Sustainable Mixed-Use Districts: Mitigating land-Use Conflicts in Industrial Cities​ (SUD course, 2015)

Project Site & Mission
 
Luleå is a city characterized by many industrial developments within its inhabited urban core. This has been mainly the consequence of the historic vocation of the city as an industrial and harbor hub for resource-rich Norrbotten, in the north of Sweden. It is also crucially the result of previous land use policies and master plans that have facilitated the proliferation of industrial areas throughout the city.
However, during the last decades the city has strived the service sector and increasingly towards the knowledge industry (see the Aurorum area and the expansion of the university campus). This, in turn, has attracted new residents from within the region and abroad and therefore has boosted the demand for dwellings in the urban core.




This rapid demographic growth coupled with an increasing percentage of the population with a tertiary education has exacerbated the land use conflict between residential and industrial areas. It has also further the social and spatial divides within the city.

The aim of this course is to map these divides and the infrastructural gaps of Luleå’s residential areas encroached by industrial clusters to suggest strategies and interventions to mitigate the existing and future potential land use conflicts. 

The projects below show the potentials of many existing urbanized areas in the inner town. This urban regeneration approach is antithetical to the current developments in town:
- many of the projects concentrate in upgrading brownfield areas rather that green ones.
- density is crucial but it is always declined to increase the "intensity" of activities and social interactions and not for speculative purposes. 
- finally, all developments promote walking, cycling, and public transit rather than car-centred development.
We hope that these projects will foster a change of mentality in Luleå's city makers towards a more attractive, sustainable and just urbanism.












Project Phases
Students have worked in groups and will focus each on specific conflict areas. The project was articulated in the following steps:

Analyses
1. Definition of the Study areas: identifying the logical boundary of residential areas threatened by land-use conflicts.
2. Survey of the identified areas: mapping for each area volumes (heights), density (pop/ha), land use (residential, mixed-use, commercial, industrial, etc.), street network, pedestrian and bicycle tracks, and social divides and type of conflicts (observations and qualitative mapping).
3. Assess the study areas: measuring for each area the extent of the conflict (small medium, large), infrastructural gap (including, streets, sidewalks, parks, schools, etc.), the maintenance of existing infrastructures (poor, acceptable, excellent), and the population reach (low, medium, high density).

Vision

4. SWOT Analysis: based on the results of the analyses, underpinning strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the areas.
5. Vision: a short statement followed by achievable goals.
6. Spatial Strategies: a large map of the areas showing how the vision will be implemented in the area.

Interventions
7. Detailed plan for each area: a detailed plan for the assigned areas that is consistent with the group’s vision and spatial strategies.
8. Projects: a number of pictures, plans, sections, and facades to explain each intervention within the area.



Simplified assessment matrix
Indicators
Score
1
2
3
Extent of the Land Use Conflict
Small
(small industrial area, low environmental/social impacts)
Medium
(medium industrial cluster, concerns for environmental/social impacts)
Large
(large industrial area, certain risks for environmental/social impacts)
Infrastructural Gap
None
(the area is provided by very good public infrastructures)
Moderate
(the area lacks some important public infrastructures)
Lack of Basic Infrastructures
(the areas lacks the most basic public infrastructures)
Maintenance
Well Maintained
Poor Maintenance
Abandoned
Population Reach (pop/area)
Low Density
Medium Density
High Density
Thresholds
Ranges
Actions
4-6
The area is well developed and it does not require actions in the immediate future
7-9
The areas needs actions to mitigate existing and potential land-use conflicts
10-12
The area is in urgent need of an overall strategy and interventions to mitigate land-use conflicts

Credits:

Course Leader
Agatino Rizzo

Teaching Assistants
Johan Johansson
Joakim Carlsson

LTU Lecturers
Kristina Nilsson
Sofia Lofgren
David Chapman

External Lecturers/Jury
Francesco D. Moccia  (University of Naples)
Daniel Galland (Aalborg University)
Malin Jansson (Luleå Kommun)

Student groups

Group Svartöstaden:      
Angelica Wiklund
Catrin Sjölund
Emma Sanborn
Pontus Hansson
Winny Lau

Group Bergnäset:          
Alexandra Fornander
Alyzza Kim Ty
Hussein Ali
Maja Edsvik
Mark angelo Vibanor

Group Kronan:               
Alexander Karlsson
Louise Larsson
Maria Hansson
Sofia Skarpsvärd

Group Skutviken:           
Anna josephson
Clive Rice Ekstedt
Isabella Eriksson-Lindberg
Johan Tobjörnsson
Sara hultqvist

Group Storheden:          
Moujan Memar
Mustafa Galali
Nawid Ferhady
Suzanna Törnroth
Sören Öberg