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Where is your Stockholm? MaretopiaHomes of the FutureRound Table

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Liveability is an ever-changing precept. It comes from people’s perceptions and expectations, and is significantly different from culture to culture. The exhibition at Färgfabrik-en has the potential to identify what could be future solutions for a rapidly growing Stockholm.

The biggest challenge to liveability is the pace of urbanization taking place in the world today. Looking at chal-lenges of pollution, climate change, end of resources, loss of biodiversity, etc., the real battle of this planet is with human consumption and life-style expectations.

In large parts of the world today, space in cities is scarce. Faced with growing populations and new de-mands for workspace, production, mobility and recreation, there is a rising conflict. This shortage of space results in a fight for the shrinking resource of land. The losers are fore-most the soft and unspoken voices with smaller budgets: protagonists of green spaces, of common ground and, finally, the environment.

Inflexible urban structures with insuf-ficient connectivity cannot cope with the dynamic forces of change, the almost unpredictable rhythms of the environment and the socioeconomic and political trends that affect soci-ety. The nature of change is in itself changing.

Building with natureBlue-green infrastructure (BGI) is a network providing the ingredients for solving urban and climate challenges by building with nature. The main components of this approach include storm water management, climate change adaptation, less heat stress, more biodiversity, food production, better air quality, sustainable energy production, clean water and healthy soils, as well as more anthropocentric functions such as increased quality of life through recreation and blue-green areas in cities and regions.

The approach is site specific and relies on natural elements (flora and water) which are deployed in strate-gic ways. We cannot easily measure, count and quantify the value of BGI to urban structures, not in the way that we do with, say, hard forms of engineered infrastructure. BGI can never be a prefabricated décor that is countable, statically-determined and never-changing.

Vegetation is in a permanent state of evolution, responding to daily rhythms, seasonal changes and the many stages of aging and renewal. All phases coexist in a living system. In a natural forest this process of renewal takes place all the time; life and death coexist. A blue and green element of-fers a platform for human interaction and place-making, and thus holds the key to liveability.

Liveable StockholmIt is common that many cities lose almost all their ecological structures and green corridors including open waterways, productive landscapes and park networks. Most successful modern cities, on the other hand, manage to keep and develop their BGI. Stockholm is among these cities and has been consciously planned with corridors of preserved nature and water areas. It’s important that the values and qualities of these cor-ridors are identified and that connec-tions for biodiversity and ecosystem services are preserved as the city is growing. Lack of housing and inte-gration challenges calls for a denser and closer connected city, based on walkability and safe, easy accessible public transport. The mission is to look for creative ways to integrate the BGI within the urban landscape.

It seems we have all technology and knowledge available today; yet there is a lack of implementation. There is a discrepancy between what designers and engineers can create with what governments can activate in reality. Experiment Stockholm holds a great opportunity to challenge politicians, designers and citizens to take action and find new ways to overcome this dilemma. The challenges could hold the key to a more liveable Stockholm.

Ramboll has been able to build and recreate natural ecosystems within the urban context. Even in high-density urban areas such as the

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in Singa-pore and the Tanner Springs Park in Portland. As for Stockholm these projects show that lessons can be learned from natural systems in order to create attractive urban spaces.

Urban landscape architecture on top of every politicians listThere are many questions to be an-swered on the integration of BGI into cities. What functions and qualities must these spaces fulfill today and in the future? How can we create living systems that saves natural resourc-es, filter, cleanse and regulate water supply, balance temperature, produce good air, and increase natural habi-tats? What are the basic principles, processes and methods to integrate BGI in cities of today and in the future? 

These questions must extend to the search for strategic policy making tools and good governance struc-tures. Detailed knowledge about Blue-Green living systems, about materials and integrated technol-ogies, have to be developed and experts must be called in during the early stages of the project, and most importantly, be taken seriously. Urban landscape architecture should have a higher priority and not be seen as byproduct.

Prof. Herbert Dreiseitl, Ramboll Liveable Cities Lab

Svante Guterstam, Planning & Urban Design, Ramboll Sweden

Socially vulnerable areas – how to solve problems using a holistic ap-proach to urban planning?

The Landsbygdefonden from Den-mark will share the Danish experi-ences on holistic efforts to urban development of socially excluded areas.  Ramboll Management Consult-ing shares examples on how to work with social sustainability.

Monday the 2nd of November 9:00-12:00 (8:30 breakfast)Färgfabriken, Lövholmsbrinken 1, Liljeholmen

Experiment Knivsta – for a liveable Nydal

Planning challenges for the new ur-ban district Nydal. Small scale energy solutions, using wood as construction material, co-housing, holistic design integrating blue-green infrastructure.

Friday the 13th of November9:00 – 16:00 Public workshop Färgfabriken, Lövholmsbrinken 1, Liljeholmen

Ramboll is a partner for the exhibition and has taken active part in the prepara-tory activities leading up to its program and target. We will be present in theexperiments and contribute with different competences. www.ramboll.se

RAMBOLL SEMINARS AND WORK-SHOPS AT EXPERIMENT STOCKHOLM, FÄRGFABRIKEN

LEARNING FROM NATURE HOLDS THE KEY TO LIVEABILITY

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Singapore

Photo: Atelier Dreiseitl, a Ramboll company

Tanner Springs Park, Portland (Oregon), USA

Photo: GreenWorks

Liveability is an ever-changing precept. It comes from people’s perceptions and expectations, and is significantly different from culture to culture. The exhibition at Färgfabrik-en has the potential to identify what could be future solutions for a rapidly growing Stockholm.

The biggest challenge to liveability is the pace of urbanization taking place in the world today. Looking at chal-lenges of pollution, climate change, end of resources, loss of biodiversity, etc., the real battle of this planet is with human consumption and life-style expectations.

In large parts of the world today, space in cities is scarce. Faced with growing populations and new de-mands for workspace, production, mobility and recreation, there is a rising conflict. This shortage of space results in a fight for the shrinking resource of land. The losers are fore-most the soft and unspoken voices with smaller budgets: protagonists of green spaces, of common ground and, finally, the environment.

Inflexible urban structures with insuf-ficient connectivity cannot cope with the dynamic forces of change, the almost unpredictable rhythms of the environment and the socioeconomic and political trends that affect soci-ety. The nature of change is in itself changing.

Building with natureBlue-green infrastructure (BGI) is a network providing the ingredients for solving urban and climate challenges by building with nature. The main components of this approach include storm water management, climate change adaptation, less heat stress, more biodiversity, food production, better air quality, sustainable energy production, clean water and healthy soils, as well as more anthropocentric functions such as increased quality of life through recreation and blue-green areas in cities and regions.

