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http://www.diva-portal.org This is the published version of a chapter published in Approaches and methods in architectural research: Proceeding Series 2021-1. Citation for the original published chapter: Legeby, A. (2021) Developing station communities: Alternative approaches and perspectives on access In: M. Andersson, M. Rönn and A. E. Toft (ed.), Approaches and methods in architectural research: Proceeding Series 2021-1 (pp. 107-134). Göteborg: Nordic Academic Press of Architecture Research Proceeding Series 2021-1 N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published chapter. Permanent link to this version: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-300430 Nordisk Arkitekturforskning The Nordic Association of Architectural Research Proceedings Series 2021-1 APPROACHES AND METHODS IN ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH Editors: Anne Elisabeth Toft, Magnus Rönn and Morgan Andersson Nordisk Arkitekturforskning The Nordic Association of Architectural Research Proceedings Series 2021-1 APPROACHES AND METHODS IN ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH APPROACHES AND METHODS IN ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH Proceeding Series 2021-1 PUBLISHER Nordic Academic Press of Architecture Research http://arkitekturforskning.net/na/issue/publishing EDITORS Anne Elisabeth Toft, Magnus Rönn and Morgan Andersson GRAPHIC DESIGN Jonas Vetlesen COPY-EDITING Dawn Michelle d'Atri, Rabea Berghäuser and Amy Springer PRINTING 07 Media © 2021 NAAR and authors All rights reserved The authors are responsible for copyrights for photographs, illustrations and images in their chapter. ISBN 978-91-983797-5-4 FINANCIAL SUPPORT ARQ and Chalmers University of Technology, Building Design CONTENT 5 FOREWORD Anne Elisabeth Toft and Magnus Rönn 7 INTRODUCTION Anne Elisabeth Toft, Magnus Rönn and Morgan Andersson 15 TALES OF CITIES AS (RESISTANT) PRACTICES Isabelle Doucet 25 MULTIPLE DEPTH ANALYSIS AND THE URBAN DESIGN CONSEQUENCES OF SEMI-PUBLIC REALMS Karl Kropf 45 BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF ADDING PARTICIPANT PHOTOGRAPHY TO QUALITATIVE RESIDENTIAL RESEARCH Kiran Maini Gerhardsson 77 BIASED BUILDING REGULATIONS FOR WINDOWS? Thomas H. Kampmann 107 DEVELOPING STATION COMMUNITIES: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES AND PERSPECTIVES ON ACCESS Ann Legeby 135 A CAS PERSPECTIVE ON PLANNING FOR ENERGY-EFFICIENT STATION COMMUNITIES Tony Svensson 165 POTENTIALS OF LIGHT IN URBAN SPACES DEFINED THROUGH SCENOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLES Mette Hvass and Ellen Kathrine Hansen 185 URBAN DESIGN: SCIENCE, ART OR A SCIENTIFICALLY INFORMED CREATIVE PRACTICE? Jarre Parkatti APPROACHES AND METHODS IN ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH 3 217 SWEDISH PREFABRICATED HOUSES IN THE SAUDI ARABIAN OIL FIELDS Abdulaziz Alshabib and Sam Ridgway 241 TYPICAL FALLACIES REGARDING POTENTIALLY VACATED PROTECTED BUILDINGS Mari Oline Giske Stendebakken and Nils Olsson 269 HERITAGE BEYOND A SUBCATEGORY OF CULTURAL ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN SWEDISH LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT Susanne Fredholm and Freja Frölander 293 CONTRIBUTORS 299 PEER REVIEWERS 4 NORDISK ARKITEKTURFORSKNING – THE NORDIC ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH DEVELOPING STATION COMMUNITIES: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES AND PERSPECTIVES ON ACCESS Ann Legeby ABSTRACT The region of Västra Götaland has investigated the possibility of opening a number of new train stations in the region, with the aim of strengthening local labour markets and promoting sustainable commuting possibilities and development outside of metropolitan areas. This article explores the possible impacts of this directive on the development of sustainable and vibrant communities, with a focus on urban form and its configurative properties. Today, there is almost unanimous agreement within planning practice regarding the use of ‘concentric centrality’ as a model for urban development near stations, whereby high densities are encouraged within one kilometre of stations. In this article, the relevance of the Station Proximity Principle (and its use in the Transit-Oriented Development, or TOD, model) is questioned with respect to small communities. Taking Svenshögen as an example, the article advocates taking landscape conditions, barrier effects, and visibility and access in relation to key functions into account as well. A shift from node thinking to network thinking is needed. The alternative approach put forward here draws on space syntax theories and point-line-field conditions, opening up design strategies that are relevant for small communities and that take aspects crucial for their development and viability into consideration and avoid a narrow focus solely on transportation aspects. KEYWORDS Station communities, centrality, urban form, node networks APPROACHES