Team Lövgärdet, Forming a collaborative framework for a local development in west Sweden

Abstract

Lövgärdet – the thesis location - is a part of Angered district, one of ten districts of Gothenburg, Sweden. It is one of the city’s last Million Programme area and it was built between 1970 and 1978. Currently, over 8000 people (with backgrounds from over 80 countries) live in this area which is facing complex societal issues such as drug dealing, high crime rate, high unemployment rate and low graduation school results. Furthermore, Lövgärdet is stigmatised in the public opinion supported by the newspaper headlines, which are drawing a harmful narrative of the area. The thesis aimed to investigate the invisible context of Lövgärdet (current situation within the stakeholders with its possibilities and limitations) and therefore, hidden cause of this situation. The data, collected through literature reviews and social interactions (interviews, meetings, workshops) was used as a base for defining the design need, but also as a tool for facilitating the learning outcome of stakeholders during the meetings. The outcome of the thesis focuses on the main problem discovered through the research phase: communication and lack of collaboration between different groups and companies (from public/private sector, society and academia) . Therefore it includes a methodology framework for collaboration as well as a method for delimiting the key stakeholders who are the target group for this framework. Besides this, the secondary focus of the thesis was laid on the architects’ profession. Therefore, this thesis is also a contribution to a discussion on a more trans-disciplinary definition of who an architect is and his/her role in the society. Accordingly, the author aims to contribute to discussions on how to manage suburbs facing complex societal issues, how to manage the built environment, how to tackle the complexity of invisible context and establish a collaboration based on circularity, collaborative learning and diversity of actors.