METROPOLITAN FIELD TRIPS SCANDINAVIA
Jagvillhabostad
>> Last fall, I moderated a conference in Paris, organised by the International
Trademark Organisation (INTA). The theme was ‘giving the city back to its inhabitants’. I interviewed the chief planner of Malmö, one of the bigger cities in Sweden. He was remarkably honest about the urban challenges in his city and elsewhere in Sweden. His analysis: ‘We, the Nordic countries, are quite well organised and that’s a problem at the same time’. How to cope with a changing society: more citizen action, more refugees than ever and a welfare state that isn’t capable of making people happy? This chief planner admitted that the Swedish urban planners have to re-invent planning, giving more trust, freedom and tools to society and participative approaches. His keyword was ‘inclusiveness’. Sweden is absorbing more refugees than any other country in the European Union - just recently they admitted that they are not able to handle the huge influx they are now experiencing. Segregation is accompanying the influx, which goes against their values. How to integrate all these new inhabitants in the urban society? Sure, there are differences between Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Sweden and Norway are more open to refugees than the Danish. Swedish planners seem to have a higher sensitiveness to the new urban assignments than the
Norwegians. But what they share is still that well-organised welfare state doing as much as it can for their inhabitants. And at the same time it is an obstacle in the process of giving cities back to its inhabitants. It’s a problem because society is on the rise. Also in the Nordic countries. >>
THEIR BEST ASSET MIGHT BE THEIR BIGGEST PITFALL AT THE SAME TIME
JAGVILLHABOSTAD.NU
© Snabba Hus
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jagvillhabostad.nu snabbahus.nu
Jagvillhabostad.nu started as a lobby organisation addressing the lack of affordable housing for youngsters in Sweden, raising awareness campaigns and distributing tips and tricks among students on how to find an apartment. Since discovering that 40 percent of Swedish youngsters between 18 and 30 don’t own a house or have an official rental contract, Jagvillhabostad.nu is aiming to convince project developers to build more apartments specifically for this target group. After several rejections, arguing it simply wasn’t possible in the current market in Stockholm, they decided to take matters into their own hands. First they gathered information from different cities in Europe, for example the shipping containers reused as student houses in Amsterdam and Utrecht. When they presented these results to a project developer, they were invited to further develop the concept of the Snabba Hus, an affordable prefabricated modular building tailored for temporary use on brownfields. The concrete framework and 45 square meters modules can be moved up to three times in 45 years. Over the next years, 1000 houses are being built in Västberga neighbourhood for 435 euros. Jagvillhabostad.nu is now developing a similar concept for modules to quickly adapt vacant offices into inhabitable space.