (Thörn et al, 2016). The combination of an urban front project area and the possibility to control the conditions in it makes the masterplan powerful.

Legend Industry Commercial

To begin, we did an inventory of the existing buildings and functions. From a perspective of urban form elements, the buildings and functions are the most temporary after public space, streets and plots and topography.

We identified two categories of functions: industry and commercial. In the commercial category there are two types; big chains with national spread and smaller local. The conclusion was that big chains could be moved to a bigger global economic location, e. g. along E6, and industries dependent on the area could be rearranged internally. Our estimation points out the small commercial being most sensitive due to established local customer relations. In an attempt to approach and “control” the gentrification we set up a simple toolbox with measures for a planner. It’s Preconditions, Network, Land use, Block and Phases. They are illustrated and described on the next page.

Two types of gentrification processes: 1. “The classic gentrification” is a process over time where investments in the existing structure makes an area attractive (Andersson & Collby, 2019). We perceive that this is what happens in e.g. Ringön, starting bottom up.

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2. “The new-build-gentrification” which basically is when the city points out an area and rearranges the structure completely.

This has happened in Kvillebäcken (Andersson & Collby, 2019), a process starting top down. The situation of Kvillebäcken is described in the book “Den urbana fronten” which we have taken part of and reflect on later.

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1. Preconditions - Nature and topography around should not be exploited further, making it fixed land use and “determining” or “beneficial barrier”. Also important regional infrastructure is viewed as fixed. Within the area, we have 2 areas that have these fixed conditions in 3 directions, making eventual changes around unlikely and/or low impact.

2. Network - by reviewing what the surrounding neworks is and could be, 2 big clusters are marked out with potential for high/ low future centrality. This is an attempt to create “controlled” gentrification supported by the context.

3. Phases - setting up a phase plan (to the right) is an important step. This would save the sensitive areas for many years trying to imitate classic gentrification and slower change instead of sudden extinction.

increased segregation and widened gaps (Andersson & Collby, 2019).

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“Den urbana fronten” is a book by Despotovic and Thörn (2015) about the extinction of Kvillebäcken’s diverse functions.

It tells a tragic story of local clusters and people run over by the power of politics and media. The plan we propose would have a similar effect, especially just north of Kvillebäcken. This has been our biggest hassle. The development significantly moves the periphery. One could think gentrification is a natural part of development and inevitable, especially when trying to solve the lack of dwellings. At the same time, erasing big areas of established functions obviously have a negative impact on the local (and global) context and cause unjustified resource waste. We understand that it’s a paradox and matter of interest balance, and a difficult and sometimes contradicting yet required discussion to bring.

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4. Land use - Within the project area we decided to keep the few existing housing units, buildings with possibility to be retrofitted and 2 bigger areas for maintained industrial/ commercial use.

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5. Block - densify low developed industrial areas by moving industry/commercial within the area.

From centrality analysis we understand the complexity of the city as a system when altering a network at one location, the conditions don’t only change in point A, but also between A-B and further. Altering the network in A therefore entails potentials and risks (and gentrifies) areas beyond B where no development is made. Gentrification seems to have both positive and negative effects. Positive perspectives mentioned are e. g. stabilizing worn areas, improving conditions for development and increasing user diversity. Negative perspectives are e.g. anger and local conflicts, displaced commercial and industrial functions (Hedin, 2010) as well as

Gentrification I A discussion

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Legend Precondition fixed land use Precondition changing land use Border in 3 directions Potential for low long term centrality Potential for high centrality

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COMPARISON I Angular Integration In the current situation the integration in the project area is weak for both 2 and 5k. In the new proposed network the integration values increases for the whole area. As seen in the analyzes for the proposal the new network also influence the integration values for connecting areas such as Kvillebäcken, Brunnsbo and Ringön.

The new proposed network in BackaplanAröd works as a connector of the larger city network instead of a divider as the old network was.

The higher centrality created with the new network around Backaplan gives potential for an economic cluster to appear as both the accessibility and the amount of people moving around is high. Further north in Aröd the lower integration values creates other conditions for development and urban life as the area is less accessible and movement of people will be lower, which i turn also creates the conditions for what building typologies and functions that should be placed in the area.

Current situation 2k, non-motorised

Proposal 2k, , non-motorised

Current situation 5k

Proposal 5k, non-motorised

Angular Integration 2k < 150 150 - 280 280 - 420 420 - 580 580 - 750 750 - 970 > 970

Angular Integration 5k < 400 400 - 740 740 - 1100 1100 - 1500 1500 - 1950 1950 - 2400 > 2400

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COMPARISON I Network Betweenness The current network generates high betweenness on the bigger roads surrounding Backaplan and in the northsouth directed road existing for both 2 and 5k. In the proposed network a clearer northsouth direction appears as well as additional east west connections, especially on the more local 2k scale.

The streets with higher betweenness are expecting to have a large flow of people and their layout has therefore been designed to meet a higher demand with clear biking and walking paths. They also mark the new urban and local main street in the masterplan.

Current situation 2k

Proposal 2k

In the south the high betweenness streets coincide with a high accessibility. Those streets hold a commercial value and the possibility for such functions have been added in the masterplan, with a concentration on the streets that show up as red on both 2 and 5k.

Network Betweenness 2k < 5 000 5 000 - 50 000 50 000 - 1 000 000 > 1 000 000

Network Betweenness 5k

Current situation 5k

Comparison

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< 2 760 000 2 760 000 - 10 350 000 10 350 000 - 23 500 000 > 23 500 000

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KEY PROJECTS

There are several interesting places to illustrate with a higher level of detailing. These involve connections with existing areas, nodes within the area and integration of nature where network, built form and the public space intersect.

1. The first project highlights a new street going from east to west, through Aröd’s industrial area, and its function as a social and ecological link 2. The second key project focuses on an “our’s” place where an Urban main street, a Local main street and Kvillestråket intersect in a public square.

4. The fourth project focuses an “everyone’s” place along the connection between Hisingsbrons northern bank seat and Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen.

With these four ideas of possible key projects we try to cover aspects that are characteristic and important for this masterplan as a whole. By highlighting the importance of developing nuances of social nodes, green and blue structures and new housing areas, the master plan will be extended with more detailed strategies that goes in line with the vision of developing Backaplan-Aröd into a cohesive and human-scale area.

3. The third key project focuses on Kvillestråket, a green space that goes through areas of varying character and where social and ecological systems coincides.

Bibliography Hulting Gustavsson, A. Olsson, A. (21-09-2021) New comprehensive plan for Gothenburg. [Unpublished manuscript] Göteborgs stad.

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Despotovic, K. Thörn, C. (2015) Den urbana fronten - En dokumentation av makten över staden. Arkitektur förlag.

Hedin, K. (2010) Gentrifiering, socialgeografisk polarisering och bostadspolitiskt skifte. [Licentiate thesis, Lund University] Research Portal.

Hillier, B. (1996). Space is the machine: A configurational theory of architecture.

[E-book]. Space Syntax.

https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/ws/files/3031131/1608693.pdf

Legeby, A. Berghauser Pont, M. Marcus, L. (2015). Street Interaction and Social Inclusion. In L. Vaughan (Ed.), Suburban Urbanities: Suburbs and the Life of the High Street (pp. 239-262). UCL Press

Thörn, C. Krusell, M. Widehammar, M. (2016). Rätten att bo kvar - en handbok i organisering mot hyreshöjningar och gentrifiering. Koloni förlag. http://www. rattattbokvar.se/Ratt_att_bo_kvar_2016.pdf

Colding, J., Marcus, L., Gren, Å., Legeby, A., Berghauser Pont, M., Barthel, S., Samuelsson, K. ( 2021). Cities: Frontiers in social-ecological urbanism. [Unpublished manuscript]. The Beijer institute of Ecological Economics

Images

Andersson, J. Collby, I. (2019) Planprocessen utifrån ett gentrifieringsperspektiv - En studie med gentrifiering i fokus för fyra stadsdelar i Göteborg [Master thesis, Högskolan Väst]. Diva-portal Archive. http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/ diva2:1339960/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Figure 1. Modified from Lantmäteriet. (2021). Min karta. Scale 1:70 000. [Aerial photo] https://minkarta.lantmateriet.se

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Images without notes are produced by the authors.

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Key projects

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ARÖDSGATAN TOVE WIK In the site analysis, Aröd’s industrial area was pointed out as a barrier. The aim of this key project is to transform the barrier into a social and ecological link with focus on a new east-west connection,

Problem description

This key project area is situated in Aröd’s industrial area, where the masterplan has determined that one side will be developed into a new residential area and the other will keep its current industrial function. Although the masterplan shows a uniform character at this location, with residential land use within a strict grid, analyzes show that the grid is not neutral.

Hierarchies arise and local potentials are highlighted.

The project will present an urban design proposal, focused on the new street going from east to west through the highlighted area, the so-called Arödsgatan. Along the path, the street’s local conditions will be manifested in the built form, as it goes through a new residential area, a strengthened public park, a preserved ecological park and an existing industrial area. By differentiating the area based on spatial analyses, nuances of social and ecological activities can evolve and be linked together.

Today, the area is planned for and dominated by cars, which is reflected in its large-scale network and the proportion of hard surfaces. In the site analysis, Aröd’s industrial area was pointed out as a barrier, covering a large undefined area with mono-functional land use which divides this part of the city into isolated islands. The barrier is a problem for the physical cohesion, but also for the perceived feeling based on safety and permission.

The vision of the masterplan is to shift the hierarchy between humans and infrastructure and a crucial part of this is to reduce the physical and perceived barriers on a human scale.

New east-west connections play an important role in this shift and this key project highlights one of those.

Development area Preserved industrial area

Arödsgatan

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ARÖDSGATAN | Context

In the development area, a finer grid is proposed by the masterplan. To get an understanding of the area, spatial analyses have been applied to visualize the street’s local properties and the relation between urban form and human behavior. This differentiation set the framework for the urban design proposal.

Angular Integration highlights core areas that are well connected in the network based on their closeness to other places. They showcase how many people that will use the street, with the color red representing the highest value and blue the lowest. The key project area is situated in the middle of this gradient.

Network Betweenness shows how people will move within the proposed network. Streets that will be passed through

the most as people move between places are highlighted in a brighter red color. They represent the shortest paths. In the analyses, the main street going from north to south appear.

Options for moving in an east-west direction are limited and therefore, the few existing ones are highlighted.

The maps below illustrate proximity, in this case the distance from addresses to the nearest green area entrance, for the current situation and for the proposal. By strengthening Kvillestråket, the resident’s proximity to parks increases, both for those within the development area but also for residents in the surrounding areas. This showcases the importance of connecting to Kvillestråket in an east-west direction. It also shows the potential of creating an area where nature is present, a quality for social and ecological reasons.

Attraction Reach - Green entrances < 100 100-200 200-300 300-500 > 500

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In the masterplan, a finer grid is added to 100000 - 200000 parts of the industrial area. Analyses to the left illustrate the properties of the new 200000 - 500000 network in the context.