The approach is site specific and relies on natural elements (flora and water) which are deployed in strate-gic ways. We cannot easily measure, count and quantify the value of BGI to urban structures, not in the way that we do with, say, hard forms of engineered infrastructure. BGI can never be a prefabricated décor that is countable, statically-determined and never-changing.

Vegetation is in a permanent state of evolution, responding to daily rhythms, seasonal changes and the many stages of aging and renewal. All phases coexist in a living system. In a natural forest this process of renewal takes place all the time; life and death coexist. A blue and green element of-fers a platform for human interaction and place-making, and thus holds the key to liveability.

Liveable StockholmIt is common that many cities lose almost all their ecological structures and green corridors including open waterways, productive landscapes and park networks. Most successful modern cities, on the other hand, manage to keep and develop their BGI. Stockholm is among these cities and has been consciously planned with corridors of preserved nature and water areas. It’s important that the values and qualities of these cor-ridors are identified and that connec-tions for biodiversity and ecosystem services are preserved as the city is growing. Lack of housing and inte-gration challenges calls for a denser and closer connected city, based on walkability and safe, easy accessible public transport. The mission is to look for creative ways to integrate the BGI within the urban landscape.

It seems we have all technology and knowledge available today; yet there is a lack of implementation. There is a discrepancy between what designers and engineers can create with what governments can activate in reality. Experiment Stockholm holds a great opportunity to challenge politicians, designers and citizens to take action and find new ways to overcome this dilemma. The challenges could hold the key to a more liveable Stockholm.

Ramboll has been able to build and recreate natural ecosystems within the urban context. Even in high-density urban areas such as the

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park in Singa-pore and the Tanner Springs Park in Portland. As for Stockholm these projects show that lessons can be learned from natural systems in order to create attractive urban spaces.

Urban landscape architecture on top of every politicians listThere are many questions to be an-swered on the integration of BGI into cities. What functions and qualities must these spaces fulfill today and in the future? How can we create living systems that saves natural resourc-es, filter, cleanse and regulate water supply, balance temperature, produce good air, and increase natural habi-tats? What are the basic principles, processes and methods to integrate BGI in cities of today and in the future? 

These questions must extend to the search for strategic policy making tools and good governance struc-tures. Detailed knowledge about Blue-Green living systems, about materials and integrated technol-ogies, have to be developed and experts must be called in during the early stages of the project, and most importantly, be taken seriously. Urban landscape architecture should have a higher priority and not be seen as byproduct.

Prof. Herbert Dreiseitl, Ramboll Liveable Cities Lab

Svante Guterstam, Planning & Urban Design, Ramboll Sweden

Socially vulnerable areas – how to solve problems using a holistic ap-proach to urban planning?

The Landsbygdefonden from Den-mark will share the Danish experi-ences on holistic efforts to urban development of socially excluded areas.  Ramboll Management Consult-ing shares examples on how to work with social sustainability.

Monday the 2nd of November 9:00-12:00 (8:30 breakfast)Färgfabriken, Lövholmsbrinken 1, Liljeholmen

Experiment Knivsta – for a liveable Nydal

Planning challenges for the new ur-ban district Nydal. Small scale energy solutions, using wood as construction material, co-housing, holistic design integrating blue-green infrastructure.

Friday the 13th of November9:00 – 16:00 Public workshop Färgfabriken, Lövholmsbrinken 1, Liljeholmen

Ramboll is a partner for the exhibition and has taken active part in the prepara-tory activities leading up to its program and target. We will be present in theexperiments and contribute with different competences. www.ramboll.se

RAMBOLL SEMINARS AND WORK-SHOPS AT EXPERIMENT STOCKHOLM, FÄRGFABRIKEN

LEARNING FROM NATURE HOLDS THE KEY TO LIVEABILITY

Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Singapore

Photo: Atelier Dreiseitl, a Ramboll company

Tanner Springs Park, Portland (Oregon), USA

Photo: GreenWorks

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property sold through well-polished bro-chures and commercials.

Obviously, it’s not all about housing but also about a lot of other engaging issues. We live in a bigger world now com-pared to the 60s and 70s. Stockholm and Sweden today is multicultural, something that enriches and makes it attractive to live here. But fact remains; visible and invisible borders exist between the respec-tive neighbourhoods – both ethnic and economic.

Climate change will probably be the cause for the next big wave of immigra-tion, and that in a near future. People will need to emigrate due to heat and a lack of water. That leads to issues regarding nature and ecology in relation to social structure; the wild forest, the farmed landscape, the parks and differ-ent biotopes. Can humans and our nature co-exist in some new way? With original thinking and an experimental approach, could these values create exciting and alternative environments for nature and for various people’s needs? And all this at places that will have to be exploited – per-haps not today, but tomorrow?

Politics does have a responsibility. If it cannot formulate a direction or vision, the political discussion becomes static and uninspiring. That’s why Experiment Stockholm has claimed the task of vitalis-ing the political debate and kicking the ball towards our decision-makers.

Färgfabriken is an art venue that uses artistic methods to highlight alternatives to how we can interpret our surrounding world. That’s why Färgfabriken has cre-ated an environment for art, research and architecture to meet.

Over the course of the exhibition, Experiment Stockholm will host on-going experiments of different scales, where visitors are given the opportunity to add to the project.

On behalf of everyone working here at Färgfabriken I would like to thank all of the involved and all the people who have supported experimental thinking through knowledge and commitment!

Joachim Granit, Creative Director, Färgfabriken

WHY EXPERIMENT STOCKHOLM?

Experiment Stockholm is an exhibition that wants to unlock static thinking. How can Stockholm become a more exciting and attractive place to live? A Stockholm looking to integrate rather than segregate, a Stockholm that is bigger than just the inner city.

What do we mean by experiment? Well, to instigate discus-sion in a playful manner but with a certain degree of serious-ness, about how Stockholm could become an example for new thinking both on a small and on a large scale. To succeed you need to try different things and create space for ideas and initiatives.

For that reason, Experiment Stockholm has experimented with different themes and questions for a little over a year. Together with various qualified and skilled people, we have investigated everything from the environment to the question of whether you can plan ahead for the unplanned. We have come to interesting conclusions. Certain parts from that work will be on display at the exhibition here at Färgfabriken, but also at other locations throughout Stockholm. The idea is that the project will leave its mark outside of Färgfabriken too.

The Stockholm region is one of the fastest-growing areas in Europe, which creates pressure on the building of new housing, among other things. The cost of living is approaching absurd levels. Not enough new housing is being built and when it is, it’s the wrong kind. Large groups, such as young people and those moving to the city, cannot get in to the segregated property market. What’s being built today is virtually a “million program” for an economically-challenged middle class; standardised

HOW TO GET THEREFärgfabriken, Lövholmsbrinken 1SL light rail/tram (S22) to TrekantenSubway, red line (T13/14) to Liljeholmen.Busses: 77, 133, 134, 143, 147, 152, 154, 160, 165, 748, 749.

