Ecological compensation, to balance city and nature : a design proposal

In Uppsala, Sweden, there is a proposal for a new in-depth comprehensive plan (fördjupad översiktsplan) for southeastern Uppsala that proposes a new train station, a dense development of approximately 21,500 new homes and 10,000–15,000 new jobs. The project area is located in a place with valuable nature, from both an ecological and recreational point of view. When the plan is developed, a large area of forest will be lost. This amounts to a great ecological loss and something that this thesis compensates for in the design of a green wedge proposed the in-depth comprehensive plan. The main goal for this thesis is to answer the research question of how a green wedge in a new urban environment can be designed to compensate for an ecological loss, while simultaneously meeting people’s need of a public space. In order to answer the research question, this thesis has also explored which species and habitats that will disappear or be negatively affected as a consequence of the in-depth comprehensive plan. The thesis also explored how current knowledge about compensation can be applied to the wedge in southeastern Uppsala and what those who use the project area enjoy about the site today. These questions were answered in a design proposal based on several different methods, primarily a case study. The case study used the methods quantitative and qualitative site analysis as well as a survey study to answer the research question. Qualitative text analysis was also used for the case study and in the literature review where information about, among other things, ecological compensation was collected. Verbal sources and principles for the design are also mentioned in the method chapter to make the thesis as transparent as possible. Based on the results within the case study and the literature review, a design proposal was created for the wedge. A major problem that the design intended to solve was how to combine high ecological values with the functional needs of a public place. The main solution to this is to design separate spaces that are social, and spaces that are natural. These surfaces are described as formal and informal. The formal surfaces were primarily pathways but also included a larger social surface made out of wood on the west side of the preexisting pond in the center of the wedge. A wooden promenade was also created along the eastern side of the pond to make the park accessible to people with disabilities, among other things. The informal areas are forest or nature areas surrounding the formal areas. The forest or nature areas are where the ecological compensation is applied. To compensate for the loss of nature, measures to restore, create new nature, manage and adapt the use of nature and to protect nature from future exploitation was taken. This thesis will hopefully inspire others to apply similar solutions to other projects, to promote high values for both people and nature.I sydöstra Uppsala finns det ett förslag för en ny fördjupad översiktsplan som innebär bland annat en ny tågstation, en tät bebyggelse av cirka 21 500 nya bostäder och 10 000–15 000 nya arbetsplatser. Den nya staden föreslås i en miljö med värdefull natur, i både ekologisk och rekreativ synpunkt. När planen står klar år 2050 kommer 1684 hektar skog och naturmark att vara förlorad. Detta innebär en stor ekologisk förlust och något som detta examensarbete ska ge förslag på hur det kan kompenseras för i en gestaltning av en grön kil inne i den fördjupade översiktsplanen. Arbetet var tematiskt avgränsat till att studera ekologisk hållbarhet och framförallt biologisk mångfald som är en subgenre till ekologisk hållbarhet. Även social hållbarhet behandlades i arbetet eftersom gestaltningen applicerades på en offentlig plats där aspekter som trygghet och säkerhet måste tas i beaktning. Geografisk var arbetet avgränsat till planområdet för de sydöstra stadsdelarna i Uppsala (figur 2) samt Lunsens naturreservat (figur 17) som är beläget precis söder om projektområdet. Gestaltningsförslaget var vidare avgränsat till den mittersta av tre kilar, som är en del av den fördjupade översiktsplanen (figur 3). Det övergripande målet med arbetet var att besvara forskningsfrågan om hur en kil i en ny urban miljö kan gestaltas för att kompensera för en ekologisk förlust, samtidigt som den bemöter människors behov av en offentlig naturmiljö. För att kunna besvara den huvudsakliga frågan har arbetet även utforskat vilka arter och naturtyper som kommer att försvinna eller påverkas negativt som en konsekvens av den fördjupade översiktsplanen, hur nuvarande kunskaper om kompensation kan tillämpas på en av kilarna i de sydöstra stadsdelarna och vad de som använder projektområdet idag uppskattar av naturen. Dessa frågor besvarades i ett gestaltningsförslag, som utgått ifrån metodiken för fallstudie samt flera andra metoder. Inom fallstudien användes metoderna kvantitativ och kvalitativ platsanalys samt en enkätstudie. Kvalitativ textanalys användes även genom fallstudien samt i kapitlet litteraturöversikt där information om bland annat ekologisk kompensation samlades. Även muntliga källor och principer för gestaltningen nämns i metodkapitlet för att visa transparens i arbetet

Learnings from public life in order to rethink post-corona cities: A human-centered approach to the use of data in urban planning