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ARÖDSGATAN | Aim

The aim of the key project is to transform the barrier into a human-scale link, with a focus on social and ecological values.

Arödsgatan has the potential to strengthen the spatial relation between neighboring areas due to its position in the network.

Legeby et al. (2015) point out that streets also have the potential to be an important public space for interplay.

With whom we share the street is an important factor related to social inclusion. Being a link that unites different parts of the city, the future Arödsgatan offers the opportunity for

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encounters between locals and non-locals. The street does not only function as transportation but is also an opportunity for social relations if it provides materialized preconditions by the urban form. (Legeby et al., 2015) Spatial analyses will describe the diverse conditions along the new street and the proposed interventions will enhance its local qualities, by means of different building typologies and suitable functions.

In order to translate the aims into a proposal, some design strategies were implemented.

Shifting scales

Design strategies 1. Humanize the area by decreasing the scale of the network and the built structure.

2. Differentiate the network and open spaces to create nuances of social and ecological activities.

3. Make nature present and create green continuity, to strengthen social and ecological values.

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NB_5k 0 - 1000 000 100000 0 - 500 0000 500000 0 - 800 0000 800000 0 - 1500 0000 150000 00 - 20 0 0 0000 200000 00 - 22 360734

ARÖDSGATAN | Urban design proposal

The map to the right shows the urban design proposal with the interventions within the dashed lines. The area has been fragmented into a finer network with small-scale buildings. The AI_5k human-scale movement has been prioritized.

1 - 467

Network Betweenness 5k

Nuances of urban 4life can be created if the local qualities are 67 - 3 7 enhanced by the 1urban11form.

The analyses have been a tool 137 - 15 10 and chosen building typologies, for the placement of functions 15 - 1 908 has the required conditions to to ensure that the10location 1908 - 2 generate the desired outcome.

Four different settings can be 329 2329 form: - 2807along main roads and public places, identified in the built 2807with in the intersection - 359the 9 park, along less integrated and thereby calmer streets and in the industrial area.

Nature is made accessible and visible by opening up towards Kvillestråket. Openings between blocks in the fragmented structure strengthen the green continuity in the ecological network.

Network. (next page) Spatial analyses make the street hierarchy visible. With this information, interventions can consciously be designed to create a varied area with the concentration of movement as a navigating factor.

Angular Integration 5k

The highlighted street going from north to south will function as the main connector through the area. It is wide and provides space for cars, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport.

Enclosure and building height increase along this street and the adjacent square.

One step into the neighborhood the streets are less accessible in relation to the network as a whole. Therefore, it will capture less movement, hence it has the potential to be a calmer part of the area where mainly residents move. Here, the streets are narrower and the built structure is more open.

The path along Kvillestråket will, according to analyses, not be used as the shortest path since it is located on the edge.

The park path will rather function as a destination that one chooses to stroll through. Here, only pedestrians and cyclists are allowed.

Density and functions. (next page) An awareness of how people will move within the grid is helpful when deciding functions that are suitable for the location. The key project area is situated a bit in the periphery, thus the location is suitable for housing.

The distribution of buildings is concentrated along main paths in means of building height and footprint. Some plots along the most used streets offer mixed functions, but the potential for commerce is limited. Plots that allow ground-floor activity around the square are of different sizes in order to enable a variety of services to establish. An elementary school is added to the site to make use of the calm environment in connection to well-integrated streets.

The area has a low density. With a high open space ratio, which indicates a low pressure on non-built space, and proximity to Kvillestråket, the area has the potential to keep a green continuity that supports the ecological network.

Legend Development area New buildings Existing buildings

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Street hierarchy Car dead end Only pedestrians and cyclists Local street Local main street Existing street Urban main street

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Density (within the dashed lines) GSI: 0,2 FSI: 0,6 Floors (average): 3 OSR: 1,3 Function Residential Mixed use Commerce Public building (school F-9, library)

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ARÖDSGATAN | A sequence along the street

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The local square. The square has the potential to be an arena for co-presence of a variety of social groups as it is located where two streets that capture movement from surrounding areas cross. Added public functions that attract non-locals, such as a school and sports facilities, and unprogrammed space for casual and unplanned social arrangements support the opportunity for co-presence and social relations. (Legeby et al., 2015) Along the main street, a bus stop is added which provide good access to Hisingen’s city center, Backaplan, south of the area.

Minoura (2016) points out the size of the yard as a determinant for how frequent it is used. Usage is also connected to the sense of ownership, which increases with enclosure. Due to the low density, the buildings might not be enough to create distinct territorial borders since the coverage is low. To clarify territories, the built structure can be supported by means of vegetation, smaller structures or heigh differences.

Towards the local main street and the public square, the built enclosure and the number of floors increases, to create a clear distinction between public and private. On the opposite side, the buildings are lower and fragmented. Based on Eva Minoura’s research on territorial borders in residential areas, differentiation of open space is made to support a variation of social life (Minoura, 2016). Row houses with private yards surround an open space that is secluded from the public but shared.

The social park. When Arödsgatan reaches Kvillestråket, its character changes and becomes a pedestrian and bicycle path, inaccessible for cars. The buildings back off from the street and open up to the public park, freely positioned as low point houses. A fragmented built structure with openness between yards and the park strengthens the ecological cohesion, where different types of greenery interconnect.Territorial borders are clarified with a height difference between the yard and the park.

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Section A-A, The local square

Section B-B, The social park

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ARÖDSGATAN | A sequence along the street

The ecological park. The eastern side of Kvillestråket will become an ecological park and should therefore be undisturbed. There are no roads along the stream and Arödsgatan is intended for walking and cycling only.

The industrial area. For the preserved industrial area, the existing street is complemented with a separate walking and bicycle path to promote movement on a human scale. Analyses show a low integration but a relatively high betweenness, due to the fact that it is one of few connections in this east-west direction.

for developing buildings with ground floor activity along the street to make it livelier and more defined, which improves navigation. This site offers larger plots, which can provide space for services such as a larger grocery store which the surrounding areas can benefit from, in form of resources and opportunities for labor.

The condition of the street, enhanced by the added functions in the built structure, offers an opportunity for encounters between residents and strangers. Legeby et al. (2015) point out that co-presence of a variety of social groups, between locals and non-locals, is a crucial part of maintaining urban safety and social inclusion.

To increase the feeling of safety when passing through the area, this path needs some activation. The proposal opens up

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Shifting scales

Section C-C, The ecological park

Section D-D, The industrial area

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ARÖDSGATAN | A social and ecological link

The essence of the proposal is summarized in the following urban rules: 1. Create green continuity to strengthen the ecological network and open up towards Kvillestråket to make nature accessible and visible.

2. Activate the street going through the industrial area, to create a more defined route that allows movement on a human scale.

3. Concentrate enclosure and increase the building height along main streets and public spaces to create a clear distinction between public and private.

4. Create nuances of social life with private gardens, common yards and public places.

With spatial analyses as a framework, decisions for an urban development can be supported. Services need a flow of people while a recreational park can benefit from the opposite. By being aware of the variety of conditions created by the grid itself, conscious design decisions can be made with arguments based on analyses. Nuances within the grid can be enhanced by the urban form, hence nuances of urban life can evolve.

In this key project the differentiation of the network is highlighted as we move along one street going through different settings with unique conditions. The focus has been directed towards how its character changes, in the function of the street and its surrounding built form, as the interventions enhance local qualities. With support of analyses, design interventions have transformed the barrier into a social and ecological link.

References Legeby, A. Berghauser Pont, M. Marcus, L. (2015). Street Interaction and Social Inclusion. In L. Vaughan (Ed.), Suburban Urbanities: Suburbs and the Life of the High Street (pp. 239-262). UCL Press Minoura, E. (2016). Uncommon Ground. (Doctoral thesis, KTH, Department of Architecture and Built Environment. Stockholm.

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Shifting scales

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MEETING AT “OURS“ CORNELIA AHLSTEDT This key project focuses on developing an “ours” place where an Urban main street, a Local main street and Kvillestrå ket intersect in a public square. The project aims to create a social-

General context

The area of this key project covers an area that is defined by the proposed masterplan to become what we call an “ours” place. The masterplan is founded on the idea to shift the hierarchy between human and infrastructure to create a more cohesive and human-scale area, as the area for the masterplan today is focused around car use.

The site for the key project is located on Hisingen in the area of Backaplan and Aröd.

Today the area for the key project is an industrial and commercial area with large-scale shopping which, by the masterplan, is proposed to change to a mixed use area more suitable for human scale movement and activities. The masterplan suggests an Urban main street and a Local main street which passes the area in an east-west direction and north-south direction respectively. The intersection of these two main streets and the green and blue structure of Kvillestråket is the midpoint and starting point of this key project.

Looking at the analysez made on the proposed network for the masterplan (next page) we can see that the location of the key project has good accessibility and high centrality. It tells us that there will be a flow of people on the site and that the Urban and Local main roads will be relatively busy streets. These conditions create a possibility for an economic cluster to appear on the site. The conditions that the network together with the masterplan provides gives the potential to create a strong urban life at the location, hence an “ours” place is created here.

Backaplan today

Kvillebäcken

The key project area today

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MEETING AT “OURS“ | General context

Angular Integration 5k < 405 405 - 745 745 - 1135 1135 - 1565 1565 - 2005 2005 - 2465 > 2465

Network Betweenness 5k <2 600 000 2 600 000 - 9 850 000 9 850 000 - 22 500 000 > 22 500 000

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Network Betweenness 5k non motorized network

Shifting Scales

Problem description

The current situation in the area within which the masterplan and the key project are developed is as follows; plots are big and one use only, e. i. “mono-functional”. The area is centered around car use and consists of mainly large-scale shopping and industry which leads to that the majority of the plots consist of huge hardened surfaces, which is good for cars but undesired for humans and ecology.

The green structures in the area always seem distant, usually present to some extent but never accessible. Kvillebäcken that runs through the area has a walking path running along it today, but it is poorly integrated and not that enjoyable. There

is a sharp border where the local (the neighbourhood square) meets the large-scale anonymity (Gothenburg city center) and since all the neighbourhoods are the same scale, offering similar environments and services, there are little reasons for interaction between them.

Based on site visits and analysis that was made by the group in the early work of the masterplan four main problems with the area were stated. Each corresponds to an objective that together intends to realize the vision. This project touches to a greater extent three of them and has an extra focus on one.

Focus 1. Isolated and monofunctional land use

2. Social disconnection

3. Invisible and inaccessible nature

1. As a mixed land use is suggested in the masterplan, the proposal aims to create conditions for this to happen in the creation of plots and functions allowed in these.

2. Creating conditions that enable a strong urban life to take place, where a mix of people are present.

1. Cohesive and mixed land use

Meeting at “ours“

2. Strengthen social ties

3. Strengthen green and blue structures

3. Letting the green take space and enable the use of the parks and Kvillestråket for many people.

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MEETING AT “OURS“ | Concept

1. Social-Ecological meetingplace The main concept is the exploration and development of a site where both social and ecological aspects meet at an intersection point in a location with relatively high centrality.

