The current state of swedish housing: Ongoing trends in multifamily residential construction in Gothenburg municipality
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Architecture and urban design (MPARC), MSc
Publicerad
2023
Författare
Johansson Ågren, Tomas
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
This thesis is a contribution to - Building permits
Gothenburg 2021, an ongoing series by CBA that
explores what is being built right now. It aims to
provide food for thought and discussion of our
contemporary multifamily residential architecture
and its trends. It does so by peering into the
collection of granted building permits, often seen
one by one, but not as a whole.
The approved multifamily residential projects of
2021 in Gothenburg could be summed up with
the metrics of 56 permits with a total of
6073 pages, and 4945 apartments divide onto
approximately 450 000 square meters of Gross
area. This tells us that the city is growing, but it
doesn’t nourish our curiosity of how, where and
with what it grows. Fortunately, scrutinizing those
6073 pages does. Together they form a crystal
ball, or a road map into our near future, detailing
how and where we will live.
And something is happening. The question of
where the city is developing is examined by
introducing a novel way to visualize in which
direction Gothenburg grows. Backed up by
exploring the municipality’s strategy for expansion
and the political ambition to add housing to the
north-east part of the city. The investigation
reveals that the set goals likely are met. However,
on average two thirds of the apartments end up
in the southern parts of the city, with Sydväst
literally shattering their target.
The thesis also asks the question of what trends
can be seen in the permits, and there are several.
On a positive note, 2021 sees more projects with
a larger diversity of apartments-types and a larger
share of three- or more-bedroom apartments.
On the other hand, there is a continued increase
in the share of the smallest apartment-type, the
studio apartment. There is also a rise in what
can only be described as monocultures, entire
projects only containing one apartment-type.
Lastly it asks how our buildings and apartments
are developing. And there are reasons to worry.
One of them is that 45 percent of the apartments
found in the permits are single sided. This is a
result of an increasing number of apartments per
level. This, coupled with shrinking apartment
sizes and a market that strives for the minimum
regulatory requirements, tells a story of an
ongoing loss of quality in our smallest dwellings.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
building permits, Gothenburg, residential architecture, dwelling space qualities, statistics