OPENING HOURSExhibition Hall(visit website for updates)Thursday 11.00-19.00 and Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11.00–16.00

Färgfabrikens KaféTuesday–Sunday 11.00–16.00. (Lunch 11.00-14.00)

CONTACTfrontdesk@fargfabriken.se#fargfabriken#experimentstockholminstagram.com/fargfabrikenfacebook.com/fargfabrikentwitter.com/_fargfabriken

ABOUT FÄRGFABRIKENFor the last 20 years Färgfabriken has produced a rich variety of exhibitions and diverse activities in the fields of art, architecture and urban development.

Färgfabriken provides a forum for lively debates, discussions, semi-nars and serves as a node for many exciting unbounded projects.

Experiment Stockholm presents a great example of collaboration and partnership, as well as an interaction between professional and public interest in a context of present and future challenges and opportunities within urban development.

Färgfabriken’s work is experimental, interdisciplinary and strives to create and provide the conditions for new thinking, innovative ideas and unusual exhibition projects. Färgfabriken develops both national and international projects that extend far beyond the ground in Liljeholmen.

Located in the old industrial Lövholmen area, the domain around Färgfabriken is highly interesting and will be developed into a resi-dential area within a ten years period. The Färgfabriken building was completed in 1889.

From the beginning of 1900 to the 1970´s the paint firm Wilhelm Becker had its production there. Since the 1990´s Lindéngruppen are the proprietors of the estate.

Färgfabriken is a non profit, politically and religiously independ-ent, foundation.

A construction boom is underway in Flemingsberg, with

around SEK 25 billion being invested here to 2030. This

is where a diverse centre for education, business, science

and entrepreneurship - a living destination with at least

5,000 new homes for all ages - is taking shape.

Until now, Flemingsberg may have felt disparate for

some. Now we’re building with the ambition of turning

the area into a genuine urban centre. Our starting point

is today’s train station that could become a true travel

hub, right at the heart of the new Flemingsbergsdalen

community.

#P�GPVKTGN[�PGY�PGKIJDQWTJQQF�KU�˭QWTKUJKPI�JGTG��YKVJ�a large number of retail outlets, commercial premises

and residential properties. Building work is underway,

but now we need your ideas to really establish the heart

of this area and to ensure that Flemingsberg blossoms

into a creative knowledge-city.

MEET US AT EXPERIMENT STOCKHOLM.

Read more about Huddinge’s development here: huddinge.se/framtid

Where a new city

centre is taking shape

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Stockholm?

Stockholmers, just like any big city inhabitants, are shaped by the metropolis they live in. But at the same time, and probably in equal measure, the inhabitants also help shape their city, and make it intowhat it is. The planning of a city should be built upon its citizen’s everyday experience and should allow them to play an active part in shap-ing its future.

Hence the initiative Var är ditt Stockholm? It’s an exploration of experiences, an unconven-tional communication in between Stockholmers and their city. Apart from the environment and the looks, sounds and smells of a city, how people move, talk, interact and feel help create the atmosphere of the city environment. But the personal Stockholm experience differs from one individual to the next. Stockholm Resilience Centre has therefore built a web tool that is accessible to anyone and through which any Stockholmer can give voice to his or her person-al experiences. The tool is intended not to be a mediator of people’s voices, but instead to work as a transcriber, meaning that the unique char-acteristics of Stockholmers’ voices will not be altered by an automatic translation into the lan-guage of urban planning. The value of people’s experiences will be made evident and amplified by one of the oldest human inventions - a map.

The aim is to “describe the landscape of emotion that characterises the nature of Stockholmers’ routines. Var är ditt Stockholm? intends to be a virtual piazza of unmediated street-level sensations.”

The tool goes live on September 23, and from then on you can make your voice heard and express any feeling about any aspect you like and dislike in your everyday Stockholm life. The results will be shown live at the Experiment Stockholm exhibition at Färgfabriken.

See more at varardittstockholm.seFollow us on Twitter: @varardittsthlm

A city is the physical backdrop that shapes the nature of everyday urban experiences, but because many of these experiences go unstated and unnoticed they are out of the planning process. The initiative “Var är ditt Stockholm?” aims at filling this gap.

HOW TO INTERACT

1 - Visit www.varardittstockholm.se OR scan the QR code

2 - Share your positive or negative experience of the Stockholm Region!In your day-to-day life, where do you intimately experience the Stockholm Region?

3 - Describe it!What’s special or not so special about the experience youhave in this place?

4 - Look at the Stockholmers’ map!The exhibition Experiment Stockholm will be the cradle of“Var är ditt Stockholm?” and the results will be shownlive at Färgfabriken.

Any personal information will not be passed on to a third party, and be treated according to the strict ethical guide-lines of the Stockholm University. The collective results will be public domain, and they will be used to inform politi-cians and urban planners of the Stockholm Region.

Where

is

yourVad händer när vi gör något tillsammans?

Vi tror på idén om ansvarsfull tillväxt – att skapa ekonomiskt, miljömässigt och socialt hållbara lösningar. Vi ser oss själva som en aktiv part i det samhälle där vi verkar, en partner som också bidrar till hållbar utveckling i ett vidare perspektiv. Med andra ord; när vi skapar tillväxt är det inte bara vi som växer.

Vad händer i ett möte mellan ett fastighetsbolag med vakanta lokaler och ambitiösa lokala organisationer med ett behov av lokaler? Vi startade projektet Experiment Akalla som växte till en spännande plattform och metod som vi kallar Unispace.

Mer information hittar du på www.unispacemetoden.se

Brostaden är ett fastighetsbolag som äger och förvaltar kommersiella fastigheter i alla väderstreck runt Stockholm. Fastighetsbeståndet uppgår till ca 670 000 kvm. Brostaden ingår i Castellumkoncernen som är en av Sveriges största privata fastighetsägare. Castellum är noterade på NASDAQ Stockholm Large Cap

Expriment sthlm - Brostaden.indd 2 2015-09-16 10:26:26

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Remember the massive resistance against Tomas Sandell’s combined hotel and open-air baths in the form of a floating ring on Riddarfjärden? The City Planning office was flooded with e-mails, petitions and phone calls. Dagens Nyheter did a poll among Stockholmers which showed 58 per cent were strictly against and only 33 per cent liked the idea. We would not let a single square inch of Riddarfjärden be destroyed, and the plans were scrapped.

