The New Urbanism Movement: the Case of Sweden
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Blekinge Tekniska Högskola International Master’s Programme in European Spatial Planning 2004/2005 The New Urbanism movement: the case of Sweden Author: Alina - Mihaela Stefan ABSTRACT The city is the core of our civilisation. The interest in city grew tremendous in the last two – three decades. The thesis is an introduction to the New Urbanism movement. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the relation between New Urbanism and the European Urbanism movement. The thesis also analyses the factors that are considered to lead to this growing interest in city. Car dependence, change in labour conditions, change of household structure are just some of the factors that influence the urban life. It also tries to answer to the question if the new urbanist city is a desirable living form. The new urbanism movement and the European urbanism have as main goals to rediscover the lost city and give it back to people. To analyse the way the principles of the neo-traditionalist movements are applied in practice I analyse the case of Sweden, focusing on four cases: Lomma Harbour, Välle Broar and Biskopshagen in Växjö and Jakriborg, as the main study case. I have made a field study in Jakriborg, where I have conducted interviews with local inhabitants. The aim of the study is to see if the main thesis of New Urbanism, that through design a sense of community can be created, is valid or not. Keywords: city, new urbanism, the Charter of New Urbanism, The Garden City, Region, the neighbourhood, the street, Le Corbusier, Modernism, The Charter of European Urbanism, neo- traditionalism, sense of community, Jakriborg, ESDP, European Union. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I want to thank everybody that helped me in realising this thesis. My special thanks are going to Louise Nyström and Lars Emmelin for their support and advice. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................5 1.1. THE SUBJECT OF THE STUDY .................................................................................................5 1.2. THE PURPOSE AND THE PROBLEM OF THE STUDY..................................................................6 1.3. THE PLAN OF THE STUDY ......................................................................................................7 1.4. DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .............................................................................................7 1.5. METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS.................................................................................................8 2. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONCEPT OF CITY .................................9 2.1. INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................9 2.2. THE URBAN ECOLOGY PARADIGM ........................................................................................10 2.3. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY PARADIGM..................................................................................12 3. THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF NEW URBANISM.........................................................13 3.1. THE GARDEN CITY ..............................................................................................................13 3.2. THE CITY IN THE REGION ....................................................................................................15 3.3. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD STRATEGY ......................................................................................16 3.4. LE CORBUSIER AND THE MODERNISTS .................................................................................17 3.5. THE USES OF THE CITY.........................................................................................................19 3.6. URBAN RENAISSANCE .........................................................................................................21 4. NEW URBANISM...................................................................................................................22 4.1. WHAT IS NEW URBANISM?..................................................................................................22 4.2. THE EFFECTS OF CAR DEPENDENCE......................................................................................23 4.3. LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY..................................................................................................25 4.4. THE PRINCIPLES OF NEW URBANISM...................................................................................30 4.5. THE REGION: METROPOLIS, CITY AND TOWN .....................................................................33 4.6. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, THE DISTRICT AND THE CORRIDOR ..................................................35 4.7. THE STREET, THE BLOCK AND THE BUILDING.......................................................................36 4.8. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNITY ...........................................................38 4.9. CONCLUDING REMARKS: FROM MODERNISM TO POST-MODERNISM ...................................39 5. NEW URBANISM IN EUROPE ...........................................................................................41 5.1. LÉON KRIER AND THE MOVEMENT FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EUROPEAN CITY ...41 5.2. URBAN VILLAGES................................................................................................................43 5.3. THE CONGRESS OF EUROPEAN URBANISM ..........................................................................43 6. THE EUROPEAN UNION POLICY ....................................................................................46 6.1. THE GREEN PAPER ON URBAN ENVIRONMENT ....................................................................46 6.2. THE EUROPEAN SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE (ESDP) .........................................46 7. NEW URBANISM IN SWEDEN...........................................................................................49 7.1. THE SWEDISH URBAN AGENDA...........................................................................................49 7.2. LOMMA HARBOUR...............................................................................................................49 7.3. VÄLLE BROAR.....................................................................................................................51 7.4. BISKOPSHAGEN ...................................................................................................................52 7.5. GENERAL COMMENTS ON LOMMA, VÄLLE BROAR AND BISKOPSHAGEN .............................53 8. JAKRIBORG: A STUDY CASE ...........................................................................................55 8.1. DESCRIPTION.......................................................................................................................55 3 8.2. METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................................59 8.3. ANALYSIS............................................................................................................................63 8.4. JAKRIBORG’S INTEGRATION IN HJÄRUP ...............................................................................66 9. SUMMARY..............................................................................................................................67 ANNEXES....................................................................................................................................67 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................74 4 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. The Subject of the Study Over the last fifty-sixty years, cities and towns have been under great transformation, from compact forms with an identifiable centre and bearers of history and culture, into amorphous urban areas, sprawled, without borders and loosing their cultural identity and functions. The city became less defined by its physically borders with the development of suburbia and huge areas with detached houses. The cities are the core of our civilisation. Every city tells a story. Every street, house or village tells a story. It tells the story of a bygone past, of people that have been and that are. It tells whom we are and how we want to be treated. The city provides the framework for social life. A well-planned street, park or square brings people together, gives them the opportunity for social encounters, which can also have an economical benefit. A beautiful and friendly city brings people out securing the urban life. The city is in a constant process of development and change, same as people. People’s actions have an impact on cities and cities have an impact on people. The surrounding environment, built or natural, have always been influencing people’s lives. As M. Castells is saying, we live in a world that is characterised by ”spaces of flows”. Therefore, in the globalized world the cities and towns are important for our cultural identity. The national borders are not defining our identity anymore. In a global world, the city became the one that is defining us, that is forming our identity and tells the others who we are. The national borders loose their meaning for the outside world. The place becomes the bearer of meaning. Different unions and common markets make it easier to pass the border. Transport and telecommunications give the possibility to travel everywhere, even by sitting in front of the TV or computer. In