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted cities around the world and raised fundamental questions about urban development. How do we better upgrade infrastructure? How do we ensure affordability? How do we protect and restore open and green areas? And how do we enhance overall livability for all? It’s clear that the coronavirus will have, and is already having, a profound effect on how we answer those questions and the overall direction that today’s and the built environment of the future will take. Learning from the use of public space during the pandemic, has shown us the need for rethinking across content how to better create health promoting cities for everyone. From this perspective, this article focuses on the imperative role of collecting and analysing ‘thick data’, qualitative information that can reveal social context and a deeper understanding about how people’s behaviour has been impacted in a time of crisis.The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted cities around the world and raised fundamental questions about urban development. How do we better upgrade infrastructure? How do we ensure affordability? How do we protect and restore open and green areas? And how do we enhance overall livability for all? It’s clear that the coronavirus will have, and is already having, a profound effect on how we answer those questions and the overall direction that today’s and the built environment of the future will take. Learning from the use of public space during the pandemic, has shown us the need for rethinking across content how to better create health promoting cities for everyone. From this perspective, this article focuses on the imperative role of collecting and analysing ‘thick data’, qualitative information that can reveal social context and a deeper understanding about how people’s behaviour has been impacted in a time of crisis

Using data to Rethink Cities for people in a Post-COVID19 World

Folk giver byer liv. De interagerer, arbejder, socialiserer og rejser. Uden dette er byer kun samlinger af bygninger og infrastruktur. Den måde, vi forbinder os til byer på, er ved at udvikle en ”følelse af sted”. Konceptet beskriver, hvordan vi opfatter og knytter os til steder, vi bruger dagligt. Denne forbindelse med byer ændres over tid, men er altid grundlagt i følelse af sted. På grund af covid-19 er dette forhold sat på pause over hele verden. Når vi begynder at planlægge for post-covid-19 byer, er vi nødt til at erkende opgaven og vigtigheden for bedre at forstå, hvad pandemierne betyder for byer, og hvorfor det har og kan ændre folks følelse af sted så dybt. En måde at gøre dette på er at arbejde med data - som et kompas i usikre tider. Data kan ses som en nøgle, der giver os mulighed for at skabe nye meningsfulde former for værdi for mennesker i byerne.People bring cities to life. They interact, work, socialise and travel. Without this, cities are just collections of buildings and infrastructure. The way we connect to cities is by developing a “sense of place”. The concept describes how we perceive and attach to places we use daily. This connection with cities changes over time but is always grounded in sense of place. Due to covid-19, this relationship and connection is on hiatus all over the world. As we start planning for post-covid cities, we need to recognize the task and importance to better understand what the pandemics represents for cities and why it has and can change people’s sense of place so profoundly. One way to do this, is to turn to data - as a compass in uncertain times. Data can be seen as the bridge that will allow us to create new meaningful forms of value for people in the cities. Yet our collective ability to collect and organise this data and to exploit it in a way that delivers better urban services and a better society for everyone is at best formative and uneven

Dystopiernas seger : totalitarism som orienteringspunkt i efterkrigstidens svenska idédebatt

The purpose of this study is to dissect the process of ideological orientation in the public debate of postwar Sweden. Crucial to the study is the idea of a generic totalitarianism; a concept used both on a scholarly and a political level, focusing on the similarities between communism and Nazism, and the diverging guiding potential of this totalitarianism idea in different times and situations. The analytical framework of this thesis is a model called the dystopian trilemma, extracted by the author from preliminary observations from the debate on The Black Book of Communism in the late nineties. This model suggests that the three most predominant ideologies of the twentieth century have, to a great extent, defined themselves mutually negatively. These ideologies are named as pairs: fascism/Nazism, socialism/communism and liberal capitalism /liberal democracy. As a result of these three potential positions, two important things follow. Firstly, it suggests that each of these three ideological positions defines itself against the remaining two and usually regards these as interconnected, or equivalent, dystopian counterparts. Secondly, it also proposes that such a perceptual pattern is disapproved by the two remaining ideologies, which on the contrary define themselves as ideological counterparts to each other. Apart from the negatively defined dystopian positions, it is also suggested that this trilemma has been formed in a process of altering experiences, a concept used in accordance with the tradition emanating from modern German hermeneutics and the term Wirkungsgeschichte, history of effects, elaborated by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Reinhart Koselleck. In sum, the hypothesis initially proposed is that the process of ideological orientation may be described as a development from utopian expectations to dystopian experiences. From a number of different case studies, from the Swedish reception of Victor Kravchenkos’ I Chose Freedom to the debates on the 9/11-attack and the war on terrorism, this hypothesis is mainly confirmed, and is illustrated by the negativist backbone of the debates formed by a clear distinction between liberal totalitarianism theory and socialist imperialism theory. The only exception seems to be the positive utopian passion for Maoist China during the sixties and early seventies. In consequence, the main result is that the dystopian experiences are what in fact have prevailed, and that “the victory of the dystopias” may be regarded as an important aspect of what Francis Fukuyama called “the end of history” and Herbert Tingsten, among others, called “the end of ideology”