2. “Ours” Place Focus on creating conditions for a strong urban life and take advantage of the potentials that the network and masterplan provides. Adding a nuance of urban life that is missing in the area today.

3. Highlight green Allow for the green to take place and utilize the potential in Kvillestråket. Create diverse green rooms in the area, which cater to various functions and activities, with both social and ecological aspects in mind. Make Kvillebäcken to the link instead of the divider of the areas on respective sides.

1. Social-Ecological meetingplace

2. “Ours” Place

3. Highlight green

4. Privacy for residents Creating clear borders between public and private territories using building typologies in the form of closed blocks.

5. Human scale Shifting from large-scale shopping centered around car use to sequences of attractions easily accessed by walking. Prioritizing human scale movement with good walking and biking possibilities. Elements for good orientation possibilities.

6. Differentiate streets Create a differentiation between streets, in a homogenous network, using building heights and land use.

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4. Privacy for residents

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5. Human scale

6. Differentiate streets

Shifting Scales

An “ours“ place

meet. It is a public setting that strengthens community and the sense of belonging for a larger area. At an “ours” place there is a mix of people and both primary and secondary relations are present. It should be an arena for co-presence to take place.

As pointed out in the problem description earlier there is a sharp border where the local meets the large-scale anonymity and since all the neighbourhoods are the same scale, offering similar environments and services, there are little reasons for interaction between them. Legeby et al. (2015) points out the importance of a variety of situations of co-presence in public space as they are all playing a crucial role for development of social inclusion and cohesion. Thus, what is missing in the area is this variety of urban life: a nuance between the local and the anonymous large-scale. Therefore the masterplan proposes three notions for urban life: “mine”, “ours” and ”everyone’s”, where an “ours” place should be created at the site of this key project.

According to Legeby (2021) the level of mix of urban life in public space is encouraged by; closeness to streets with high centrality, well integrated neighbouring areas, centrality at different scales and spatial reach. These are conditions created by urban form, especially through the network. The network proposed by the masterplan creates these conditions on the site of the key project. Legeby (2021) also points out attractions and local goal points as an encouragement for a mixed public space; which are conditions that can be established by land use regulations.

An “ours” place is the step between the local small scale and the big anonymous city, where different neighobourhoods

mine mine

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Primary and secondary relations

Secondary relations

Co-presence; “The simultaneous presence of individuals in the same physical location, not necessarily engaged in face-to-face interaction with each other.”

(Oxford University Press, n.d.)

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MEETING AT “OURS“ | Urban design proposal

The key project explores the creation of a social-ecological meeting place and aims to establish an our’s place at the location of the project. In order to achieve this the project focuses on creating conditions for strong urban life to happen.

Elements from the masterplan; street typologies, density, greenery and land use have been applied according to the masterplan but explored in detail on a smaller scale.

Following the masterplan, the key project proposes mix use blocks along main roads and residential blocks deeper in the network. Mix use blocks have active ground floors, where offices, commercial activities and public functions can take place, with in general housing on top.

As the Angular Integration analysis shows a fairly homogeneous network in the aspect of centrality in the area the key project proposes a variation in building heights in an attempt to differentiate the streets and their hierarchy. Being a busy area with relatively high flow of people, creation of private and calm territories and clear borders between private and public becomes important. Therefore the design proposal suggests closed blocks throughout the area of the key project.

Plots are created so each block has a courtyard that contains both private parts and in the middle a mutual club good territory. A variation of plot sizes in mix use blocks allow different public and commercial functions to take place in ground floors.

masterplan and surrounding areas together. To attract a mix of people to the public space activities for different ages are created along with a mix of functions.

Human scale movement with good walking and biking possibilities and elements for good orientation are proposed as well as sequences of attractions easily accessed by walking. The key project is an area where a human to human connection is established as the public spaces provide a setting for social exchange and interaction; where you can see, meet and talk to other people.

The design proposal allows for the green to take place and utilize the potential in Kvillestråket. Diverse green rooms are created in the area, which cater to various functions and activities, with both social and ecological aspects in mind. Kvillebäcken has shifted from being the divider to being the link between the areas on respective sides.

Densities, FSI and GSI, proposed in the masterplan are aimed for, however the key project has in general a bit higher density, both FSI and GSI, than the masterplan proposes. The figures in the masterplan were roughly calculated and based on slightly different plot sizes and street and building widths resulting in other values.

The project is influenced by lectures and literature by Ann Legeby and the work of Eva Minoura.

Focus point in the project is the intersection of the Urban main street, Local main street and Kvillestråket at which a public square and park is located. The goal is to create an arena for social life and co-presence that brings the bigger area of the

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Shifting Scales

Urban design proposal 0

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Legend Residential Mix use Private good Club good Kvillestråket Neighbourhood park District park Blooming trees, flower plantings

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Distribution of flows in the new street grid.

In the handbook, Romice et al (2020) defines different street types which were used in the masterplan and kept as precondition for this key project. An Urban main street in eastwest direction connecting Litteraturgatan and Björlandavägen and a Local main street running through the area in north-south direction.

A pedestrian zone is introduced on a part of the local main street to lower the speed and attempt to make a “seamless” transition between the square and park. The west path of Kvillestråket is for walking and biking while the east path is for walking only.

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Legend Urban main street Local main street Pedestrian zone Cars, cyclists, pedestrians Cyclists, pedestrians Pedestrians Bus stop

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Street sections

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Section A-A Urban main street

Section B-B Local main street

Proposed, by masterplan, Urban main street and Local main street with wide sidewalks, separate bike lanes, parking and greenery. The wide sidewalks allow for the public functions on ground floors to use the space; streets become active and strengthen social activities. Separate bike lanes promote cycling as a means of transport.

chy in the street network and facilitates orientation in the area.

To create a more human scale environment and improve light conditions the height of buildings towards Kvillestråket is a couple of floors lower, but they can’t be too low to still achieve desired densities in the area.

Buildings along the urban and local main street are proposed to be 7 floors high except the blocks facing Kvillestråket and associated parks that are proposed to be 5 floors high. The higher number of floors along main streets mark their hierarMeeting at “ours“

Trees, grass and bushes offer ecological benefits and increase the overall amount of greenery in the area. It has a positive effect on biodiversity and by choosing berry trees and bushes such as rowanberry or cherry trees and honeysuckle or rosehip bushes birds and insects are given food and protection.

Legend Pedestrians Cyclists Cars Parking Greenery + water management

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The key project proposes a variation in building heights in an attempt to differentiate the streets and their hierarchy.

Higher buildings are proposed along the urban and local main street which is then stepped down towards residential areas.

Building towards Kvillestråket is not more than five storeys high to provide better sun conditions and a human scale de-escalation in the intersection of it but can’t be too low to still achieve desired densities.

Being a busy area with relatively high flow of people, creation of private and calm territories and clear borders between private and public becomes important.

Therefore the design proposal suggests closed blocks throughout the area.

The area has high density with relatively high buildings and rather narrow streets which is compensated with the qualities of large courtyards and parks. Therefore the size of the courtyards is important and to monitor that it is not allowed to build in another way than the plan shows, the buildings are placed on the plot boundary and extensions towards the yard are not allowed. However, with the exception for some mix use blocks where one or two floor extensions are allowed to increase flexibility for commercial and public functions; to enable a bigger grocery store or a restaurant, that requires more space, to be placed here. It is not permitted to build extensions but instead the large sized courtyards can allow higher buildings.

Building density, FSI and GSI*, proposed in the masterplan are aimed for.

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A variation in plot sizes in mix use blocks allows for different public and commercial activities to take place; both the big grocery store and the small coffee shop can be established.

Plots are created so each block has a yard that contains both private parts and in the middle a mutual club good; a spacious and enclosed yard which according to Minoura (2015) creates an ownership and use territory.

Since the courtyards in the closed blocks are well-sized it is possible to have both private and common parts. The private parts are intended to be used differently as a result of plot owners, as an extension of the residents’ different wishes and interests. You can use it for farming, build a greenhouse or a small shed for a workshop, create a flower garden, have an outdoor kitchen etc, you are allowed to do what you want. Important, however, is how the borders between the different plots are materialized. Here you are not allowed to do whatever as the intention is to avoid high fences or walls and therefore bushes or wooden fences should be used when marking a border.

The club good is mutual for all residents in the block intended to hold functions that are suitable for sharing or is a common wish from all owners/residents. It can be a playground, a barbeque area or a tool shed or why not a pool. The club good also provides everyone with the possibility to have a nearby outdoor space with sun. All this brings the opportunity for the courtyards to be well used and filled with everyday life and activity creating the possibility for social exchange and interaction.

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Following the masterplan, the key project proposes mix use blocks along main streets and residential blocks deeper in the network. Mix use blocks should have active ground floors, where offices, commercial activities and public functions can take place. In general mix use blocks have housing above the first floor. The map shows a suggestion for potential ground floor use.

(A more detailed suggestion is shown in the zoom in of the square)

Legend Housing Commercial Commercial or office Restaurant Public Office Sports hall Gym Grocery store Existing buildings

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Shifting Scales

Urban rules 1.

Active ground floor obligatory in mix-use blocks 2.

A variation of plot sizes in mix use blocks to allow different functions and activities 3.

Plot structure that creates a club good territory in the yard.

1.

2.

3.

4.

Meeting at “ours“

4.

Building typology: closed blocks to create a clear border between public and private and to create privacy for residents. Frontage ration 100%.

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MEETING AT “OURS“ | Zoom in square

In addition to offices, stores and restaurants more public functions are also proposed around the square, such as a gym, a youth recreation center, a cinema, health facilities and a church. These functions are chosen according to the conditions provided by the area’s urban form and reflect the kind of urban life that an “ours” place is intended to create. To have a mix of functions, both regarding when in the day and year they are used and in attracting people in different ages and with different interests increases the possibility of getting a mix of people using the public space.

As seen in the zone map I have worked with creating zones for different activities that will attract a mix of people. In the design development of the square and the work of creating a good public place I have used Jan Gehl’s; “Twelve quality criteria”, a check-list to assess public space qualities, as a reference.

The criterias are grouped in three main themes; protection, comfort and enjoyment that when fulfilled makes the public space more inviting to people of all ages to spend time in (Gehl & Svarre, 2013).

Legend Residential Mix use Private good Club good Kvillestråket Neighbourhood park District park Blooming trees, flower plantings

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A

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Representative view over square

Perspective A

Meeting at “ours“

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MEETING AT “OURS“ | Zoom in park

The design proposal allows for the green to take place and utilize the potential in Kvillestråket. Diverse green rooms are created in the area, which cater to various functions and activities, with both social and ecological aspects in mind. Kvillebäcken has shifted from being the divider to being the link between the areas on respective sides.

Kvillestråket is the park and green path following the stream Kvillebäcken. The greenery is organic with old trees and unplanned areas with bushes and flowers as this green part in the area is existing today. On the east side, in the north part of the district park, the path creates a platform along the water that allows you to walk really close to the water.

