Chalmers Open Digital Repository

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  Biophilic Regeneration of Brownfields Towards Inclusive and Adaptive Landscape

  (2026) Borhani Barforoushi, Parimah

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  Brownfields represent complex challenges in contemporary urbanism. They are often polluted and socially neglected, yet they hold strong potential for ecological restoration, public space creation, and the reactivation of urban identity. As cities move toward more sustainable futures, these landscapes require approaches going beyond economic redevelopment. This thesis explores how biophilic regeneration can transform them into multifunctional public environments. Drawing from brownfield regeneration theory and biophilic urbanism, the study identifies a knowledge gap in integrating biophilic principles into regeneration methodologies. While ecological restoration and cultural reuse are widely discussed, fewer frameworks examine simultaneously enhancement of heritage continuity and long-term adaptivity. Therefore, the study develops a biophilic regeneration framework based on ecological restoration, water and flood adaptation, green connectivity, spatial experience, multi sensory, heritage legibility, and human–nature co-existence. These parameters are analysed through best practices to understand how design elements can act as practical indicators. The framework is then tested on the Klippan water front in Gothenburg, where the future relocation of Stena Line creates a potential brownfield condition. QGIS-based mapping and historical analysis are used to identify access gaps, flood-prone areas, greenery needs, historical traces, and possible zones for intervention. The proposal translates the framework into spatial strategies through multi sensory water-based design and and enhancement of maritime-industrial heritage. The process concludes that brownfields can become adaptive green-blue urban landscapes when ecological, sensory, technical, and cultural aspects are designed together. Water functions as both flood infrastructure and multi-sensory experience, planting supports both biodiversity and atmosphere, and heritage becomes part of everyday public life through preservation and guideline for biophilic regeneration of waterfront brownfields and can move beyond one site-specific proposal, while still requiring contextual analysis to become practical in each location. However, the research remains conceptual and mainly qualitative. Further studies could add technical brown field parameters, stakeholder involvement, and quantitative indicators to measure the success of the framework across different sites.

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  Insight; Heritage representation in public spaces

  (2026) Demertzidis, Konstantinos

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  Heritage in urban public spaces is often mediated through static monuments, which can struggle to engage contemporary audiences and convey meaningful experiences. This master’s thesis investigates heritage as a lived and experiential phenomenon, examining how memory, atmosphere, and perception intersect in the representation of cultural and historical values. The work integrates phenomenological perspectives on sensory and atmospheric experience with a visual narrative approach that operates as both an interpretive and expressive medium. The research approaches heritage not only as a historical subject, but as a spatial and sensory condition encountered within the urban environment. Through thematic analysis and comparative investigation of memorial and heritage spaces, the thesis explores how spatial design, atmosphere, and contextual conditions influence the ways in which visitors perceive, inhabit, and emotionally engage with sites of cultural significance. Particular attention is given to the role of bodily perception, environmental qualities, and experiential engagement in shaping moments of reflection and remembrance. Alongside this analytical inquiry, the project develops a photobook-based visual narrative that trans lates the theoretical concerns of the thesis into an experiential form. Through the sequencing of images and text, the work explores how heritage may be encountered beyond fixed representation, allowing meaning to emerge through perception, atmosphere, and association rather than through direct symbolic communication alone. The outcome of the thesis is twofold. Academically, it proposes a framework for understanding heritage as an experiential and relational condition linking architecture, perception, and cultural memory. Creatively, the photobook functions as a design-oriented artefact through which these ideas are explored and communicated experientially. Together, these components offer insight into context-sensitive approaches to heritage representation, demonstrating how contemporary urban spaces may mediate cultural meaning and human experience beyond conventional monumentality.

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  Reconnecting the City; Using Ai To Help Solve Social Isolation In Gothenburg; A Data-Driven, Evidence-Based Approach To Urban Design