You don’t need to look far to find simi-lar thoughts today. Gert Wingårdh’s entry for the Nobel Center competition received harsh criticism last week on the the blog Bevara Stockholm (Preserve Stockholm): “Gert Wingårdh’s proposal increased the area of Blasieholmen and reduced that of the water. Stockholm’s water constitutes a large part of the city’s beauty. If one starts to chip away at the water surfaces, Stockholm will inevitably lose its attractiveness as a tourist destina-tion.” Apparently, there is nothing so sacred for Stockholmers as their water - but there are also those who think differently about it.

Water and islands have been central ele-ments in the work of artist Jens Evaldsson ever since his time at The Royal Institute of Art (also known as ‘Mejan’) from where he graduated in 2009. Along with some class-mates, he started the organisation Mare Liberum, which later evolved into the artist collective Maretopia.

Maretopia wants to explore the potential for the waters of Stockholm, and for the Experiment Stockholm exhibition they have created a floating miniature eco-village on rafts, anchored just outside Färgfabriken. To enable visitors to get a closer look at the artwork, interior architecture students from Konstfack (where Jens Evaldsson teaches) built a pedalo, currently anchored to Gröndals Boat Club.

“You want to get on board and pedal out?” Jens Evaldsson asks me when we meet at nearby cafe Cul-de-Sac for an interview, and so my first interview conducted on a pedalo begins.

“My fascination with water and islands started when I moved out to Kungshatt, an island in Lake Mälaren, during my time at

While constituting a large part of the city’s beauty it might also present opportunities in a challenging future. But not many seem keen on even minor alterations to Stockholm’s water surface.LET ME FLOAT THIS IDEA BY YOUwords Karin Strömphotos Jan Rydén/Färgfabriken

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Mejan. I use my boat like others use their car, but I don’t really see many others using the water, except for pleasure-seekers in the summer and commercial traffic. I realized that the water in Stockholm is being used by a very small percentage of the city’s popula-tion,” he says.

We have pedalled our way to the floating artwork (it’s a right pain to steer right into the wind even if it’s only 30 meters away) and get on board. So far, it consists of a small wooden floating stand and a minimal wood-en floating stage, designed for performances and talks. One of the rafts displays the first work of art - a digital sign measuring exactly 1 x 1 meter, and showing the average price per square meter of apartments in the inner city. It is made by artist Carl-Oskar Linné.

“We just had our first art event here on the floating stage, a conversation about hous-ing policy. Two other floating artworks will soon be added and then there should be a floating wetland island here somewhere. Hmm... it seems to have cut loose,” says Jens Evaldsson.

The nowhere-to-be-seen floating wetland island consists of plants like yellow iris and marsh-marigold that do not need soil, but can grow directly in the water. When they do, they form a biofilm on the roots that cleans the water from pollutants. The roots of wil-lows that grow along Stockholm’s waterways work the same way and are extremely impor-tant for water quality in Stockholm, says Jens Evaldsson:

“I think the water is sacred because it represents freedom. Life on the water is not as controlled as life on land, legally speak-ing. Rules are a bit fuzzy, you do not need a license to drive a boat, and until quite recently, the alcohol laws were pretty soft. I also believe it is sacred because the inhabit-ants of Stockholm perceive it as untouched. As the city grows denser and denser, people are very keen to save the water surfaces. But I think you can use the water in new ways, without destroying its beauty. For example by building a floating city where you go by boat between the houses, just like in Venice,” he says.

Jens Evaldsson is not the only one dream-ing of a more environmentally experimental Stockholm. Ecologist Ulrika Hamrén works at Ekologigruppen, a consulting company working with sustainable development with-in the areas of urban planning, landscape design and terrestrial and aquatic ecology. She looks at cities in Germany and wish we took a broader approach to the green city.

“What if we dared to build green roofs and solar cells on existing buildings with flat roofs? What if we could build rain gardens, where storm water management is combined with biodiversity and recreation? What if we could allocate space for temporary pop-up parks, urban farming and spontaneous fun? I glance enviously at Freiburg in Germany and their building communities where, together with others, you become your own construc-tor, which opens up for a whole new type of small-scale housing and varied urban plan-ning beyond prefab.

As a planning ecologist, Ulrika Hamrén wants Stockholm to have clean, healthy and beautiful water environments, where plants and animal species can live and reproduce and where people can closely experience all the different types of aquatic environments -

sustainable environments is Tengbom, one of Stockholm’s most reputable architec-tural firms. In conjunction with a seminar about green retrofits last June, they trans-formed a parking space on Katarinavägen in Stockholm into a vibrant public space with seating and planting – a parklet. Shira Jacobs works as a landscape architect at Tengbom:

“Tengbom’s prototype parklet is, as far as we know, one of the first to integrate ecosystem services as part of its design, demonstrating how easily a parking space can become a micro-park that manages rain-water and increases biodiversity in the city. The parklet incorporates a vegetated swale, which retains water during heavy storms and is designed to attract insects and birds. Retention reduces runoff volume and sub-sequent combined sewer overflows to Lake Mälaren while the swale vegetation traps pol-lutants, thereby releasing cleaner water after retention,” says Shira Jacobs.

Another way to increase water quality and biodiversity is through floating islands of the type used in Maretopia’s artwork for Experiment Stockholm. Floating islands can either complement existing waterside spaces or be combined with piers or floating plat-forms that offer seating and other features to create so-called floating micro-parks.

“Stockholm’s water landscapes are won-derful, but unfortunately there are many areas that lack direct contact with the water’s edge or have little interactive or leisure value. Floating islands can be incorporated into any type of edge treatment in order to improve water quality and add visual appeal. Rebuilding the city’s hardscaped quays into dynamic waterside parks could help the city’s microclimate and mitigate the risk of floods. Where redevelopment is impractical, the addition of floating micro-parks could contribute to higher water quality and bio-diversity while offering a unique way for the public to experience Stockholm,” says Shira Jacobs.

the sea, lakes, rivers and streams.“Stockholm’s waterfront landscape is an

incredible asset, but it also presents several challenges when the region is growing. It is clear that the city is constantly living and evolving and that there is a great need for housing, but if we work together to develop the city in a smart way, so that we maintain the city’s own ecosystem services, we have so much to gain. The ecosystems are our home insurance.”

Another company involved in creating

Consider the planet!

Working sustainably is about considering the bigger picture. And the smaller one. The bigger picture because we cannot systematically undermine Earth’s ecosystems. And the smaller one because we have to gain a detailed under-standing of what we really can do to change our lifestyle and become more sustainable. This is a question of everything from considering ecosystem services to developing greener public transport systems and innovative parking facilities.