AND METHODS IN ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH 107 INTRODUCTION Metropolitan regions in Sweden are growing; as a result, challenges related to sustainable development, including climate change, social inequalities, and social polarization, are becoming increasingly urgent. Recent decades have witnessed the concentration of investment and development in larger cities in Sweden, as a result of unfortunate interurban competition and regional imbalances. ‘Densification’ is a buzzword in planning debates and planning practice.1 However, even as Sweden’s cities grow, it is possible to see two partly contradictory tendencies emerging in parallel: on one hand, an increasingly densifying inner city, and, on the other, the production of continuous sprawl.2 These tendencies can be seen in the Gothenburg region, where land in the centre of the city of Gothenburg is experiencing incre- asing development pressure, whilst peripheral locations are simultaneously witnessing on-going expansive urban development, which makes it difficult to fulfil municipal goals related to ensuring ‘green, fair, and accessible’ cities.3 A strategy for dealing with these patterns within the Västra Götaland region has been to try to relieve the development pressures on the metropolitan area by constructing new railways stations. Today there are about 100 train stations in the region, and the region of Västra Götaland has investigated the possibility of opening (or reopening) forty new stations in smaller commu- nities, with the aim of strengthening the labour market, improving access to education opportunities, and supporting and providing sustainable commu- ting options. The regional governing body sees train station communities as generators for positive, sustainable development outside of metropolitan areas.4 Planning for these communities often follows a principle of encoura- ging high densities in proximity to the station (e.g. within one kilometre of the station), with densities decreasing as distance from the station increases. The sustainability challenges that cities and regions are facing today call for increased critical reflection on how we should plan for growing regions in the future. One of the strategies that must be examined is the development of new and existing ‘station communities’ (a term used to describe settlements with a train station at their centre).5 This article addresses the developme- nt of sustainable train station communities, specifically aiming to identify urban models for their development that extend beyond aspects related to energy-efficient public transportation. The article discusses how centrality and accessibility are understood in these models, showing how, based on the example of Svenshögen, an alternative model might play out in a station community along the Bohusbanan railway line. Which urban models are 108 NORDISK ARKITEKTURFORSKNING – THE NORDIC ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTURAL RESEARCH capable of going beyond simple measures of energy-efficient public trans- portation to also incorporate social aspects and aims in the task of creating sustainable communities? The article questions the principles currently being applied in developing station communities. Prevalent principles and theories that are often raised in relation to the development of cities linked to railways include: the Station Proximity Principle developed in the Copenhagen metropolitan area accor- ding to Hartoft-Nielsen6 and Naess,7 Transit-Oriented Development as origi- nally developed by Calthorp,8 and also various versions of the Neighbourhood Unit Planning from the 1940s and 1950s, which has had an enormous impact on the urban landscape in Sweden.9 It is important to acknowledge that these models all emerged from studies of cities, or at least of larger communities and neighbourhoods. All three of these principles are also based on an idea of centrality that perceives it as being focused on a core, a point, or a node, thus conceiving urban form as following a concentric distribution from this point. The conditions that characterize the existing station communities investigated by Region Västra Götaland, however, differ considerably from those in cities, where centrality functions in a nodal manner; in these smaller communities, the population density is low, the pressure and/or demand to build is often limited, barrier effects exist as communities are often located on one side of the railway line and station, and other amenities and impor- tant functions are both limited and not necessarily found in proximity to the station. This article argues that the strategy of building and densifying in a circle around a train station—a principle based on findings generated in relation to conditions found in cities and not in smaller settlements—over- looks the importance of good access to other amenities besides the station and does not take landscape prerequisites into consideration to a sufficient extent. Adequate access