  (2026) Wang, Ziyue

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  How can we connect with one another? Social isolation has become a pressing public and urban design issue, especially in rapidly developing and increasingly fragmented cities. In the current era of rapid development in artificial intelligence, the use of interdisciplinary computational methods to support urban design offers a promising research direction. This master’s thesis investigates how AI-supported spatial analysis can inform urban design strategies to address structural social isolation in Gothenburg. The research focuses on Bergsjön, Gothenburg. The methodology combines QGIS-based spatial analysis and Python-based data processing with three statistical modelling techniques: linear regression, logistic regression, and K-means clustering. First, a continuous proxy for structural isolation was constructed based on POI accessibility, combining distance to the nearest facility and the number of facilities within walking distance. Linear regression was then used to examine how angular integration, GFA density relate to isolation patterns. Logistic regression was applied to estimate the probability of each spatial unit belonging to a high isolation-risk condition, producing both a continuous risk map and a categorized design priority map. Finally, K-means clustering was used to classify high-risk areas into different spatial types. The results show that structural isolation in Bergsjön is spatially uneven and strongly related to low integration, weak functional access, and fragmented urban conditions. High-risk areas are often located near green edges, infrastructure boundaries, and spaces with poor spatial continuity. The analysis also shows that different high-risk areas operate through different spatial mechanisms and therefore require different design responses. To translate these findings into site-scale design, City2Graph and Python-based network analysis were used to examine the relationships between paths, buildings, POIs, and network centrality. These analyses helped identify where a community spine should be strengthened and where social nodes should be placed. Based on this evidence, a detailed design proposal is developed for one selected site, focusing on external connectivity, public space as daily infrastructure, and targeted block retrofit. The thesis concludes that AI-supported and graph-based spatial analysis can strengthen urban design by revealing hidden spatial risk patterns, supporting site selection, and linking design decisions more clearly to spatial evidence.

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  Urban Green Networks as Facilitator for Social Cohesion; An Assessment of Hisingen in Gothenburg, Sweden

  (2026) Panakkal, Lydia Bobby

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  Urbanization is rapidly transforming cities worldwide, often leading to the shrinking and fragmentation of urban green spaces, which can intensify social inequality stress, and ecological loss. While the environmental benefits of greenery are well documented, its role as social infrastructure that fosters belonging and interaction remains less explored. This study examines how urban green space networks can strengthen social cohesion by fostering co-presence and interaction among diverse groups. It identifies the spatial and design qualities that contribute to these outcomes, while incorporating an urban green mobility perspective to understand how connectivity and movement between green spaces influence social engagement. The research develops design and planning strategies to strengthen social cohesion through urban green networks. It creates a framework of spatial qualities that support social interaction, formulates design guidelines from literature and case studies, and applies them to Hisingen, from Frihamnen to Eriksberg in Gothenburg, Sweden. The study follows an iterative research-by-design approach linking theory with spatial proposals. A mixed-method approach was used. First, literature and reference projects identified key spatial qualities for social cohesion. Second, GIS-based network analysis examined the accessibility and connectivity for green spaces in Hisingen. Third, on-site observations explored patterns of use and interaction in selected spaces. These finding informed the final design proposals. The analysis revealed that although green spaces are widely present in Hisingen, many remain fragmented by poor connectivity, steep terrain, unclear entrances, and limited accessibility. Färjenäsparken demonstrated the strongest social potential due to its good accessibility, clear circulation, and diverse activities, while other parks showed lower potential for social interaction due to physical barriers and fewer amenities.

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  The Frugal Crossing Exploring frugality in the transformation of a vital pedestrian and cycle bridge in Frihamnen, Gothenburg

  (2026) Srithar, Aashika

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  Frihamnen, one of the key areas in Gothenburg’s River City development project also known as “Älvstaden Utveckling” is the focus area of this thesis. The City’s development project involves the transformation of an industrial harbour into a sustainable urban district where the pedestrian and cycling connectivity plays a vital role in accessing the city across the infrastructure barriers. Ludvig Tingströms bro is the bridge that serves as the only pedestrian and cycling connection between the areas Kvillestan and Frihamnen which remains in a deteriorating condition, described by the local media as “old and wobbly,” causing users to feel unsafe (Hankins, 2024). The City of Gothenburg has decided against renovation while awaiting potential future replacement which leaves the bridge in a substandard condition until further notice. This situation creates a significant gap between Gothenburg’s sustainability ambitions and the reality of inadequate infrastructure serving an increasingly important urban connection. The thesis proposes a conceptual redesign of the bridge grounded in frugality and material reuse. Rather than replacing the structure entirely with an entirely new construction, the project explores how elements from the existing bridge can be retained and reconfigured by using a clear framework by adopting frugal design principles from various literature, site observations, material inventorying and obtaining materials sourced from the other decommissioned projects in Gothenburg. Frugality is approached as a deliberate architectural strategy that focuses on structural clarity, resource efficiency and careful intervention over excess. The design aims to transform second-hand materials into defining spatial and aesthetic qualities by embracing their textures and structural logic as part of a contemporary reuse-based ideology. The deliverables include contextual analysis, material investigations, and a conceptual bridge proposal that improves safety, accessibility, and overall user experience. The thesis imagines the bridge not only as a typical infrastructural element but as a potential vibrant public space, by utilising resource-conscious designs that strengthen the urban connection between Frihamnen and Kvillestan, while aligning with Gothenburg’s larger sustainability ambitions

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