Scientific Research Projects - Previous, Closed and New (Not Updated)

The city in the twenty-first century faces major challenges, including social and economic stratification, wasteful consumption of resources, transportation congestion and environmental degradation. More than half of the world’s population lives in cities and major metropolitan areas, and in the next two decades the number of city dwellers is estimated to reach five billion. This puts enormous pressures on transportation systems, housing stock and infrastructure directly influencing the emissions of greenhouse gases.

As the long emergency awaits us, urgent questions remain: How will our cities survive? How can we combat and reconcile urban growth with sustainable use of resources for future generations to thrive? Where and how urbanism comes into the picture and what “sustainable” urban forms can do in the light of these events are some of the issues Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond explores. With more than sixty essays, this research book offers a unique perspective on architecture, urban planning, environmental and urban design, exploring ways for raising the quality of life and the standard of living by creating better and more viable places to live in.

The project looks into the discourse on sustainable futures, new design of our cities and retrofit of existing ones in the light of climate change, energy crisis, urbanization, population growth, economic global downturn, and the whole array of converging crises facing our planet. The study also analyses the dynamic forces that shape networks of urban complexity today, proposing an urban design language & vocabulary that will help us better understand the complexities of the present and demands of the future as well as the qualities and values of the past within this field. The final result aimed at is a trilogy - three research books on urbanism, of which the second one (Sustainable Urbanism & Beyond) has now been published, see the link below.

Period: 2008-05-01 - 2012-12-31

Keywords:
Climate change; IT and energy, Future of cities, Globalization, Justice, New urbanism, Resilience, Sustainability, Tools and techniques, Transit-oriented development, Transportation planning, Urban design, Urban planning

Project URL:
http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780847838363

SOURCE OF FUNDING: Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation FORMAS (The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning) Riksbyggen Jubilee Grant "The Good City"

New urbanism & beyond – Designing cities for the future

Research project on contemporary trends - ideals in urban planning and design and their significance for the contemporary and future urban condition of our metropolises, cities, towns and neighbourhoods. The project consists of three parts: New urbanism & beyond – Designing cities for the future (2008), Sustainable urbanism & beyond - rethinking cities for the future (2012) and Architecture, Urbanism & beyond: imagining cities for the future (2014)

The overall aim of the project is to shed more light on how to improve the places where we live and work – our cities, and pre-eminently our suburbs. The conceptual framework will be New Urbanism, which is one of the most important movements in planning and urban design of the 20th century having its foundation in creation of neighbourhoods that are easily walkable, finite with a definite character, mixed uses, complex and multipurpose grid street networks, housing for different economic levels, adaptation to climate change, an anti-thesis to the modernist post-WWII planning and urban design.

There is a need for better-designed places, which inspire and may be cherished, places where vibrant communities may grow and prosper. The contemporary city is a dynamic and complex entity, and thus it cannot be understood from static processes alone. Urban design has to be looked upon as a multidisciplinary subject, one that can bridge disciplines and methods (social and natural sciences) and emphasize the physical attributes of the man-made environment, the forces that shape it and the conceptualisation and management of interventions to improve the quality of life in cities and urbanising regions.

The project will look into the discourse on the future design of our cities, especially the 'clash' between architecture and urbanism reflected in two leading paradigms: New and Post-Urbanism. The study will also analyse the dynamic forces that shape networks of urban complexity today, proposing such an urban design language & vocabulary as will help us better understand the complexities of the present and demands of the future but also the qualities and values of the past within this field. The final result aimed at is a trilogy - three research books on urbanism, of which the first (New Urbanism & Beyond) has now been published, see the link below.

Period: 2006-01-01 - 2010-12-31

Keywords:
Future of cities, Globalisation, Information technology and urban form, New urbanism, Tools and techniques, Town planning, Traditional neighbourhood design, Transit-oriented development, Transportation planning, Urban design, Urban planning
 

Project URL:
http://www.rizzoliusa.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780847831111#quotes

SOURCE OF FUNDING: Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation FORMAS (The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning) The Sweden-America Foundation

Concentrations of very poor, ethnically and racially segregated residents in a neighbourhood or public housing projects create, through a variety of factors, an un‐improvable black hole of unemployment, crime and poverty. This research argues that focus and special attention must be given to new methods and approaches that can proactively, effectively and dynamically alleviate concentrated urban poverty and create better housing opportunities for everyone. The American HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) programme is here taken as study example of a model for housing development where new neighbourhoods of choice and opportunity have been created with positive and negative outcomes. New visions for neighbourhood housing redevelopment should support a human, economic, social and cultural recovery. Advanced grounded theory employing an explorative research strategy of qualitative inquiry is employed in this research project with an in-depth literature and desktop study and analysis of four case study projects (Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.). Through the HOPE VI study and lessons learned, the research project hopes to propose new ideas and solutions (recommendations) for our troubled suburbs in major metropolitan areas such as Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö where financial and real estate communities, politicians and decision makers as well as planners and architects need to respond to re‐build and revitalise ethnically and socially excluded communities and suburbs to become more environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable.

Period: 2010-06-15 - 2011-09-30

SOURCE OF FUNDING: Riksbyggen Grant "The Good City"

Keywords:
Concentrated poverty, Defensible space, Densification, HOPE VI, Mixed use, New urbanism, Social housing, Spatial determinism, Sustainability, Territoriality, Traditional neighbourhood design, Transit-oriented development (TOD), Urban planning and design, Urban renewal

Project URL: http://www.abe.kth.se

In what ways are cities things that happen to us, and in what ways are cities things we do together, with more or less art and purpose? How do we understand both the geometries of cities and the ways that form might be connected - or not - to their social organization and politics? What successful villages, towns or cities have to offer is attractive places. Some places are thriving, some are very quiet, while others are classically and austerely formal; some are worn down, decaying and shabby, but they should all fit together and offer a rich variety of civilized life with sociability and understanding for the culture of places.

There is a need for a cross-disciplinary review and cataloguing of all scientific findings related to urban form and social behavior and a revamped effort at uniting the disciplines.

The remarkable link between intrinsic human qualities such as behavior, conduct, and demeanor, and the external environment has been recognized for years. However, this link has not been given much consideration in the design of our built environment. This needs to change as architecture, urban planning & design are crucial for achieving true urban sustainability in our cities.

Environmental psychology applies social science methods and theories to real world questions about human experience in everyday physical environments. Unlike the normative approach, it seeks to describe the world the way it is – how we use it and, in turn, how it affects our behavior – to build a knowledge base for urban design.

The results of the project will be a state-of-the-art knowledge base and conceptual toolkit (model) for urban design - a unique collection of urban codes built by exploratory research. Through a multilevel, multidisciplinary, social and spatial environmental approach we will examine relationships between characteristics of the physical environment, humans, context and human responses. It will be an evolving knowledge base for urban design decisions.

The project will also include roundtables, seminars, conferences, publications (books and papers) and other activities during the 4 year period. This project is carried out in cooperation with Peter Elmlund, Urban City Research, who is a Guest Researcher in Residence at KTH.

Period: 2012-04-01 - 2016-12-31

SOURCE OF FUNDING: Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation

Keywords:
Behavior, Ecology of place, Environmental psychology, Genius loci, Lifestyle, Place, Public realm, Social life, Space, Spatial determinism, Squares, Streets, Territory, Urban Design, Urban Form

SOURCE (Sustainable Urban Cells) is a bilateral project (Sweden-Italy) focused on sustainable management and reshaping of urban areas, in consideration of new European initiatives such as the JPI Urban Europe and in the perspective of the new framework Directive EU2020.