For us, sustainability is about understanding the bigger picture. Under-standing that ultimately it is about the well-being of everyone on our planet. A planet where businesses and economies have to function over time. And where there are ecosystems that are crucial to our future. This is why we are saying: “Consider the planet!”

Read more at riksbyggen.se/hallbarhet if you want to find out more about our sustainability strategy.

Riksbyggen plans, manages and improves the spaces in which you live and work.

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THE HOUSE

How do you envision the homes of the future? High-rise, ultra-modern buildings perhaps, with rooftop parking for your future ‘air-mobile’? Not everyone shares this hi-tech vision – in fact, one man has gone pretty much in the opposite direction. And while it isn’t a warning, it’s something worth considering.

words Norhan Elhakeem

“The greenhouse is a very powerful archetype of space and time, and is impor-tant to look at within the context of climate change,” Berríos-Negrón explains from Berlin. “It is potentially the way we’ll have to live to survive, to eat, and to maintain an idea of landscape.”

This fascinating house of the future will attain its final shape by the exhibition’s start on September 23 and will remain there until November 29, when the exhibit ends. It will be available for guests to see and visit.

The bulk of the 100-square meter dwell-ing, which will have an “industrial feel” to it according to the exhibition organizers, will lay inside the main room at Färgfabriken, with the remaining part extending outside the building. Part of the house will be raised about a half meter above the ground, to make space for the aquaponic pond, carrying fish, beneath.

Yes, fish. As a sustainable entity, the greenhouse will include its own aquaponic fish tank, part of a new elaborate type of urban farming, which is mostly in its experi-mental stages. The system consists essen-tially of raising fish in a pond – aquaponics - that provide nutrition for plants, which grow in water rather than soil - hydroponics. The closed system leads, in theory, to an endless cycle of life.

The home will in this way contain a wide array of produce. Tilapia, papayas, cilantro and other herbs, to name a few. But other living organisms will also inhabit it; Berríos-Negrón and his family are moving in, at least for the duration of the exhibition anyhow.

“We’re not doing this as some sort of heroic mission,” he says. “That’s not the spirit of this. The idea is to construct a living space for ourselves in the context of what we imagine climate change will do.”

The family will “as much as possible be trying to produce the things” they want to eat, according to Berríos-Negrón, who will be joined by his partner and one-year-old daughter. But he is quick to point out that the greenhouse isn’t a test of survival either. This family won’t hesitate to visit the local supermarket.

They will be hosting special guests throughout the duration of their stay, includ-ing friends and like-minded peers similarly exploring alternative living solutions for the future. “We’ll be having friends with kids visit, as well as others that we will share the space with to engage in dialogue and learn from each other,” he says. “This is a critical component of the project.”

The home will otherwise be open to the public during specific hours. “We’re not animals in a zoo, though,” clarifies Berríos-Negrón. “Thats not at all the dynamic and it’s certainly not a Big Brother thing either: no cameras — nothing ridiculous like that.”

The greenhouse is not a dark omen or warning to the world either, he insists.

“I don’t want to get into that language of fear. The project is simply a way to present us to what we would potentially be facing. The greenhouse for me is some sort of ghost of the future coming to talk to us in the present,” he adds. “A specter that comes to haunt you.”

Whether it actually does that or not, it could certainly be worth a visit.

Luis Berríos-Negrón has spent much of the last few months of his life conceptualizing a home for the future — more specifically, a future within which global warming will have transformed our lives and lifestyles, possibly in very radical ways.

When I spoke to the man himself I’ll admit that, at first, I was a bit lost; the visual artist and architect had something of an abstract way of describing his vision. Thankfully, the Puerto-Rican born, US-educated German resident has translated his fascinating abstract vision into action, creating the home in question. It is being built in Stockholm as part of the upcoming Experiment Stockholm exhibition, taking place at Färgfabriken, an exhibition space and creative platform for contemporary art, architecture and urban development this fall.

But if you’re imagining a Jetsons-style-home (80s sci-fi cartoon, anyone?) where you can jet in and out with your flying car and be led from the bed to the shower via a conveyor belt, you may be in for a sur-prise. Instead, think ‘greenhouse’. That, in essence, is what Berríos-Negrón’s home of the future is - a rather rudimentary, all-in-one kind of sleep pad, where you can eat, lay your head, and basically survive, through its unique, sustainable eco-system. He calls it Earthscore Specularium, but refers to it more colloquially as ‘the greenhouse’ (and I decided I would, too).

Sound complicated? Well in some ways it is, and yet it isn’t.

Above: Maria, Freia, Luis

around midnight, photo by

Noshe (2014)

Opposite page: The Mutá

Lambô ye Kaiongo Terreiro

with Tata Mutá Imê, telling

the saint of time, Tembú,

Salvador da Bahia, Brazil,

photo collage by Luis

Berríos-Negrón (2014)”THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

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‘The Space’ that the car society has created, because it’s so spread out. What can we do with space inbetween the suburbs? Because we have suburbs that some people think are a problem - I’m not one of them, I think there’s a lot of potential in the spaces. But there is still all this space in between which is actu-ally quite monotone for a human to travel through, with your body, and that creates distance between places, and I think that’s why we should investigate these spaces more, to develop the city. To make the urban parts more connected; the urban areas are toospread out.U: If you’re talking about having an experi-mental attitude and looking for innovation, it is these types of areas that are very fertile ground for doing this. First, the renovation of the Million Program areas, that’s one area where we could use innovation. Another area is that the city is growing, lots of old indus-trial areas, like here in Liljeholmen, and lots of old harbours like in Hammarby Sjöstad, sooner or later they will be developed, either for offices or for housing. Now we have an opportunity to use these spaces because we have to build somewhere. And we have to renovate almost everywhere. K: We have a situation where the suburbs are actually quite far apart from each other. To link them tighter together, that’s an ongoing aim that we have for densifying the city. So that’s what we mean when we talk about den-sifying Stockholm. Stockholm is built current-ly like an octopus, we have one centre, and then we have all the roads leading out from one centre. We’re changing that by identify-ing existing centre spaces, and then develop-ing five or six new nodes and interconnecting them. And that means that wherever you live you have a bigger, easier choice of what way to go. And if you build within these areas that are already in the infrastructure system, you don’t need to break new ground, which in another benefit, and you also bring people closer to each other. So when we talk about densifying and re-connecting the city as goals for our city planning, that’s one of the main things we’re talking about, actually. A: I think it’s very important, to work these “in between” spaces because they can break the distance between people. Because when I’ve been travelling back and forth, there are no people in between. You see all the people in cars of course, but there are no meet-ings. There are so many beautiful places in between which could be used, and it’s very good to hear that you’re planning to do that.K: And some places lack some services or people, or nature values or other values, and by linking them closer together you can actu-ally benefit from both. I mean, that’s sort of also maximising the qualities in an area. Some people say that by building everything together that you’re just building everything into one whole, but that’s not how we see it actually and I don’t think that’s even pos-sible, because all these places have different identities and they’re very important. You

The Experiment Stockholm exhibition wants to instigate a debate seeking possible solutions to problems rather than just pinpointing the challenges Stockholm will face in the future. In the same spirit we got three people around the same table to discuss these issues and what could possibly be done to solve them. The Stockholm city architect Karolina Keyzer, Ulf Andersson of Naturvårdsverket and Anna Asplind, a choreographer whose video work about the urban landscape seen from a different perspective is part of the exhibition – the word is yours.