C

C

The north part of the district park transitions from arranged plantings and mostly hard surfaces at the square to a play and exploration area for children at the middle with a lot of trees, to a more leafy an organic area furthest north with less hardened surfaces, trees and bushes as a visual buffer from the traffic, several groves and meadows. The south part of the district park is more structured with mainly open grass areas, arranged plantings and trees. Also here trees and bushes create a visual buffer from the traffic.

Legend Residential Mix use Private good Club good Kvillestråket Neighbourhood park District park Blooming trees, flower plantings

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Section C-C Representative section Kvillestråket

References A. Legeby (lecture, 2021, 7 oktober)

Minoura, E. (2015). Uncommon Ground, PhD thesis KTH (ch 1 and 3.3).

Gehl, J., & Svarre, B. (2013). How to study public life. Island Press.

Oxford University Press. (n.d.) Co-presence. Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2022-01-07 from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/ authority.20110803095638654

Legeby, A. Berghauser Pont, M., & Marcus, L. (2015). Street Interaction and Social Inclusion. In L. Vaughan (Ed.), Suburban Urbanities: Suburbs and the Life of the High Street (pp. 239-262). UCL Press.

Meeting at “ours“

Romice, O., S. Porta and A. Feliciotti (2020). Master Planning for Change – Designing the Resilient City, RIBA Publishing, (p. 3-31)

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THE GREEN SPINE MAJA LINDROTH This key project focus on the social and ecological systems that coincides within a green space and aims to create a space that reflects the preconditions set by the built structures with the

Problem description

Kvillebäcken is a route that stretches about 3,3km from Backaplan in the south to Hökälla nature reserve in the north. The green area covers approximately 250km2 and differs in width from being a broad park to a narrow passage. It is a green spine running through the area and apart from connecting north to south, Kvillebäcken also reduces the distance between green pockets and serves as many residents closest park. The attraction distance analysis that was made during the masterplan process highlights this.

The green route is a space within the built where social and ecological systems coincide. The diversity throughout the area the park is running through, the surrounding structures and, the shape of the park, create different conditions for the social and ecological functions that sometimes fa-

vor one more than the other. In the master plan density of people and centrality were considered when creating the shape of the park and location of the path. High density and centrality gave a wider green space and paths on both sides of the stream while the lower centrality and people density only have one path and a more ecological focus.

This project will look more deeply into the balance between the social and ecological functions that coexist, their potentials, and how that can be represented in physical planning. The design will be supported by ecosystem services that answer to the preconditions and whished characteristics.

Attraction Reach - Green entrances < 100 100-200 200-300 300-500 > 500 [m] Attrachtion Reach - Green entrances before masterplan

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Attrachtion Reach - Green entrances after masterplan

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THE GREEN SPINE | Green context

A green area is a green route or nature area close to the built society that is available for the public and that can be a place for recreation, physical activity, and rest. What activity is most fitting for the green area depends on its size, shape, and type of nature (Johansson et al., 2009).

Kvillestråkets shape is rather restricting to what it can host.

It is at times quite narrow while sometimes in connection to larger park space. Even if the main function is to be a green pedestrian route it serves as many residents closest park and should therefore offer space for rest, recreation and play.

for a green area. These characteristics can also be seen as what makes a green space attractive to people and answers to people’s different needs (Johansson et al., 2009).

Kvillestråket cannot contain all eight characteristics. Instead, the focus has been on numbers 4-8, to a different extent and in different parts of the area. In surrounding green areas can other qualities be found, especially those that need more space.

Grahn (2005) defined eight characteristics of nature/garden rooms that can be used while defining and planning

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1. Serene: Peaceful, silence and care. Absence of city noise and rubbish.

5. The common / green arena A green open space with room for activity and stays. Sport and play.

2. Wild Wild nature that seems unaffected by human activity. Old and natural.

6. The pleasure garden / the playful An enclosed safe place to relax and play. For children a place to experiment and play.

3. Rich in species Offering a variety of species of plants, vegetation and animals “biodiversity”

7. Festive Meeting place for festivity and pleasure. Permanent functions like cafes and stages.

4. Space Spacious area with a feeling of “entering another world”, getting away from the city.

8. Culture Historical or cultural place. Containing historical landmarks, squares, art, flowers etc.

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Green context

Hisingsparken

Hökälla nature reserve Keillers park

Frihamnen Small farm Hisingsparken Arödsberget Arödsberget

Small farm

Hökälla nature reserve Frihamnen Keillers park

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THE GREEN SPINE | Preconditions

Angular Integration 5k < 400 400 - 740 740 - 1100 1100 - 1500 1500 - 1950 1950 - 2400 > 2400

Network Betweenness 5k < 2 000 000 2 000 000 - 8 000 000 8 000 000 - 30 000 000 > 30 000 000

The angular integration 5k shows that the whole area has a rather high integration which naturally fades towards the north where the network has fewer connections. In the masterplan the built density matches these conditions, higher integration has a higher density. That will in turn bring more people to the southern part of the park area which puts demands on usability and endurance.

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The network betweenness for 5k shows that the roads on the edge of the park in the south have a high betweenness while the path within is rather low. In the north, the path itself shows up as red which is expected since it is one of few roads running in that direction. This could be interpreted as that in the south the path is a place for strolling while in the north it is part of the main route.

Shifting scales

Preconditions

<40 40-45 20 45-50 50-55 26 55-60 60-65 32 65-70 40μg/m3

>70 dB

High water level Göteborg 2100

Traffic noise level Göteborg 2018

Air pollution, CO2 level Göteborg 2018

The whole area will be highly impacted by high-water and heavy rainfall, located on the lowest point of the plot the stream and the area around is what shows up as most blue on the map.

Noise can affect both people’s health and sometimes animals. Temporary exposure could lead to a rise in pulse and blood pressure. Longer periods of exposure raises the risk of heart diseases, stress, and sleep disruption (Boverket)

Air pollution affects both people and the environment. In people, it can cause severe diseases and in nature, it contributes to acidification, corrosion, and damage to plants to mention a few (Naturvårdsverket)

Göteborg stad has set up a goal that all bigger city parks should have a noise level lower than 50dBA in a majority of the area (Goteborg stad).

Kvillestråket does not count as a city park but the value can be used as a target level while planning the green structures.

Miljökvalitetsnormer (MKN) for air pollutions is a target value created by the European Parliament that should be met nationwide, mean value 40μg/m3 Göteborgs stad has formulated their own Environmental goals of 20μg/m3 (Göteborgs stad, 2020)

Highwater was considered in the masterplan and the added green area and ponds will contribute to stronger resilience. This should factor should still be taken into account in this project when planning hard and soft ground surfaces.

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THE GREEN SPINE | Ecosystem servises

The main design strategy for this project has been based on ecosystem services and the matrix combining services with natural elements. The character of the park and its preconditions decided which ecosystem services that would be aimed for.

Cultural

Ecosystem services are all product and services that ecosystems provide for humans and contributes to our wellbeing (Isacson et al., 2021). Qualitative blue and green structures in our cities actively prevent flooding, heat island, air, and water pollutions and have a positive impact on people’s physical and mental health (Isacson et al., 2021).

The ecosystem services are often divided into four categories, supportive, regulating, providing, and cultural.

sity, ecological interactions, and natural cycles. The supportive services are necessary for all others to function.

The regulating is about cleaning air and water, pollination, improving the local climate, and protecting against extreme weather. They contribute to safer and better life quality.

The providing are products and services that comes directly from the ecosystem like raw material, water, energy and food.

The cultural services define the well-being qualities that nature brings. Experience, knowledge, and inspiration that is important for people’s mental and physical health. (Boverket, 2021a)

The supportive are the basic functions such as biodiverProviding

Regulating

Supporting Icons: The New Direction/Boverket

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Air cleaning

Weather resilience

Noice reduction

Regulating local climate

Pollination

Reducing water runoff

Water regulation

Culture and identity

Social interactions

Recreation

Mental well-being

C02 binding

Soil formation

Ecological interaction

Biodiversity

Habitat

Ecosystem servises

In the project only the regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem servises has been considered since many of the providing are not applicabel att the current location.

Park Lawn High grass Meadow Noice barrier Old trees Trees in hard surface Shrubs and bushes Flower bed “Roadside ditch”

Matrix Big impact Some impact Small or no impact

Pond

Based on a matrix by Boverket. Icons: The New Direction/Boverket

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THE GREEN SPINE | habitat

The existing habitats consist of mostly conscious forest and small areas of tall forest and open grass vegetation. These habitats are concentrated along Kvillebäcken and are mostly cohesive apart from a few patches. In the proposal have trees been added to these blanks to even strengthen and better connect the habitats.

In the map over habitats does the golf course in the north show not show up, neither as any kind of greenery nor an open grass field. Even though being monocultural the field can bring value to some species and contributes to a greener experience in the area.

Image of Knölnate Photo: Voekler, T. (2008) Potamogeton trichoides

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Knölnaten likes slow running, shallow water that is exposed to the sun. It is sensitive to boat traffic, too much growth of other species, and digging processes in the waterbed.

One place that is interesting for replanting of Knölnaten is ponds on golf courses since they are surrounded by open vegetation and therefore a sunny spot. They are also rarely overgrown. The ponds at the northern part of the project area are therefore a potential spot for introducing Knölnaten and thereby strengthening the habitat of the endangered species.

(Source Knölnate: Nilsson. E., Gustafson. L. (2011) )

The southern part of Kvillebäck is the home of Knölnaten, one of Sweden’s most rare species. This water-growing herb is endangered and therefore protected by artskyddsförordningen.

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The left map shows the existing habitats within the project area and the right map shows the added habitats in the proposal.

The deciduous trees have been added at empty patches between existing habitats to create a more connected habitat.

Knölnate has been introduced in the ponds in the north of the area.

Habitat Open land vegetation Tall forest Decidious trees Decidious trees Decidious trees Added decidious trees Knölnate Added Knölnate

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THE GREEN SPINE | Area One

The first area is furthest South and connects to a large road, tram, and bus stop. Trees bushes are put up to create a barrier that helps against noise and creates a visual distance between people in the park and the busy surroundings. Apart from the large road in the south, the park is surrounded solely by pedestrian and bicycle streets to make it calmer even though located in a busy area. That creates the option for both internal and external movement.

nics, walks, and social interactions, people also want diversity in their green areas that activate all senses (Ignatieva, 2017).

The building blocks are closed and frame the park. A street and a patch of greenery right in front of the building separate it from the park. In front of the school, there is a small square connected to the park for the students, this can be seen in the detailed imaged

The park itself has many smaller paths which is dividing the green space into smaller patches. Some of these are urban meadows, flower plantations, or filled with trees to create diversity. But most of them are quite open in contrast to the dense surrounding. Even though lawns are appreciated elements in green areas, especially in locations for play, rest, pic-

Area One is the southernmost part the image shows its location in relation to the masterplan.

In this area, the focus has been on the cultural ecosystem services along with supportive to deal with the natural preconditions such as water, air pollution, and noise.

The main green structures used to achieve these are trees, bushes, lawns, and meadows.

