Chalmers Open Digital Repository

Welcome to Chalmers Open Digital Repository!

Here you can find:

Student theses and papers
Digital special collections, such as Chalmers modellkammare
Selected project reports

Research publications, reports and dissertations can be found in research.chalmers.se

Communities in Chalmers ODR

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Recent Submissions

Mind the City; Decoding Spatial Narratives and Reimagining Nordstan for People
(2026) Shanmugham, Shevani
In contemporary urban environments, people navigate spaces shaped by strong commercial, infrastructural, and symbolic cues that guide their perception and movement, often without conscious awareness. Nordstan, Gothenburg’s central urban node, is one such environment: a complex hybrid of commercial, transit, public, and office space. Over time, its development has increasingly prioritised foregrounding commercial visibility and infrastructural efficiency, while user comfort, publicness, and clear pedestrian movement are backgrounded. With the upcoming Västlänken development expected to significantly increase pedestrian traffic, rethinking Nordstan becomes increasingly important. This thesis critically analyses Nordstan as a commercial-transit hybrid space through Henri Lefebvre’s conceptualisation of the production of space. Lefebvre’s spatial triad of perceived, conceived, and lived dimensions of the built environment, is used to guide the study in examining Nordstan’s social production beyond the commercialisation of its public space, while questioning user prioritisation. Design scenarios are used as part of the analysis to situate the tensions of lived space-specific to users, commuters, public, shoppers, to finally examine contradictions and constraints in the spatial dimension. Using archival and morphological studies, alongside predominantly qualitative methods including serial vision, photo-elicitation, node & centrality mapping, user questionnaire—the research investigates how, spatial configurations, semiotic cues and social power structures shape everyday experiences of movement, perception, and behaviour of public users. Despite knowing Nordstan’s centrality and role as a major pedestrain transit node, the findings indicate that ongoing development has been driven largely by profitability and infrastructural efficiency. These priorities have produced spatial conditions that encourage rushed movement, reduce legibility, and weaken the site’s sense of publicness within the lived space dimension. Findings from the design scenarios exposes tensions between social use and commuter movement and give us insights on spatial user needs. This thesis argues for a more human-centred approach to future infrastructural development in Nordstan, grounded in critical spatial thinking and informed by interdisciplinary modes of inquiry. Drawing on the findings from the critical spatial analyses and the design scenarios, while foregrounding the narratives of lived space, the study exposes the necessity of qualitative approaches in addressing the complexities of urban development and advocates to rethink design strategies prioritising user’s spatial experience
A District With No Plan; The Futures of Slakthusområdet
Malmgren, Filippa
Urban areas must develop in increasingly volatile contexts, where long-term ambitions for resilience collide with short-term political and financial constraints. Conventional planning processes struggle to reconcile uncertainty with strategic decision-making, resulting in stalled development. This thesis examines how design-led scenario planning can function as a planning method for structuring long-term development pathways in Gothenburg’s Slakthusområdet district, under conditions of climate risk, planning uncertainty, and fragmented governance. Adopting a Research-by-Design methodology, the study utilizes Local Climate Zones (LCZ) and urban system mapping as analytical frameworks to translate planning theory into measurable spatial characteristics. The research develops three spatially exaggerated scenarios, each assuming the temporary dominance of one priority from Campbell’s Planner’s Triangle (social equity, environmental protection, or economic development). By tracing these competing logics across urban systems, the thesis reveals the structural trade-offs inherent in urban renewal. The findings suggest that scenario planning reframes uncertainty as an operational lever, providing a comparative framework to support decision-making in complex, redeveloping areas. Ultimately, the study proposes that planning must shift from seeking a balance toward providing comparative frameworks that evaluate the consequences of alternative pathways before they become binding commitments.
Designing for emergence
(2026) Jasko, Niki
Contemporary urban development is often shaped by large-scale projects that prioritise stability and predictability. While such approaches can deliver efficiency, they may also reduce the diversity and adaptability that allow cities to evolve over time. This thesis explores how urban design can support ongoing urban processes rather than prescribe fixed urban forms. Building on theories of self-organisation and spatial configuration, the study uses configurational spatial analysis to examine how spatial structure relates to patterns of movement and materialisation in three case studies: Vauban, Tsukishima, and Bijlmermeer. Based on these analyses, the thesis formulates a framework that translates identified spatial conditions into design-relevant parameters. The framework outlines spatial conditions intended to maintain openness and adaptability within contemporary development contexts. It is applied to a site in Gothenburg to explore its relevance in practice. Keywords By shifting attention from predefined urban forms to the spatial conditions that support interaction and change, the thesis proposes an approach to urban design that seeks to balance development with long term adaptability.