AROUND THE CITY,AROUND

THE TABLE

words Austin Maloney

Where do you think Stockholm is headed, and what kind of society do you think we’re building for future generations?Karolina: Stockholm is definitely growing, so we’re really heading for a multi-cultural situation, with more people than we have actually ever had in Stockholm before. So we have to change and adapt to that situation at all levels in Stockholm. We really have to talk about it, and we have to do it as well. It’s quite an important thing for us. We have to welcome new Stockholmers, and we also have to live in a new way as well, so we can all fit into the new city.

So it’s not just a question of accommo-dating the new people, it’s a question of accommodating them in such a way that they’re actually incorporated into the city, so that everyone lives together in the same way?That’s our biggest challenge, to actually live together instead of living side by side.Ulf: That’s a very important issue, but the population growth also has other kinds of consequences. For example, it puts increased pressure on the demand for land, and also a strain on the infrastructure when it comes to transportation and things like that. We also have to realise that the growth of Stockholm is not just immigration, but also a large num-ber of young Stockholmers being born. K: One third of the growth actually comes from new Stockholmers, baby Stockholmers.U: So there is a two-sided demographic increase. K: That’s actually a very nice way of grow-ing, because we see children everywhere in the city. Formerly we had the children mov-ing out – well, the ones who could - moving out to the surburbs, when they got siblings at least. You stayed for one child in the city and then you moved out. Now we see that families are staying in the city, and older people who have previously moved out come back into the more dense parts of the city, so we also have a moving back situation, to all urban areas of the city. Anna: Why do you think that is?K: People who can choose usually choose to either go to the inner parts of the city, or to the parts that are close to nature. And since there are too few apartments in Stockholm everyone cannot choose, and then you go to the more urban parts where there are free apartments. Then you may not have the same choice, and then there is distance. But that is actually changing, and in the more southern parts of Stockholm, which have been sort of the suburbs, they become very attractive to young families who want to stay there. Areas like Midsommarkransen and further out.A: For my work now, at this exhibition in Stockholm I have been travelling by bike between Färgfabriken and the art hall in Haninge Kulturhus, and I’ve been investigat-ing the paths in between. The result is this video that shows places in between, I call it

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brought the industrial area of Lövholmen up for example, and I think that’s a beautful example, because filling Lövholmen up with inhabitants, making it a living area side-by-side with the buildings that already exist will actually be very beautiful. It will be a very beautiful place to live, extremely close to the city. There are T-bana stops at Hornstull and Liljeholmen. This area is actually connected, but it’s not lived in yet.U: Another important issue in terms of quality of city life is access to nature and to green areas. One of the main reasons why Stockholm was awarded the first ‘Green Capital of Europe’ in 2010 was that there was a very small walking distance for Stockholmers to some kind of green area. And I think one of the holy grails of city plan-ning is to have density but to also ‘greensity’. With density you have lots of advantages like you can make efficient infrastructure, you can have public transportation. Here I think we have to be a bit more innovative and I think the Royal Sea Port has done some good work with not only preserving nature but also creating new nature. For example green roofs, biotope roofs, stuff like that. We have to preserve nature but we also have to create and construct nature.K: We have the benefit here of having both green and grey nature, but we also have all the water. So we have a very big public common space that we can link all of these other nature areas together with, and that’s got a lot of potential for transport here in Stockholm, that’s now taken into considera-tion in planning. It wasn’t before. But having the new Stockholm ‘Blue’ plan is as impor-tant as having the green plan.A: Talking about transporatation, everyone knows that the cars take up a lot of space in the city, from all the 60s planning. It’s very obvious when you get out of the inner city. Obviously in the inner city it’s a problem, but when you get outside you see huge parking areas, huge roads, everything is huge. So if you want to connect these places, I’m curi-ous as to how you think about that, because it’s a barrier to the human body to travel through this landscape because there are so many barriers to cross. For me as a cyclist, for example, I feel very vulnerable all the way. There are also audible barriers, because it’s so loud all the time, so you cannot really tolerate this volume for so long. You get very tired. So there are a lot of problems. I see the bike as a good solution to these issues.K: It’s got such potential. More than half of the population living in and around Stockholm has less than a half-hour bike commute to their work. And there’s wonder-ful potential for transport there, when the weather allows it. When you start biking, then you realise what the environment is like and then you also have the will to change it. In the city hall they took the decision to change the commuting strategies from hav-ing the car on top, to putting the car on the bottom and having the pedestrian on top, and then the bicycle, and then every kind of bus or subway and every other kind of traffic needed to make the city run. But not private cars. But we haven’t seen a very good example of what this might look like yet, so

that is still to be proven and seen in the plan-ning departments. With the new Stockholm street is that actually a street, or is it a place? And that’s actually a very important ques-tion for everyone when we renovate and re-think our areas. You bring up the parking spaces issue. Farsta for instance, which has these beautiful buildings, but also these huge parking spaces. The inner part of Farsta is built quite densely, but in the parking areas it’s quite empty. So how do we change that into a housing situation? And what do we want? What are the streets supposed to look like? The streets when the car is not on top. How do we cross the street with a three-year old not driven by fear, but instead feeling that this is their space? This is a big change to make, and we have to live through that I think.U: I think this could be explored more in the Stockholm area, both in the city of Stockholm and also in the areas around it. To make more cross-sectional connections, so not just connecting physical spaces but also connecting technical systems, connecting resources, connecting all kinds of systems. So for example, if we connect the technical systems for waste water, for organic waste management, you can connect the systems, find good ways of making use of waste water, such as by producing biogas. Another example is how you connect different kinds of traffic systems to each other. It should be easy to take the bike to the bus station, and the bus to the commuting train. They should all be connected into one structure. But you also have connections between nature and buildings. Nature can have practical conse-quences, for example green-roof buildings divert rainwater when you have excess rain, due to climate change or just nature itself. You can get new synergies. You have to think outside the box.