Plan detail

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100

200 m

Section A-A Park meeting buildings

The common / green arena The pleasure garden / the playful Culture

A

The park space offers big open surfaces to play as well as designated playgrounds. It has a variety in greenery and more and less secluded places.

Places to rest along the way, both short es stops like a bench and longer stays for picnics and barbeques.

A

Legend Open grass fiels Tall grass meadow Flower bed Stream School Car street Pedestrian / bike street Playground Existing park

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THE GREEN SPINE | Area Two

The second area is in the intersection of big infrastructure and unlike the first area car traffic is present along the edge of the park creating a different characteristic.

Trees and bushes have been added to reduce the noise and create a visual buffer from the traffic to some extent.

gatherings or commercial use. On the east side, the path is forming a platform along the water allowing people to get closer to it. This can be seen in the detailed image.

In the southern part, the park is more like the first area with bigger patches of grass in a less organized way.

The roads that cross have a high betweenness and the area itself shows a high integration on the analyses giving the area a commercial value. This leads to a high number of people passing by and therefore a social demand on the park space.

The northern part has many smaller walking paths, plantations, meadows, and a playground. By the intersection and the square, some hard surfaces have been added for

Area two lies on the densest and commercial part. The plot offers less space for recreation so the focus has been on the other cultural ecosystem services such as social interaction and culture & identity.

Flowering trees, meadows, and plantations are some elements used to strengthen this.

Bushes and trees are added to reduce noise and air pollution.

Plan detail

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200 m

The pleasure garden / the playful Festive Culture

The high integration creates an opportunity to create a festive place where people can meet and cafes might establish.

The smaller area offers different rooms within the park and a variety of greenery, flowers, and even sculptures to enjoy.

Legend Open grass fiels Tall grass meadow Flower bed Stream Public building Car street Pedestrian / bike street Playground

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THE GREEN SPINE | Area Three

In this area, the park is becoming more informal and shifting from a social to a more ecological focus. There is only one path on the west side and non on the east side where the park is meeting the existing industrial area. This side is kept at peace, preserving and strengthening the existing habitats.

In contrast to the east, the west side has a few arranged benches and platforms by the water where people can stay.

show this meeting and how the buildings are meeting the park.

Colding (2021) described urban green commons such as allotment areas as urban diversity hotspots. Private gardens show similar characteristics in that they usually have a diversity of species meaning that the private gardens support the ecological systems in the park.

The park is meeting a more perforated built structure. The greenery, the private gardens, and common spaces float more together. The blocks are open creating an ecological flow between the courtyards and the park, though separated by a slight height difference to mark the private border. Bushes, flowers, and trees have also been used to strengthen this. The zoomed-in picture

The third area lies between a residential area and an industrial area. The focus shifts from being social to more ecological.

Existing habitats are strengthened and there is an ecological exchange between the private gardens and the public park.

Again, trees and shrubs play a vital park along with the new pond.

The social part focus on creating a nice trail to walk by with possibilities to stop by the water and also interact with others.

Plan detail

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Section A-A Park meeting buildings. Height difference defines the boarder between public and private

A

A

The common / green arena The park offers a green room for visiting, passing trough or staying. The football field gives the possibilitie to play or sit and watch.

Legend Open grass fiels Tall grass Private Yard meadow Flower bed Stream Public building/ school Sports-hall Car street Pedestrian / bike street Playground

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THE GREEN SPINE | Area Four

In the fourth area, Kvillestråket is mainly meeting public functions. In the south, the buildings are even further back from the path giving space for an outdoor gym and dog park.

The detailed picture shows the separation between the housing and Kvillestråket. Also, how the park is meeting a bigger road and that the outdoor gym is separated from it with a row of bushes.

The park is crossed by a motorized road connecting eastern and western areas. From here the path is showing up with a high betweenness in the analyze highlighting its importance as a green biking and pedestrian route leading people to the sports complex.

The greenery offers fewer places to stay and instead of strengthening the already existing green structures while being allowed to grow wilder. The stream is a bit disconnected from the path making it melt into the more ecological side. This also creates a differentiation between the different par areas while mowing along Kvillestråket.

The fourth lie next to a larger sports complex and holds importance for activity and recreation.

While the added natural elements are mostly focused on strengthening the ecological ecosystem services some of them add to the cultural services and focus on the ones promoting physical health and mental well-being.

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200 m

The common / green arena The sports complex allows different kinds of activities. Sports require an open field, an indoor hall, tennis courts, and beach volleyball fields.

The outdoor gym and dog park also offer a space for activity and social interaction.

The place is also given for just walking or simply being a spectator to the activities.

Legend Open grass fiels Tall grass Private Yard Flower bed Stream Sports-hall Car street Pedestrian / bike street

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THE GREEN SPINE | Area Five

The last area connects to Hökällan nature reserve and goes through an area that was previously part of a golf course, that is still intact on the west side. The golf course offers less biodiversity compared to the private gardens, but the area still has its ecological values keeping the deciduous tree habitat and becoming a new settlement for Knölnaten.

The main path is going straight through the area along the golf course while some smaller curvier paths allow people to stroll on the ecological side where ponds with Knölnaten are located.

necting the two sides and leading people onto the path and towards the south. The same situation exists in the north, where also a car road is crossing. This can be seen in the detailed image where also the existing villas are shown as well as different paths.

Trees and bushes have been added along the eastern border where the park meets a railway and a bigger road, isolating it a bit from the surroundings.

In the south, a pedestrian path is going across the railway con-

The fifth area is the furthest north and connects to Hökälla nature reserve. It is located between a golf course and a busy road.

It holds an ecological value and the focus has been on the ecological ecosystem services along with some supporting. The calm area allows space for different species and existing habitats have been strengthened.

Plan detail

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Rich in species The pleasure garden / the playful

The ecological east side of the stream is a calm space secluded from the more urban south. Since it is allowed to be winder and has ponds in addition to the stream it gives the opportunity for more species to thrive.

Legend Open grass fiels Tall grass Private Yard Golf course Stream Car street Pedestrian / bike street

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THE GREEN SPINE | Connections

Placed at the middle of the masterplan area, the green spine is crossed by many streets connecting the east and west side, leading into surrounding areas as well. It holds importance as a connector but also as a social place. The left image shows the roads having the highest betweenness going along and through Kvillebäcken.

It also functions as many inhabitants closest park and reduces the distance between green spaces. The right image shows important green connection points, tying both green routes and different habitats together

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REFERENCES

Ahlström Isacson, H., Sjösten Harlin, F., Stenkula, U. (2021).

Ekosystemtjänster: En verktygslåda 1.0. White Research Lab & Stiftelsen ARQ Boverket (14 July 2021a). Typer av ekosystemtjänster. https:// www.boverket.se/sv/samhallsplanering/sa-planeras-sverige/ planeringsfragor/ekosystemtjanster/olika-typer-av-ekosystemtjanster/ Hämtad 2021-11-29 Boverket (27 October 2021b) Gör grönska till en naturlig del av staden. https://www.boverket.se/sv/samhallsplanering/saplaneras-sverige/planeringsfragor/ekosystemtjanster/ (Hämtad 2021-11-29) Boverket (14 July 2021c). Reglering av buller. https://www. boverket.se/sv/PBL-kunskapsbanken/teman/ekosystemtjanster/verktyg/rakna/buller/ Hämtad 2021-11-25.

Ignatieva, M. (2017). En Handbok: Alternativ till gräsmatta i Sverige från teori till. Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet Johansson, A. K., Kollberg, S., Bergström, K. (2009). Grönområden för flera: en vägledning för bedömning av närhet och attraktivitet för bättre hälsa. Statens Folkhälsoinstitutut Naturvårdsverket (n.y.). Luftföroreningar och dess effekter. https://www.naturvardsverket.se/amnesomraden/luft/luftfororeningar-och-dess-effekter/ Hämtad 2021-11-25.

Nilsson. E., Gustafson. L. (2011) Handlingsplan för knölnate, Potamogeton trichoides, i Göteborgs Stad. (Rapport 2012:2). Parkoch naturförvaltningen i Göteborg https://goteborg.se/wps/ wcm/connect/f5fbd2c2-f428-484a-8d15-073b6f82a10d/ Handlingsplan_for_knolnate_webb.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&fb clid=IwAR1VIYLXMIPsVj0TWsg9Td8vG-u7UUiYVdmcDW3cOFKvJEPSbvEV3vskW00

Boverket (28 Mars 2019). Luftrening. https://www.boverket. se/sv/PBL-kunskapsbanken/teman/ekosystemtjanster/verktyg/rakna/luftrening/ Hämtad 2021-11-19.

Images:

Colding, J. (2021). Resilience through institutional design. [PowerPoint-presentation]. Slideshare.

The New Division/Boverket. (2019) Ekosystemtjänster [Illustation] https://www.boverket.se/sv/samhallsplanering/sa-planeras-sverige/planeringsfragor/ekosystemtjanster/grafiskt-material-ekosystemtjanster/ (2021-12-11)

Göteborg stad (2018) Göteborgs Stads åtgärdsprogram mot buller 2019–2023. https://goteborg.se/wps/wcm/connect/ aa94c45e-81a5-4518-a338-d042491ad612/G%C3%B6t eborgs+stads+%C3%A5tg%C3%A4rdsprogram+mot+bull er+2019-2023.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Voekler, T. (2008) Potamogeton trichoides [Photo] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Potamogeton_trichoides.jpg#/ media/File:Potamogeton_trichoides.jpg (2021-12-11)

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NORRA AVENYN MATILDA SVENSSON This key project has a focus on the connection between Hisingsbrons northern bank seat and Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen - “Norra Avenyn”. The proposal is a street and spatial intersection with the connecting areas. It touches, in a general way, Frihamnen and Ringön.

Current site conditions 0

400

1000 m

This key project relates to the vision of the masterplan, which is to “shift the hierarchy between human and infrastructure; prioritizing human scale movement” with a focus on “reducing the physical and perceived barriers created by infrastructure existing in the area today”. This key project is important to zoom in on because it is the entry and exit to the whole masterplan as well as Hisingen. The focus is on the street and its interface between Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen and Hisingsbron.

The site is characterized by dominant infrastructure (e. g. 1, Lundbyleden) and harbor heritage buildings and structures (2). The site is central and accessible in the spatial system (3).

Ringön is an old shipbuilding area, which has slowly transformed, bottom-up, into a creative hub for small scale startup companies within the production and food industry. Gothenburg’s city (2021) has pointed Ringön out as an asset for the whole city which should be taken care of and strenghtened.

1

LUNDBYLEDEN

2 HAMNBANAN HJALMAR BRANTINGSPLATSEN RINGÖN 1

5

Frihamnen used to be an important harbor, but is about to undergo an extensive transformation, the outcome has not been defined yet. In 2015-16 a detail plan was on audit, but it was withdrawn because it could not be executed. Since then the process is paused and the city is awaiting economic direction from the politicians. One important part of Frihamnen is the Jubilee Park (5) which marks the 400 anniversary of Gothenburg. This part is under construction.

