Svartöstaden is a
residential district to the West of Luleå. Originally the area served as the main
worker neighborhood for nearby activities and then for SSAB steal factory. The
area is today listed as a heritage site by the national authorities. In recent
years, cheap property prices in Svartöstaden have contributed to attract new
inhabitants such as artists, young families, etc. Today, this new social milieu
has come together to advocate for better social inclusion policies (e.g., to support
new rental housing) and urban amenities (e.g., schools, markets, cultural
buildings, etc.) as well as to contest other, more aggressive land uses (e.g.,
Norrbotniabanan Corridor).
Credits (check in the attached booklet)
Credits (check in the attached booklet)
The aim of this exercise is to deliver a sustainable urban regeneration plan for the neighborhood of Svartöstaden. For urban regeneration we understand a well-established approach by which an area is upgraded by leveraging on the energies, and skills of the local community as opposite to top-down, urban redevelopment. In this project we have focused on Urban Livability that according to David Godschalk [1] is one of the main dimensions of sustainable urban planning (the others being economy, environment, and social sustainability).
The project is
articulated in following steps:
1. Analysis of Svartöstaden
In the first step each
group will analyze one urban layer:
- Land
Use (e.g., housing, entrepreneurship, culture, education, etc.);
- Networks
(energy, mobility, etc.);
- Subsoil
(topography, environmental units, etc.);
- City/Regional
Trends & Policy (e.g., regional & city planning, demography,
etc.);
- Local
Trends & Policy (e.g., local masterplan, local real estate market,
etc.);
- Stakeholders
(e.g., community, public agencies, etc.).
These analyses consist
of desktop research and fieldwork observations and interviews that have been
carried out during the Svartöstaden Fieldwork Workshop (held on September, 15th).
2. Vision Seminar
Each Group has presented
its analyses and visions for Svartöstaden during a course seminar. During the
seminar visions were discussed and voted. One consolidated vision has been
elaborated to be the basis for the second part of the exercise.
3. Svartöstaden Urban Regeneration Project
The second part of the
project consists mainly of, but not limited to, an urban design exercise that
will explore the potentials of the Vision. Sub-areas within and beside Svartöstaden
have been chosen and designed accordingly.
4.
Final Project Presentation
On October, 23rd posters have
been presented during an open event held in Svartöstaden. A jury made of course leaders, LTU staff, Luleå Kommun and
Svartöstaden representatives helped discussed the six urban regeneration
projects.
Below, two of the six submitted proposals
[1] Godschalk, D. R. (2004). Land use planning challenges: Coping with conflicts in
visions of sustainable development and livable communities. Journal of
the American Planning Association, 70(1), 5-13.