So in terms of Stockholm and its popu-lation growth - on a very basic level, Stockholm is growing by around 30,000-40,000 people a year. What do you think are the best innovative solutions to increasing the housing capacity of the city? Do we need taller apartment build-ings, do we need to utilise the suburbs more? What do you think are the best solutions?K: We need an extremely large amount of new housing projects in Stockholm. I would say there is no single solution. We have to look at lots of different solutions and I think high-rise buildings is only one potential solu-tion, a very small part of the whole solution. Actually connecting our city to itself, which is something we have already started with Hammary Sjöstad for instance, and using our industrial areas. That’s what we’re doing, and that’s where we feel we can plan the most apartments and housing projects.U: Of course you need to build more housing in Stockholm, but you can also have social and economic measures. There are buildings and apartments which are actually empty in the city, and we can encourage more efficient use of existing buildings too. For instance, perhaps you could encourage people who live by themselves in a large house in the

It should be easy to take the bike to the bus station, and the bus to the commuting train. They should all be connected into one structure.

– Ulf

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suburbs to exchange to a smaller apartment. Of course, there is a lot of friction with mov-ing people around and it should be voluntary, but it could be stimulated.A: The housing situation is a big issue, espe-cially with the hyresrätt and the issue of how to solve that problem, because there are a lot of people with old contracts that don’t want to move, and we have a big problem because the price has changed so rapidly in the last few years. It’s a difficult subject and a dif-ficult issue - how to motivate people to move. How would you do that? Do you have any suggestions?U: No, I just identified a need. The practicali-ties of how to do it is a difficult political and social issue.K: But building cheaper apartments for people who are not in the hyresrätt queue is important. If you are in the housing market, then you’re in. The problem is to get in, and there should be a much lower threshold to get there. That means we need smaller, cheaper apartments that are cheaper to build. We also know that we have a problem with student apartments, we need that to be solved too. And we need people who have no home to be able to have a home, and not just for six months but maybe for five years. So it’s really a question of lots of different solutions.A: Another problem with the rent situation is that the demands on people are difficult to fulfil. As an artist, I cannot prove that I have a regular income and therefore cannot prove that I can pay for a flat, and therefore I can-not have a flat in Stockholm. It’s impossible, because there is no-one who will rent me one first-hand. So I have to look at second-hand, third-hand and fourth-hand, as I’m living now. K: In Germany you have these Baugemeinschafts, where you make a small company together and you build your own house, and you build your own environments of interests together. And we’re very posi-tive about that in Stockholm, but we have no tradition of it. U: You could potentially start this system where people have self-built houses, but with professional guidance.

For the social structure of Stockholm, it’s important not only that there are more apartments but also more lower priced apartments, because otherwise you get a lot of apartments but they’re all higher priced and so the social structure in the city changes. So young people, artists, poor people are all forced out of the city. So it’s also important to have lower-priced housing as well.K: Yes, and it’s also a question of how you take care of knowledge and your future, because if you don’t take care of the early parts, you don’t have the benefit of that knowledge later. I’m not only talking about students, I’m talking about lowering the threshold, to be able to make smaller projects and cheaper projects. There is already an interest in building apartments and selling them of course, and that’s fine because we need more apartments. But we also need a differentiation. That’s extremely important,

As an artist, I cannot prove that I have a regular income and therefore cannot prove that I can pay for a flat, and therefore I cannot have a flat in Stockholm.

– Anna

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and also to be able to move around. We have a lockdown in the current situation, and that means it’s a very stiff system and we need to open it up. And there are forces against that but we have such a big need. We’re going to see a very big change in our social and eco-nomic structures in Stockholm.A: It’s also important to consider things outside of the things we already know, like building houses in old industrial areas and between suburbs and things. We have this project in the exhibition where they’re dis-cussing the idea of building on water. Is that something that you’ve discussed, to let more people live by the water?K: We have a very high pressure on water in Stockholm. In Stockholm we’re extremely careful with our water areas because we see them very much as a public space and we try to maintain public access to the water. And as soon as you build houses on the water, you privatise it in some sense, or even if you build simply very close to it. So that’s a very big discussion, there’s a very high value attached to living close to the water and on water. It could be seen as a solution. But actually in Stockholm, we have a lot to do in densifying the city, we have a lot to do with land that’s not even taken so we still have a lot of space we’re not even using. So that’s our first priority.U: In a way I think it’s a good thing, because if you have rather strict, and in my mind rel-evant restrictions on how you can only build 100 or 300 metres away from the shore, it would then be rather strange if you could build two metres away from the shore, but on the water. On the other hand, sooner or later the world will have to build on the water, but perhaps in different contexts of different ways. The Dutch do it, and there are some experimental housing projects in Östergötland, and actually we have areas where people live in Stockholm on the water.

So do you think there are places in Stockholm’s past where it has gone wrong in its city development, mistakes that it is still trying to recover from?A: From my point of view, it was when we planned only for cars and not for humans. That was a very big step in the wrong direc-tion from my point of view.U: Sometimes, often during the 60s and 70s, we had rather insensitive developments where nature was seen as some sort of green disturbance to city planning. This is a rather obsolete view I would say. K: I think the change of focus is very close to a paradigm shift. We have a beautiful history of city planning in Stockholm, so we have a good foundation to stand on. And then the planning in the 60s, 70s, 80s and maybe even up to now might have been done from a one-sided point of view - for example, what the city looks like, or in favour of the car, or in favour of building a lot of housing in a machine-like fashion. And that’s what we call the Millon Program - we made a million homes in one go, and they were very suc-cessful from a time point of view. But the living environment and the human culture was not taken into consideration. So I think there has been a shift, and now planning is impossible if we don’t put the human in the centre, and see what needs we have to fulfil. And these needs are measurable, because we can now see that environmental qualities are connected to health, to length of life, to the possibility of a good education and for social mobility. We’re going to see a big change, but it is also difficult, there is a lot of responsibil-ity attached to that. But the change is done, but now we have to fulfil it. A: There are still a lot of ‘old planning’ para-digms that are still being used, from the 50s, 60s and 70s.U: Yes, these things still live on today, not just among planners but also among build-ers and constructers, and certain technical solutions are often re-used and seem to have an eternal life. The construction industry is often used to doing things in a particular way, and it takes an effort to change that. And sometimes their clients also prefer to buy the traditional solutions. So the city has a responsibility to try and convince the actors of how we want the city to look and function.

And that feeds into my final question, how can the residents of Stockholm them-selves affect the city’s planning?U: By making their voice heard. Of course, there are lots of opportunities to do that. The city of Stockholm and lots of modern planners are sensitive to the needs of people and the expressed opinions of the people. And besides, the planners themselves can-not come up with all the solutions, that is a responsibility for everyone. And you don’t have to be a star architect or a brilliant builder to tell people how you think your own house or your own street ought to look or function.K: Legally, there are some parts of the plan-ning process that need public hearings. We have two public hearings for every project. But by then the project has gotten quite far

We have a beautiful history of city planning in Stockholm, so we have a good foundation to stand on.