Lundbyleden highway and Hamnbanan railway are, as Job van Eldijk (2018) puts it ”powerful connectors in urban traffic systems but can also create strong barriers on a local scale” and ”form substantial restrictions on the urban development”. Lundbyleden in the north and the river in the south becomes barriers which give the land in between (4, pink) island conditions; it’s only accessible in a few places via bridge or tunnel.

2

3 HISINGSBRON

FRIHAMNEN

Angular integration NMN 5K LINDHOLMEN

GÖTA ÄLV

4 CITY

FIGURE 1. Aerial photo underlay, scale 1:20 000. Download, raster ©Lantmäteriet (2021)

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NORRA AVENYN | Approach - what and why

1

CHAMPS ÉLYSÉES, PARIS

2

CHAMPS ÉLYSÉES, PARIS

3

This type of disturbed infrastructure landscape is not unusual in cities, but difficult to work with. It seems that the potential of a central site like this one tends to be overlooked in relation to the apparent challenges. The project has a focus on the connection between Hisingsbrons northern bank seat and Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen, “Norra Avenyn”. The proposal is a flow-intense street (inspiration 1-3) with its direct intersecting spaces. It touches, in a general way, the connecting areas Frihamnen & Ringön. This project is not about the design of Frihamnen and Ringön, nor the area south of Hisingsbron. The aim of this project is to illustrate how the given potentials and challenges together could unfold in a design proposal.

On a global city scale (for pedestrians and cyclists, 15K) Norra Avenyn is part of the street with the highest betweenness in the city. Since the only central bridge over Göta Älv connects Norra Avenyn with the south part of the city, it means that all people moving to and from Hisingen will use Norra Avenyn.

This is its biggest potential. The expected flows and accessibility provide a base for urban life and potential for interaction, with physical dimensions which are not available in many places in Gothenburg.

stop by, this whole area will be a destination and positive addition for the city. This would also, from the city’s side, mark new priorities and a start to make up for the lack of investments in people and public places here historcally. Spatially, being an “everyone’s place”, there is potential for co-presence of people to shape relations of both primary and secondary nature (Legeby, 2021) since so many neighborhoods interact with this place.

The main challenges at the site are the disturbance from the infrastructure. Both noise pollution and car flow priority makes this a challenging area to transform into a place for being at all.

There is also a need for programming the street and long term investments in built supportive structures.

HJALMAR BRANTINGSPLATSEN NORRA AVENYN

FOCUS AREA GÖTAPLASTEN AND AVENYN, GOTHENBURG IMAGE 1-3 PUBLIC DOMAIN

Legend Network betweenness NMN 15K > 51300000 51300000-187000000 187000000-397000000 397000000-688000000 688000000-1130000000 < 1130000000

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With high flows on a street, the intersecting structures and functions get high exposure and could be strategically planned.

The structures and functions could attract people, direct people or display the connecting areas. If we think about the Avenue (“Södra Avenyn”, 3) as we know it today, it’s mostly consumption facing the street. As for Norra Avenyn, the form and context is very different, and so is the urban character even though they are both well accessible.

Instead of only being an access road to Hisingen as it is today, the road between Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen and Hisingsbron could be a street consisting of and being lined with public spaces and functions. If there would be reasons for people to

Social Ecological Urbanism 2021

SÖDRA AVENYN

GÖTAPLATSEN

The hypothesis is that the focus area of this project could be a northern part of the Avenue, called “Norra Avenyn”.

The concept, illustrated below, is to bind together the north Hisingen, our masterplan and Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen, with the city center in the south by a street which distributes high flows and works as the interface between Frihamnen and Ringön areas.

In a part of Frihamnen area, the city is working on constructing the Jubilee Park consisting of structures to support playing, learning and a swimming culture with pools and a sauna. The Jubilee Park is one among other interventions around the city to mark the 400 jubilee of Gothenburg (2021). Apart from the Jubilee Park, the initiatives have been quite small scale. In relation to the 300 year jubilee (around 1921), the initiatives then were, however, very influential. The city “painted with the big brush” and laid the foundation for public places that are still very meaningful to both the citizens and also characteristic for Gothenburg nationally; for example The botanical garden, Liseberg, Näckrosdammen and Götaplatsen (Houltz, 2004).

With this in mind, the city could once again make a statement by securing public access to a site which could be very important now and in the future. The Frihamnen area could be such a place, but it’s crucial to have a holistic approach to the whole area between Lundbyleden and the river.

The reference to the 300 year jubilee exhibition is not about the exhibition itself, nor the monumental architecture, but rather the approach of programmed parks with both greenery and buildings, as well as an interesting way of establishing the public spaces and involving many actors in the process which, according to Houltz, had influence on the final result. (Houltz, 2004).

Götaplatsen before the completion (1), a cableway between Näckrosdammen and Liseberg (2) as well as Näckrosdammen when it was recently completed (3) - e.i. big construction sites and “visionary” development.

In this design proposal, the whole Frihamnen area will be a green, public Jubilee Park for the 400 year anniversary.

Strengthening Ringön’s position could underline and display the current type of creative underground industry in the same manner. Through the design and functions, both the Jubilee Park and Ringön could be represented and exposed towards Norra Avenyn. Along the street, I intend to make this representation possible by proposing premises and spaces to display, direct and attract the high flows of people passing by.

1

GÖTAPLATSEN, GOTHENBURG

2

NÄCKROSDAMMEN - LISEBERG, GOTHENBURG

3

NÄCKROSDAMMEN, GOTHENBURG IMAGE 1-3 PUBLIC DOMAIN

The pictures to the right illustrates sites at the 300 year jubilee;

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NORRA AVENYN | Reading instructions, issues, aims and strategies

1. Masterplan vision

Reading instructions This key project corresponds to the vision of the masterplan to “shift the hierarchy between human and infrastructure; prioritizing human scale movement” (1). In the masterplan, the area south of Lundbyleden, where this project is placed, was not detailed. The lack of rules proposed was a challenging part of this project and a lesson in the issues from not having enough to base the work on. In order to continue working and give a spatial proposal to this area, as a first phase, I continued to plan and define the missing parameters. In the second part, some places are illustrated further. The aims and strategies (illustrated to the right) applies to both levels, but has different implications on the design instruments used.

Issues, aims and strategies Based on the presented background, two central issues were selected and handled through aims and strategies. They are illustrated in the order issue - aim - strategy.

1 - REDUCING “CARSEQUENCES” (consequences of cars).

The noise issue and barrier effect of the high- and railway affect both the direct and extended area negatively. The goal is therefore to reduce the carsequences and this is done by measures of reducing or encapsulating the noise at the source and create possibilities to cross roads where it’s needed.

2 - PROGRAMMING NORRA AVENYN. In the masterplan, we straightened the direction of Norra Avenyn from its current curved shape to improve orientation and wayfinding, e. i. slightly reduced metric distance and reduced topological and angular distance. The goal is to programme the street with public space and functions. The strategy is to solve the flows and programme support for nodes and links (generated by the grid as potentials).

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REDUCING CARSEQUENCES

PROGRAMMING STREET

Reducing carsequences - walking and crossing

The following pages describes measures to reduce the carsequences for pedestrians and cyclists; “walking and crossing” and “noise”. These are illustrated as principals due to the time limitation of this project, but are crucial measures to prioritize in order to make this area usable at all and not continue to obstruct pleasant movement and stay. The disturbance from infrastructure in the current layout of Norra Avenyn are striking when visiting the site. As a pedestrian, there is one crossing on a 730 m long road as illustrated on the map (1).

The proposal focuses the measures mainly on the social perspectives on a street design, “liveability and safety”, as pointed out as important factors for a multifunctional street by Stavroulaki and Berghauser Pont (2020) in their research report “A systematic review of multifunctional streets”. By parallel studies of both liveability and safety of a street, the review could identify 7 physical factors that supported both, and therefore having a “additive multifunctional value” for the street. These factors are: 1. network connectivity (given by the masterplan), 2. physical elements which reduce car speeds e.g. traffic calming features, 3. wide sidewalks, 4. separate bike lanes, 5. the presence of commercial and pedestrian oriented uses, 6. frequent pedestrian crossings and 7. narrow car lanes and short crossing distance.

Measures on a plan level is done by providing possibilities to cross the barriers where needed (element 6) and providing possibilities for pedestrian oriented uses such as functions and bus stops (element 5) as illustrated to the right. Crossings are a risk of accidents, but increases human scale movement, and the frequency were therefore balanced considering closeness to public transport stops and in relation to the need of reaching a destination on the other side at reoccuring distance.

The other elements are presented on the plan illustration.

1

CURRENT SITUATION

FIGURE 2. Aerial photo underlay, scale 1:5000. Download, raster ©Lantmäteriet (2021)

2

PROPOSAL

Legend Norra Avenyn Important directions Current road stretch Bus stops Crossings Start/end of focus area

Shifting scales

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NORRA AVENYN | Reducing carsequences - noise

Process

1

FIGURE 3. BY ATLANTICA. CC BY-SA 3.0

Sketches of how the Anti-noise tunnel meets the on-ground tunnel and the creek that is created for Norra Avenyn’s stormwater management.

The creek is at the lowest point in the area.

The noise from cars comes both from Lundbyleden and Hjalmar Brantingsgatan (Norra Avenyn) which have heavy traffic and high speed. Lundbyleden is an important regional connection with dangerous goods (requires a safe distance of 50 m on each side which must not encourage stay). In the masterplan, it was decided that the access slip roads to Lundbyleden should be removed in the intersection with Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen.

When removing the slip roads, the assumption was that the traffic primarily would be for travels between Hisingen and Gothenburg since a new, non-highway layout would decrease its use as the fastest track and shift focus towards a humane movement. Lundbyleden and the Hamnbanan railway are raised in 2 places, one of them is in the project area.

Low speeds is the most decisive parameter of traffic safety (Stavroulaki and Berghauser Pont, 2020). Low speeds also decrease the noise levels (Trafikverket, 2020). It is proposed that the speed on Lundbyleden is reduced with 10 km/h to 60 km/h and that the speed on Norra Avenyn is maximum 50 km/h (Gothenburg’s inner city speed policy). After reducing the noise at the source, it is encapsulated. This has been tested on “CityLink Sound Tube’’ in Australia (1). Research has also been conducted on a so-called “Anti-noise tunnel” with e. g. Chalmers researchers (U&We, 2017). However there is no result yet because the project didn’t get any further funding. The assumption is that such an encapsulating construction is solvable. Where Lundbyleden already is raised, it is covered with the Anti-noise tunnel. Where it meets the ground in the West, the ground is built up around it with earth and covered with a thin earth layer so that an ecoduct is created.

The land use south of the highway is park wher Gothenburg’s noise goal is <50 dB(A) (Göteborgs stad, 2018). These 2 measures are assumed to reduce the noise levels compared to the current situation. Still, this area hasn’t conditions to be quiet.

