4. Opportunities and challenges

Having worked on Svartlamo(e)n for a while we see that there are several positives to take away from the area and there are some challenges that they face as well. Starting with the challenges there are three main topics: the conflicts between the municipality and residents, the challenges they face in daily life, and the challenges we faced while working with Svartlamo(e)n.

While working with Svartlamo(e)n we faced challenges with engagement as they value developing the area on their own. This could also reflect how they work with the municipality where the residents want to do a lot themselves, but the municipality sees this as a challenge regarding safety and funding of critical safety needs. This also seems to be reflected on in the negotiations around the new contract as Svartlamo(e)n wants to keep the rent low, but the municipality sees the need for a higher rent to maintain the cost of building structural deficiencies that effect the safety.

These issues were also the main topic when interacting with the residents, but after looking into why people moved away, based on the data from Martine, we saw that noise and being on display were some of the major reasons noted.

In addition, we also noticed the lack of universal accessibility when observing the area. When looking into the opportunities and positive sides of Svartlamo(e)n, the community, the regulations, and housing were some of the main positives.

Being an urban ecological trail area, it gives the residents and the association more freedom to develop the area how they would like by having a greater focus on participation and use of local resources both in terms of Human Resources and physical resources.

Figure 45: Opportunities Diagram, Authors

Figure 46: Challenges Diagram, Authors