Ecological Thresholds; Designing for Human-Nature Coexistence in a Post-Industrial Landscape
(2026) Gangadhara, Nanditha
Rapid urbanisation is resulting in fragmented ecological networks and growing disconnection between human and nature that challenges well-being in cities. Whereas post-industrial landscapes are identified as important socio-ecological systems with potential to support coexistence. A lot of conservation strategies are based on strict protection and human exclusion limit ing opportunities for interaction and supporting spatial separation. This thesis explores the gap between ecological conservation and human engagement and how design can mediate this relationship. It looks at Limhamn kalkbrott in Malmö, a limestone quarry that is now a protected ecological hotspot but remains physically and socially inaccessible from the surrounding. This thesis aims to explore how redesigning the edge of Limhamn kalkbrott as an ecological threshold can transform post-industrial landscapes into catalysts for ecological resilience and human well-being. The main research question asks How can post-industrial quarries such as Limhamn kalkbrott be redesigned to function as a shared habitat for both humans and nature in Malmö, Sweden ? A combined method approach of street network analysis to evaluate pedestrian move ment and accessibility with habitat network analysis to model ecological connectivity for selected species : green toad, roe deer and eurasian eagle owl. These are overlapped to identify zones of protection, conflict, co existence, and experiential. Two future scenarios - ecological priority and human access priority are developed and evaluated based on human and ecological systems. The findings show that redesigning the quarry edge as a gradient rather than barrier can enhance ecological connectivity while allowing controlled human access. The concept of ecological threshold can allow spatial strategies to reduce habitat fragmentation, pedestrian flow and promote multispecies coexistence. The research contributes to landscape architecture by developing a threshold based design framework that transitions from analytical findings into threshold strategies. It focuses on the potential of post-industrial landscapes as shared habitat and proposes a transferable approach to improve ecological connectivity and human-nature relationship in urban contexts.
Outdoor Comfort in the Cold; CFD-Informed Microclimate Design for Subarctic Cities
(2026) Pestrea, Jonna
This thesis investigates how urban morphologies and spatial configurations can be adapted to Arctic conditions, with a focus on environmental comfort and resilience. The thesis aims to evaluate how variations in urban morphology influence outdoor thermal comfort in Kiruna’s subarctic climate. Using Kiruna as a case study, a city relocating due to mining induced ground deformation, the research addresses the need for climate responsive urban strategies in an extreme environment. Due to ongoing climate change, Kiruna is experiencing rising average temperatures, increased rainfall, greater seasonal variability and extreme weather. This creating new challenges for outdoor environmental comfort and climate resilient planning. This in turn highlights the need for iterative design workflows that directly integrate CFD analysis and microclimate data. A persistent knowledge gap exists between architects, planners and engineers regarding the use of CFD simulations, microclimate knowledge and simplified climate studie methods. Although increasingly recognized as essential for resilient development, these tools remain poorly integrated in mainstream practice due to differences in technical training, methods and professional boundaries. This highlights the need to translate complex environmental analysis into accessible and design driven insights for subarctic development. The study includes interviews, microclimate modelling, wind and solar radiation simulations and comparative case studies to evaluate the performance of several urban configurations. Simulations are carried out using Autodesk Forma and Forma plugins for Rhino 8 which assesses solar exposure, wind flow and microclimatic interactions. The workflow is iterative and scenario based, using seasonal boundary conditions to compare typologies and street configurations against outdoor thermal comfort criteria. The results are based on comparisons between different examples of urban morphology. These have been tested within the subarctic climate and urban context of Kiruna. The design is grounded in the insights and outcomes generated by the tests. One configuration will then be developed in detail, integrating rainwater management, social functions and green infrastructure. Ultimately, the thesis contributes a design oriented framework that bridges environmental simulation and urban morphology, supporting resilient and comfortable public realm design in subarctic contexts.