A softer Skutskär; a design methodology on developing public life in a small town centre

Abstract

Skutskär, the central town in Älvkarleby municipality with around 6000 inhabitants, is currently developing its centre since there is a will from the municipality to increase the attractiveness in the centre and in turn improve the public life; in other words the social life which occurs in the open public spaces, by increasing it. The size and scale of Skutskär places it into a rurban context which isn’t either the countryside or a city. This in turn gives special conditions and circumstances. The thesis ”A softer Skutskär” aims to develop a design methodology on how to work with increasing public life in a small town centre. The work is divided into answering the questions ”What, how, and where?” within the framework of finding interventions and ways of working to increase public life in a rurban context centre. This gives the research question ”How can public life be increased in the rurban context of Skutskär centre?”. The design methodology summarizes the research on public life into five key factors which are needed for increasing public life: streets, public and private, microclimate, activity, and scale. The key factors continue throughout the methodology by looking at different references, mapping analysis methods, and design tools based on the key factors. All of this information is tested on the specific site, Skutskär centre, to explore the rurban preconditions. Is there a difference compared to increasing public life in a city? The thesis shows that the key factors and what you need to achieve might not differ in the rurban scale, but instead what is needed is to broaden the perspective of what these key factors could look like. The metrics for the amount of people that is seen as a street full of public life might not be the same in a city compared to a rurban centre, and the main meeting place could be outside the food shop or by the bus stop. A discussion summarizes the findings of the thesis, and in conclusion the material does not present a finalized answer, but instead it offers ways of building an argumentation and presents another way of thinking when planning in the rurban context.