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LUNDBYLEDEN

CURRENT SITUATION

HAMNBANAN

HJALMAR BRANTINGSGATAN (NORRA AVENYN)

FIGURE 4

Raised bridges On ground tunnel/ecoduct Very high High Noisy

PRINCIPALS

1. Starting point, high speeds and open spread of noise from highway and railway.

3. Visually cutting the view of the highway traffic could reduce impression of infrastructure.

2. Lowering the speed reduces noise affecting the surroundings.

4. Encapsulating the noise from sides and above prevents noise from spreading first out then up.

Section A-A (markers on next page) shows the noise encapsulating Antil-noise tunnel over Hamnbanan and Lundbyleden and the ecoduct in the background. Norra Avenyn runs perpendicular to the bridges. These bridges are already existing.

As an addition to the encapsulating structure, a lane for commute biking is attached on the side of Lundbyleden. This is a way of connecting East to West and have a fast bike crossing above the busy Norra Avenyn.

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10

The ecoduct is a tunnel on ground, and the organic shape makes it an alternative (but challenging) way to cross Lundbyleden. There is open daywater management from Norra Avenyn’s lowest point in the creek. It was decided in the masterplan to have a green connection here, and it works like “an ecological artery” (Marcus, 2021).

The photorealistic images mounted in this illustration are produced by the following artists: Figure 6. By Susanna Nikolaus. (CC BY 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 7. By MariaDB. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 8. By Lydia Simmons. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.Figure 9. By PNGAll. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 10. By Isig Kaplangi. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

25 m

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NORRA AVENYN | Plan extension

The map on the right page is the extended planning phase on which the further work is based. The program for both Jubilee Park (yellow) and Ringön (red) is briefly explained, it’s necessary to touch since the areas are displayed and entered along Norra Avenyn. The characters of the two areas are “creative making” for Ringön and “play and learning” with an ecological land use for Jubilee Park. The Jubilee Park will, due to the conditions, be active with complementing serene areas close by. The program (1) for these areas are proposed to fit for “everyone’s place” due to the central location and benefit from the flows, either for exposure or public function.

To the left, there are diagrams of the different movement flows. Pedestrians have the highest priority and accessibility.

At the end of the northern piers in Jubilee Park, 2 pedestrian bridges are added in order to connect the land to Lindholmen and create conditions for a logic flow over the piers.

1

PROGRAMME. 1. CULTURE (E.G. THEATRE) 2. SHOPPING, LIKE NORDSTAN

2 1 3 4 5

The plot structure for the 2 parks differs. For Ringön, the existing plot sizes varies. The added ones are narrow and pervading so many businesses are exposed to Norra Avenyn. The land in the Jubilee Park should be owned by the city with “usufruct agreement” (nyttjanderätt) for private initiatives. This would ensure that the land remains accessible in contrast to the trend of privatization of public land. The building density is higher and concentrated to Norra Avenyn and lower in Jubilee Park.

No study has been done for Ringön, but it’s assumed that higher density in the whole area is possible. The proposed values are flexible but supported by urban rules.

An interesting reference is the Ruhr area in Germany where old industry is preserved and interpreted as monuments in a park where greenery seems to have taken over. In a similar way, I imagine that structures from the harbor era being preserved and becoming part of the landscape in Jubilee park (2).

Legend Walking/biking Bridges Commute biking Tram Bus Cars

274

The Southern pier of Jubilee Park is proposed to transform into an island. This is proposed because this land has low potential for human movement (a loop from Hisingsbron bank seat is a 2 km detour) and is very exposed to rough winds. The pier becomes a protected habitat island in the middle of the city, and it might fit the endangered bird “eider”.

Social Ecological Urbanism 2021

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9 12

7 10

8 11

RINGÖN - CREATIVE MAKING 3. “LÅN/ FIXOTEK” (FIX/LENDING PLACE) 4. EXHIBITION HALL 5. WORKSHOPS (E.G. BIKE REPAIR, PRODUCTION, SHOP) JUBILEE PARK - PLAY AND LEARNING 6. MOVEMENT AND SPORTS (SWIMMING) 7. CULTURE (E.G. HARBOR MUSEUM WITH CULTURAL OUTDOOR WALK) 8. LEARNING (E.G. GREENHOUSE) 9. PLAYGROUND 10. LEARNING 11. HABITAT 12. NATURE LANDSCAPE WITH HARBOR HERITAGE

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NO COPYRIGHT

Shifting scales

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160

400 m

LUNDBYLEDEN

MASTERPLAN HAMNBANAN

HJALMAR BRANTINGSPLATSEN

Legend RINGÖN

Plan 1:8000

SECTION A-A

Land total excl. roads 324 000 sqm Total GFA < 699 000 sqm Rules from masterplan: no residential units public buildings park in Frihamnen green crossing over Lundbyleden

NO

RR

A

AV E

NY

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JUBILEE PARK

Existing buildings Areas outside scope 50 m safety zone Existing business Plan extension additions

HISINGSBRON

Ringön Ringön entrance Existing area FSI < 4, GSI < 1 FSI < 2,5, GSI < 0,6 Jubilee Park Jubilee Park entrances FSI < 4, GSI < 1 FSI < 2,5, GSI < 0,6 FSI < 0,3, GSI < 0,1 FSI 0, GSI 0.

Ecoduct Anti-noise tunnel

Norra Avenyn

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NORRA AVENYN | Typologies

Temporary structure, small investment

HALL

TYPOLOGIES

ATRIUM

DECK

This project required another approach to the term “typology” than the other key projects and is not directly based on density, but rather on durability and in extension strategy for economic incentives. It resulted in 3 different building types which provides conditions for more or less flexible use and durability. The 3 central typologies are the Hall building, the Atrium building and the Deck building. Transforming this area is a big intervention and investment. The development should be initiated by the city - of course Norra Aveny-street itself, but also the functions that should be run or stated by the city.

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2

HALL - The Hall building has a temporary structure and is rational and cheap to construct and flexible for many uses.

Different facade material determines the purpose, e. g. glass makes it a greenhouse (1) and steel makes it a conventional industrial hall (2). This typology could be experienced plain and enclosed in a cityscape. This typology fits well for private investors and to facilitate small scale economic clusters, but could also be an initiative by the city to lay a foundation for a small scale development.

ATRIUM - The Atrium building is from the beginning the same as the Hall, but courtyards have been cut out for daylight reasons. This typology is therefore fit for functions that require more daylight. The courtyard could be open or closed with a glass roof, the courtyard has no effects for the public space.

Could e. g. be offices, and be retrofitted.

DECK - The Deck building is a permanent one-use typology.

The building is more expensive and permanent structure (possibly also architectural expression) compared to the Hall.

The 3 typologies are illustrated to the right. The red marks which ones should be initiated first and by the city.

Permanent structure, big investment

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Shifting scales

Urban rules

Urban rules have been formulated after identifying spatial qualities that are important for the project. The rules apply to all facades facing Norra Avenyn and are illustrated in the map to the right.

OPENNESS - The 1st rule is that all facades facing Norra Avenyn must have at least 50% windows. Since the functions of Ringön and Jubilee Park should be displayed (1), it is important that the buildings allows that. Openings could also create a perception of safety for users (“eyes on the street”) of the public space, especially at night. Having a rule for openings is especially important for the Hall typology, which in a conventional layout might not have windows at all.

BORDER DISTANCE - The 2nd rule is that 50% of the facade facing Norra Avenyn must not be placed further than 3 m from the border. This is a strategy to ensure that the buildings function as a spatially supportive structure for the street. After a sketching phase, it was determined that more than 3 m could generate undefined space. Allowing 50% of the building to, however, be withdrawn as far as desired generate potentials to create places in front of the buildings for example commercial or serving purposes.

JUBILEE PARK BORDER - The 3rd rule says there must be a clear border between Norra Avenyn and the Jubilee Park. It is important to spatially define where the park area is, and where people can enter it. Since the park is not only green open areas, but also buildings it is especially important to underline it as one cohesive area (2).

1

2

OPENNESS

BORDER DISTANCE

JUBILEE PARK

5TH FACADE

THE 5TH FACADE - The 4th rule is about making sure that the roof, the 5th facade, is utilized. It could be for social and/or ecological purposes which makes it an “ecological performative building” (Marcus, 2021). Examples from the proposal are green roofs, rooftop terraces and PV’s.

Norra Avenyn

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NORRA AVENYN | Plan illustration

Process Sketch of early flow distribution and possible pedestrian danger.

Sketch of pedestrian islands when public transport is allocated to center.

Lowered vehicle lanes creates a natural speed calming feature.

2 examples of attempts to define the street, 1 = undefined, 2= defined in flex.

The map on the right page illustrates how the site conditions, potentials, challenges, strategies, typologies and urban rules unfolds in an urban design proposal. The potential of 3 important links along Norra Avenyn was studied (1) in an attempt to pin what type of space it is, the potentials and the challenges. This became a guiding method for which functions and spaces were created in each link.

The street between them, the nodes, is distributing the movement flows. The layout relates to the other elements proposed by Stavroulaki and Berghauser Pont (2020), e. i. 2. physical elements which reduce car speeds e.g. traffic calming features, 3. wide sidewalks, 4. separate bike lanes and 7. narrow car lanes and short crossing distance. The disposition is (principal drawing 2) wide sidewalk - flex space - public transport lane - car lanes - public transport lane - flex space - commute bike lane - sidewalk. The hierarchy is firstly pedestrians with good walk-and bikeability, followed by public transport and lastly cars, and this is also the spatial order of it in the street. This makes the public transport stops directly connected to the pedestrian areas instead of being isolated on islands in the middle of the road. The vehicle lanes are lower than the pedestrian/bike lanes, making the crossings a calming feature. The flex space is implemented to ensure ecological functions with trees and stormwater management and creating a distance between pedestrians and vehicles.

The flex space could, as I understand it and with the functions above, be a physical answer to make the street liveable and safe as mentioned previously in the research by Stavroulaki and Berghauser Pont (2020).

1

2

WALK 4,5

FLEX PUBLIC 5 3

VEHICLES 12 3

PUBLIC FLEX BIKE WALK 5 3 4,5 m

The traffic is gradually decreasing on Norra Avenyn the closer one gets to Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen. Diverting the traffic in steps is done to avoid one huge traffic situation. First, the tram is extracted, then the cars going East and West, and in the final traffic situation are cars going North and buses.

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200 m

LE DE N

80

0

LU ND

BY

SHOPPING

HA M

NB A

NA N

THEATHRE

L3 HJALMAR BRANTINGSPLATSEN

P “LÅNOTEK” AND OFFICES EXHIBITION HALL

NO

P

RINGÖN

RR

AA VE

NY

SPORTS

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Legend L2

Plan illustration 1:4000 Existing buildings Proposed buildings

BATH JUBILEE PARK

Land use and character Pedestrian, accessible Vehicle, accessible Green areas “with trees“= ecological, more vegetated Green areas “without trees” = ecological, more open area

HARBOR MUSEUM L1 GREEN HOUSE

ON BR

GS

SIN

HI

Link 1 Link 2 Link 3

Norra Avenyn

Gradual decreace of traffic Commute biking Tram Cars

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NORRA AVENYN | Intersections

The sections illustrate spatial intersections between the street and the direct supporting structures or other important spaces.

