How did the research turn out? What were the findings? Researchers themselves report briefly on the research they have undertaken with funding support from the Formas Research Council.
Editor: Margaretha Nordahl
Networks of urban complexity: Towards a new and dynamic language of current urban design
Tigran Haas (project leader)
Summary of results with list of publications from Urban Planning & Environment, KTH.
Email: tigran@infra.kth.se
Do not suffocate the city's lungs.
This project is a critical and comprehensive study of theories relating to urban design, in order to develop a more meaningful attitude beyond the leading paradigm New Urbanism. We have a long way to go to create attractive, varied, exciting and sustainable environments. Urban design comes into the picture as a bridge between architecture and planning. This dualism can also be found in knowledge development and research, where we have in recent years seen a strong architectural development that spills over into the field of urban planning, and also has an established strong research tradition in planning. It is however relatively unusual that these fields of knowledge meet in common research projects or together carry on a development project with regard to practical needs.
The city is not a small component in the large urban development, but is the actual arena where community life takes place. The kind of city we build is therefore of critical importance for our society and is an issue of high ideological power.
New urban design and its consequences for Sweden have been studied and analysed in order to create a new integrated urban design language based on the scientific best seller "New Urbanism & Beyond: Designing cities for the future" (Rizzoli 2008, New York).
Biodiversity in urban areas
Bo Söderström (project leader)
Summary of results with list of publications from Ecology, SLU.
Email: bo.soderstrom@nvb.slu.se
The increasing urbanisation of the world's population often results in the disappearance of nature in and near towns. In Sweden, 84% of the population now lives in urban areas, and immigration from rural areas and small towns to larger towns is still occurring.
The required building development and infrastructure give rise to increased infill development – often at the expense of green areas in the towns and also in the surrounding landscape. There are few investigations which throw a light on how this fragmentation affects the native flora and fauna. Previous studies chiefly focused on parks and residential areas.
In this project, a study is made of urban forests with potentially high biological values since they are exposed to development, to a large extent without any legal protection. Although urban forests are of great value for recreation and health, the study shows that urban forests contain great biological values which in themselves justify preservation.
Responsible for this page: Birgitta Bruzelius