– Karolina

RESILIENCE

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SMALL PARCEL-MIXED USE

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Baugemeinschaften, small scale renewable energy, walkability, ecosystem services are all means to raising the sustainability standards in Nydal, Knivsta. As a partner to “Experiment Stockholm” we are part of the contemporary process of building cutting edge sustainable cities.

Please contribute by moving to Knivsta, or attending our workshops about Nydal and TrähusEtt.se – a self sustained, disassemblable building.

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along. So now we have started having dia-logues before we even start planning. We need to tell people: ‘You are going to have new neighbours. What do you think the impact will be on the area, and what input do you have?’. We call these dialogue meetings, and it’s very important that we start them before the planning is set, because then you can really use the input, and we do. It goes directly into the planning, both the good and the bad. The problems happen when the public becomes aware of a project too late, when the plan has gone too far. So it’s essential that everyone realises the change to come very early, because then you can use the responsibility that you actually have. So it’s a question of awareness but also a ques-tion of openness, in a mutual-responsibility situation. And that’s difficult, and there’s not just one way to solve that, but instead lots of ways, and I think the exhibition here (Experiment Stockholm) has a part in that.U: From a longer term perspective, I think everyone has a responsibility to look for good, successful examples of planning in this city, and also in other cities. For instance, why can’t we have a highline park in Stockholm like in New York City? Why can’t we have some of the best aspects of Amsterdam, seeing as we have waterways here too? Why can’t we do something like Time Square, where it was given back to the pedestrian from the car? So if you look around you can find a lot of things that you can be inspired from and take ideas from. And you don’t have to be a professional plan-ner or architect to do that. Use your own eyes and ears and bike around!A: I think what is problematic, and it’s an economic question as well - who has the resources and time and ability to go to these meetings and say what they think about it? Because as you say, it’s maybe two or three dialogues during a project. Who actu-ally goes there? Do you hear all the voices? This is where I think artists could help with a project, because they usually take more time to be in an area, to talk with the people. Because I don’t think it’s enough to say, ‘Oh, we have a meeting, come and tell us what you think about it’, because I think that not all people will come, and those that do are probably the same people every time.K: It’s true, that’s a huge challenge. The city can plan like that, which is has a lawful obli-gation to do, and it can open up the dialogue, but you have to take responsibility. If you talk you have to listen, and if you listen you have to something about it. It’s not just a talk, it’s more of a planning environment. And there are very good examples of that. Vancouver has a brilliant example with 100,000 people going into active planning by changing infra-structure in the own area, and that’s then

used in planning. It’s such a beautiful exam-ple, and it’s not rocket science. Best practise is to just take examples, try them out and if we like them we can just stick to them, and if we don’t we can do something better the next time. But when you add more parties to a planning situation, you then have a mutual responsibility, it’s a learning situation. You can even pull children into the discussion, which can be very helpful for us grown-ups. It leads us into listening in a different way. So I think artists and teachers and all kinds of professions have a lot to add to city planning. It’s not a subject for a few.U: There is also the issue, not only of how you use the streets and buildings themselves, but even the spaces between the buildings. For instance, there’s a tendency to make peo-ple cultivate their own food in small-space projects. You might call it urban agriculture but it’s on a very small scale. This is not so important for food production per se, but it will be an important social project. And you can take care of the parks, of the green areas, and you can make your own garden. That doesn’t really need new infrastructure, it builds on citizen initiatives. Most of the time they are welcomed by the municipalities.A: I had that feeling about Stockholm two years ago from Berlin. In Berlin there is more space for individual initiative in the streets. You could put a bench or your own herbs next to the planned tree. I feel like Stockholm is too planned sometimes, and there’s no space for inhabitants to do some-thing like this. And we also have this tradi-tion in Sweden that we don’t…K: And we also have this tradition that we don’t talk about what we do. So we see all these nice examples outside, and we have all these brilliant suggestions like, ‘Let’s make this into a park’ or ‘Let’s grow food in the park’, or on the rooftop, or let’s have bees. There are hundreds of those, and they’re all very well received by the city. There are many people who think, ‘this area or space, this is not used, and we want to use it in this way’. And it would be quite easy to get a con-tract with the city. You can do that. But then you have the responsibility for doing that. It’s called a citizen contract and we have lots of them, and I wish we would talk more about that. It’s really easy to try.U: Does this need to be more documented? Because I agree, Berlin has a reputation for having a more experimental attitude. But things are actually happening also in Stockholm, especially in the last five or ten years, but sometimes you need a microscope to see it. If you look around, you can see lots and lots of citizen initiatives, which are very relevant. And they’re not a contradiction to normal planning. K: They can even be funded by the city.

A: I agree, but I’m more talking about really small things. For example me going outside my door and planting a flower.K: Guerrilla gardening.A: As you say, if I were to do that I would need a contract with my municipality, for my ‘guerrilla garden’, which wouldn’t be a ‘guer-rilla garden’ anymore. I’m sure if I placed a bench outside my door that would be taken away, if I didn’t get a permit. Stockholm sometimes is very planned, and people love the organised city when they get here, but sometimes it’s a bit boring as well.U: Well it depends, there are always pros and cons. We have all these small cafes, which are so nice, but should they monopolise the street? When you have a city you always have lots of contradictions, and you have to bal-ance between them. Stockholm is actually getting more and more experimental, com-pared to the past. Personally I think we’ve got some way to go, but we have one of the most active, democratic and educated citi-zens in the world I would say. Why can’t we use this, the ‘power of the people,” as we said 30 years ago, a bit more intensively?A: Yes exactly, when people are given more responsibility they will make things more personal.K: Sometimes I just wish that more of us would actually take that responsibility, because there are very few hindrances to it. These initiatives are very welcome. It’s actu-ally a question of doing, because we talk a lot, ‘oh we would like to do this’, but the ones who actually step out into the street, they can do it. So the expectation that someone will come and stop you is quite wrong. There was the issue of having skaters in town. I meet angry skaters who say, ‘why don’t you want us to be in town?’, and I say ‘We want you to be in town, because it’s safer if you’re there’. The more people who are out on the streets the safer it is. And that’s news to them. So it’s a question of culture as well, it’s much more permitted than one would think. So sitting inside thinking we can’t do anything here and it’s quite boring, that’s not a good approach. Doing things, trying it out, that’s a better approach.

If you look around you can find a lot of things that you can be inspired from and take ideas from. And you don’t have to be a professional planner or architect to do that.

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