SECTION B-B

SECTION B-B illustrates how the building in the last point on Norra Avenyn (the public transport hub Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen) could be designed with a fountain and a fund motif building with possibilities for balcony views.

SECTION C-C illustrates the greenhouse (Hall typology) with the urban rules of 3 m border distance and Jubilee Park border, as well as the street flex space with stormwater management.

SECTION C-C

SECTION D-D also illustrates the greenhouse, but this time just by Link 3 with Norra Avenyn and Hisingsbron in the background. Here, it’s possible for the greenhouse to have a nice south facing outdoor space just by a pedestrian street and the newly opened water channel between mainland and the habitat island.

SECTION D-D

The photorealistic images mounted in these illustrations are produced by the following artists: Figure 6. By Susanna Nikolaus. (CC BY 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 7. By MariaDB. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 8. By Lydia Simmons. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author. Figure 9. By PNGAll. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 10. By Isig Kaplangi. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

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SECTION E-E

SECTION G-G

25 m

SECTION F-F

SECTION E-E illustrates a smaller version of the Hall typology with an open space for displaying goods in front of it, as the urban rule for border distance. Here, the flex space contains seating and a row of flags for exposure. The plots are narrow and pervading, which allows for a customer-friendly space towards Norra Avenyn and manufacturing space and delivery access on the other side.

SECTION F-F illustrates the connection between a big version of the Hall typology (the exhibition hall for Ringön) and the sidewalk.

The urban rules for windows connect people visually, there are PV’s on the roof. The structure of the hall is rational. In the background there is a hint of the anti-noise tunnels above the railway. The ground is sloping down towards Hjalmar Brantingsplatsen.

SECTION G-G illustrates the street with bus stops on both sides in the flex spaces. The building to the right is in the Jubilee Park border. It could have a green roof sloping towards the open spaces in the park.

The building and a stair handles the height difference. Next to the building is a car park. Here, the lowered vehicle lanes are shown.

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NORRA AVENYN | The Jubilee Park and Ringon entrance

Process Sketch of the fence structure first is free standing and lower, then increases in height close to the Jubilee Park entrance, and finally being included in the building design. The fence structure itself could both strengthen direction by closing some part ang having some opened, and have, for example greenery and seating included.

The illustration below and map to the right illustrates, in more detail the public spaces and interfacing buildings at the link where Norra Avenyn, Ringön’s entrance and Jubilee Park entrance coincide.

The entrance to Ringön is lined with hall buildings on both sides. The exhibition hall by the square (initiated by the city) is an important representative space for Ringöns local businesses and statement of interest from the city. The roofscape is characteristic for industy and the direction of and entrances to the buildings are intended to be inviting to further explore Ringön, since this is the main entrance to the area. The square is displayed to all movement on Norra Avenyn, and has therefore good conditions for local temporary economic systems if it is used as a flexible marketplace.

The entrance to the Jubilee Park is geometrically a funnel, similar to the entrance to Trädgårdsföreningen. The thought is that the sidewalk continues but floats out into this shape that directs the movement towards the park. The entrance is car free.

This is also where the urban rule of Jubilee Park border could be explained. In the funnel, the free standing fence structure becomes included in the facade design of the public bath. This creates a visually cohesive border. The main entrance to the bath is in the funnel too. The fence structure is open at some places, but not everywhere. This is to collect movement to certain strategic links where there is an entrance. The fence starts

by Hisingsbron where it’s low and gradually gets higher towards the main park entrance. In direct connection to the main entrance is accessible bike parkings. The funnel is strengthened by flower beds.

Sketch of how the funnel shape leads to the entrance of Trädgårdsföreningen. The paths along Anenyn continues, creating an open public space inbetween.

TRÄDGÅRDSFÖRENINGEN

AVENYN

FIGURE 5. Aerial photo underlay, scale 1:2000.

Download, raster ©Lantmäteriet (2021)

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20

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50 m

PV’S RINGÖN

SQUARE

SERVING

GREEN ROOF

TERRACE

PUBLIC TRANSPORT STOP BIKES JUBILEE PARK

Norra Avenyn

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NORRA AVENYN | Reflections

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3

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The outcome of this key project

The process of this key project

This key project is an attempt to illustrate how one could make use of the qualities of such a central location, the conditions provided by the masterplan and how to improve the preconditions at the site by measures to reduce noise and improve possibilities for human scale movement (2) (the latter is also the vision for the masterplan (1)) by attracting people, directing flows and displaying the functions. The focus was the street and what spaces, buildings and functions that could support it (3).

I wanted to underline the potentials for this connector in the big scale for the city and citizens of Gothenburg by a visionary approach. Telling that story in relation to historical interventions and grand reference areas such as Ruhr in Germany and Champs Élysée in Paris is intended to change the view on what this site is and could be. Naming it “Norra Avenyn” was done in order to pin that Hisingen is important and part of the city, which is made possible by the connecting street.

We identified that this site had potentials for interaction on the big scale, e. i. people from many different areas will intersect here. The high flow on Norra Avenyn is generated by the “bridge” effect, which is that all people have to use this route because it’s the only way to Hisingen. Compared to Södra Avenyn, which has the same high betweenness as Norra Avenyn, the potentials instead comes from the fine grid which generates another kind of accessibility. This proposal is one approach to an alternative extension of Gothenburg’s parade street, and answers to the hypothesis of a “Norra Avenyn”.

This project addresses social, economic and ecologic sustainability. The main social aspects derives from the location and the possibilities for human interaction and usage of this street and supporting structures, as well as the overall “securing” of public space, which Jubilee Park is, for today and for the future. The main economic aspects are how the city could initiate interventions (street, and to some extent buildings and functions) to make something of this place and support the bottomup small scale economic systems already established. The main ecological aspects are how the distribution of the street could enable ecological functions and how the importance of ecology can be underlined by typologies (greenhouse) and in combination with functions (learning and play).

Social Ecological Urbanism 2021

I took it upon me to investigate this site partly because I thought it was an interesting context with much potential to be transformed into something completely different than it is, and partly because this area was left undefined in the masterplan, however very important for it and for Hisingen itself. The fact that density, type of streets and connection to the close areas were not defined (like the rest of the plan) I realized that I had to “reverse” and make those definitions so I had something to base the illustrations on. Now, I know that this was a time consuming detour and that I could have approached the key project differently to get another scope and focus. Since there were many loose ends I wanted to tie them all together, which were too many things at the same time. Some of the issues I’ve dealt with will not be my task in a real project, but could be good to know on an overview level.

In addition to this lesson from the key project, I have learnt a lot from all parts of the course and by my group members and their projects. Not least to start use new terms and have a new perspective on what “preconditions” are and how one could visualize it. The approach with evidence based decision making in urban planning is very interesting, and it’s relevant to continue to learn about it. Remaining is, still, the challenge to get the scale in urban design but I look forward to further grasp this just like the eye is trained for building design scales.

Shifting scales

References

Bibliography

Images

Göteborgs stad (2021-11-01). Ringön. https://stadsutveckling.goteborg.se/projekt/ ringon/ (Retrieved 2021-12-10).

Images without notes are produced by the author.

Images without copyright are marked with “no copyright” or “public domain”.

Göteborgs stad. (2018-10-04). Göteborgs Stads åtgärdsprogram mot buller 2019–2023. https://goteborg.se/wps/wcm/connect/aa94c45e-81a5-4518-a338d042491ad612/Göteborgs+stads+åtgärdsprogram+mot+buller+2019-2023. pdf?MOD=AJPERES (Retrieved 2021-12-10).

Houltz, A. (2004). Industri blir historia: Göteborgsutställningen 1923 och industriarvets musealisering. Dædalus (Stockholm). (2004(72), s. [10]-33). https://digitalamodeller.se/daedalus/kapitel/Industri%20blir%20historia.%20Goteborgsutstallningen%201923%20och%20industriarvets%20musealisering.%20Anders%20 Houltz.pdf Johansson, J. (2017-04-20). Innovation och skaparglädje. U&We. https://www.uandwe.se/innovation-och-skapargladje/ (Retrieved 2021-11-24) Legeby, A. (2021-10-07) Urban form matters for social sustainability. [Unpublished power-point presentation]. KTH School of Architecture.

Marcus, L. (2021-09-20) Social-ecological urbanism. [Unpublished power-point presentation]. Chalmers University of technology.

Stavroulaki, I & Berghauser Pont, M. (2020). A systematic review of multifunctional streets. Chalmers University of Technology. https://research.chalmers.se/publication/520627/file/520627_Fulltext.pdf Trafikverket. (2020-11-10). Buller från vägtrafik. https://www.trafikverket.se/fordig-i-branschen/miljo---for-dig-i-branschen/buller-och-vibrationer---for-dig-i-branschen/Fakta-om-buller-och-vibrationer/buller-fran-vagtrafik/ (Retrieved 2022-0103) van Eldijk, J. (2019). The wrong side of the tracks: quantifying barrier effects of transport infrastructure on local accessibility. Transportation Research Procedia, 42: 4452. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2019.12.005

Figure 1. Modified from Lantmäteriet. (2021). Min karta. Scale 1:20 000. [Aerial photo] https://minkarta.lantmateriet.se Figure 2. Modified from Lantmäteriet. (2021). Min karta. Scale 1:5000. [Aerial photo] https://minkarta.lantmateriet.se Figure 3. By Atlantica. (2005). Heading through the Sound Tube on the Tullamarine Freeway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. [Photography]. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TullamarineFwy.jpg. (CC BY SA 3.0).

Figure 4 is an interpretation and simplification of information from these 2 sources: Estévez-Mauriz, L et. al. (2016). Urban sound planning project and test sites: an example within the planning stage. [Paper]. Image: ”Figure 2 –Frihamnen area noise map (Lden)” on page 3. Division of Applied Acoustics. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden https://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/241002/local_241002.pdf.

Göteborgs stad. (2018). Trafikbuller i Göteborg, kartäggning 2018. [Report]. Image: “Karta 9 Lundby” in appendix E. Göteborgs stad. https://goteborg.se/wps/ wcm/connect/e583083a-041a-4758-9623-adc8c7b64537/N800_R_2019_14. pdf?MOD=AJPERES . ISBN nr: 1401-2448. (Retrieved 2022-01-11).

Figure 5. Modified from Lantmäteriet. (2021). Min karta. Scale 1:2000. [Aerial photo] https://minkarta.lantmateriet.se Figure 6. By Susanna Nikolaus. (u.å). Photo tree. [Photography] https://www.picpng. com/tree-png-25067 (CC BY 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 7. By MariaDB. (u.å). Tree PNG image with transparent background. [Photography] https://pngimg.com/image/92703. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 8. By Lydia Simmons. (2015). Bush png Image. [Photography] https:// freepngimg.com/png/6908-bush-png-image. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 9. By PNGAll. (2020). Flock of Birds PNG. [Photography]. https://www.pngall. com/flock-of-birds-png/download/48029. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

Figure 10. By Isig Kaplangi. (2021). Figure Palm tree. [Photography] https://www. picpng.com/palm-tree-png-24732. (CC BY NC 4.0). Remixed by author.

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