Purpose
To identify and examine the arguments for the current concepts within the urban planning discourse and define which type of urban development they advocate.
Adressed problem
Known concepts, such as the compact city and sustainability, can be seen as some of today’s large urban trends and are often used without a critical perspective. To find out what the terms really mean and what its proclaimed solutions are, it is necessary to examine both the discourse belonging to the trend as well as the physical project that is characterized by its arguments.
The two cities Karlskrona and Malmö, which will serve as the workshop’s Swedish examples, have similarities that are based in them both being located in coast areas. However, Karlskrona and Malmö are different when it comes to size, history, demographic composition, political orientation and connections to other Swedish cities and other European countries, making them interesting examples for studying urban trends’ impact in Sweden. For example, what impact has the World Heritage site in the town Karlskrona, on the emergence of a new urban trend? Or how is Malmö affected by urban trends, given its proximity and good connections to other parts of Europe? Focusing on current urban development trends through lectures, site visits and group exercises, will give rise to the discussion on what the trends means in relation to the discourse and actual projects.
Expected result
The workshop will function as a venue where students from different cities, countries and
cultures will meet to expand their comprehension on the current urban trends in Europe. Various disciplinaries are tested against each other, and experiences and perspectives from the own cities are discussed. During the exercises, the invited students will be divided in groups so to create as diverse groups as possible. Every group will have a number of Swedish spatial planning students, functioning as hosts. The purpose of the workshop is to critically examine today’s urban trends and also to jointly discuss what the trends’ impacts are on spatial planning.
The result of the discussions, site visits and lectures will be summarized by the organizers of the workshop and shared with the workshop attendants as well as with contributing professors, planners and sponsors.
