For People By People - A participatory design project for an urban future in Halmstad
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Architecture and planning beyond sustainability (MPDSD), MSc
Publicerad
2023
Författare
Lindfors, Evelyn
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Architects are responsible for our built environment, ensuring it’s functionality, aesthetics,
and sustainability. The ecological sustainability is increasing in importance due to climate
change, but another important factor, that is more difficult to measure and that’s also in dire
need of attention, is the social sustainability (Tunström, 2019). People create life in our urban
spaces, not city planners or architects. We can only provide for the space, but without people
utilizing it, our profession may become purposeless. We are essentially dependent on each
other to succeed, but somehow the people’s voice in the matter of urban design seems to be
insignificant or forgotten in some cases.
The city centre in Halmstad is losing its attractivity due to a shopping mall in the outskirts
of the city and from Covid-19 repercussions, simultaneously as the conflict about a former
hotel development on Österskans was created between the municipality and the citizens
(Halmstad Kommun, 2023). The hotel project was terminated after a public vote in 2022, with
no new plan for the area to this day.
The purpose for this thesis was to investigate and develop a design method and practice of
participatory design, on the chosen site of Österskans in Halmstad, with the leading question:
How can a participatory design process be developed, with an aim to create a sustainable and
attractive urban environment, together with citizens of Halmstad?
The method is an iteration of input, interpretation, and implementation, where the input
was gathered form participatory actions such as questionnaires, interviews and workshops.
The input were made into a framework of design principles and zoning map which the final
design proposal was centred around. The proposal has a holistic approach divided into
five categories: flows, greenery, activities, piers, and buildings. The flows and activities are
focusing on the human scale, encouraging an increase of liveliness, the greenery promotes
biodiversity and human health, the piers connect Österskans to the river, and the building
links the cultural buildings together and creates a meetingplace.
The thesis is a pilot project, testing a new approach in a smaller scale, for the purpose of
finding a way for architects to move forward in the future development of social sustainable
environments.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
participatory design, sustainability, urban planning