Master in Sustainable Urban Design
19-21 May 2026
School of Architecture at Lund University invites you to the presentation days for the degree projects.
The presentations are public and take place in the A-building, Klas Anshelms väg 16, 223 62 Lund.
Tuesday 19th to Thursday 21st of May 2026 in Full-scale Lab & Black Box.
Tanika Kerkar / Everyday Urbanism for Ageing in Place
As global populations age at an unprecedented rate, cities are increasingly becoming the primary environments where later life unfolds. This thesis explores how urban design can better respond to the everyday needs of older adults, focusing on the concept of ageing in place - the ability to live independently, safely, and meaningfully within one’s own home and neighbourhood.
While ageing in place is widely promoted in policy and planning, existing approaches often concentrate on housing adaptations, overlooking the broader neighbourhood context that shapes daily life. Urban environments, historically designed for younger, mobile populations, frequently fail to accommodate diverse physical abilities, resulting in barriers to mobility, accessibility, and social participation.
Using Stora Högsbo in Gothenburg, Sweden, as a case study, this project investigates how neighbourhood-scale design influences the independence and wellbeing of older adults. It critically examines prevailing frameworks such as the 15-minute city and age-friendly planning, identifying key gaps in how accessibility, proximity, and social infrastructure are addressed.
The research reveals that proximity to services alone does not guarantee accessibility or inclusion. Instead, the quality of streets, public spaces, and social environments plays a crucial role in enabling everyday mobility and fostering community interaction. A central challenge identified is the risk of social isolation, particularly in contexts like Sweden where older adults
often live independently.
In response, the thesis proposes an integrated urban design approach rooted in “everyday urbanism.” This includes improving walkability, creating distributed neighbourhood nodes, enhancing social infrastructure, and designing inclusive public spaces that support intergenerational interaction.
By bridging spatial, social, and infrastructural strategies, the project aims to contribute toward more inclusive, age-friendly neighbourhoods that not only support independence but also enrich the everyday lives of ageing populations.
Sara Stoll / From Fragmentation to Cohesion - Bridging divided living environments
Rapid urbanization and infrastructure expansion often lead to spatial, ecological and social fragmentation in existing urban areas, where functions, landscapes and neighborhoods are physically and functionally disconnected. Urban developments are
often planned as isolated interventions, neglecting an integration into the broader landscape. These problems are particularly acute in cross-border territories, where different management systems and planning frameworks reinforce invisible but powerful divisions. This Master's thesis examines the region of Kaiseraugst on the Swiss-German border to see how urban planning can tackle these multi-dimensional obstacles.
Historically, the region was united as the coherent Roman metropolis of Augusta Raurica, with the Rhine River as vital link. Today, however, the territory is fragmented to a large extent through national borders, different local authorities, monocultures and heavy infrastructure such as roads, railways and fenced industries. This modern spatial arrangement has resulted in isolated ecological habitats, reduced biodiversity and isolated communities that lack coherent public spaces for social interaction.
To overcome these segregation of living environments, the project is using a human-centred design approach, which shifts the planning perspective from macro-management to the human eye.
Key interventions include the creation of new urban nodes, activation of public spaces, the extension of green corridors to mitigate edge effects and the creation of continuous, pedestrian networks. The project aims to reconnect a fragmented landscape by using the river as a common axis, not as a barrier, to strengthen regional identity, social cohesion and daily life on the Swiss-German border.
Miranda Elg / Access rurality - A study and design for accessible and green public spaces in rural Teckomatorp in Skåne
Is there a future shared space ”in between” the physical rural landscape of traditions and modern lifestyles - where we can meet?
The work aims to highlight and develop the rural identity of Teckomatorp in Sweden, both urban and rural typology, and to further challenge the typologies and lifestyle in social sustainability in terms of accessibility and well-being in human scale.
The project investigates global, national, regional and municipal development, theory and trends in accessibility to public spaces, in this case in the focus of rural context in relation to green areas.
Rural towns and areas has both challenges and opportunities of making regional and local connections with different landscape and urban typologies accessible. Different urban historical
and future processes, as urbanization, is pushing the rural areas more into big scale infrastructural solutions, but also creates barriers for soft speed transport, such as pedestrians and bicycle traffic, and in addition how people can access public spaces and recreational activities.
The aim of the project is to give a diagrammatic design proposal of Teckomatorp development
in public spaces and mobility. This with three different strategic focuses that also is communicated further in detail design. The proposal shall end up in three design outlets within Teckomatrop, showing how to tackle the design development of the small rural villages on the border to the urban, agricultural and natural landscape.
Despite the project's detailed design - the work shall be a contribution to a future working process to create more sustainable by focusing on public spaces, through mobility and green spaces, to a more global perspective. By making the rural areas more connected to recreational areas, public spaces and a network for soft and public transport these areas can be more healthy - by developing a sustainable lifestyle - where rural traditions and accessibility meet in the middle.
Rui He / Knitting the City: Ageing, gender, and everyday care in Refshaleøen
As cities grow and change, there is a growing awareness that urban spaces are not as neutral as they might seem. Most cities have been planned around an assumed "typical" user, one who does not fully reflect the different bodies, daily routines, and feelings of safety that people actually experience.
This project focuses on older women, a group whose everyday needs are often missed in large-scale urban development. For many older women, daily life unfolds not as one single journey, but through a series of short and repeated movements: shopping, walking, meeting neighbours, caring for others, and simply spending time in public space. These routines depend on short distances, safe routes, places to rest, and a strong sense of local familiarity.
The central concept is knitting, understood on two levels. The first is the knitting of urban fabric: through paths, streets, greenery, public gathering points, and existing industrial structures, the project stitches together a site that is currently fragmented, oversized in scale, and disconnected from everyday life. The aim is not to erase its industrial character, but to weave it into a continuous and walkable urban environment.
The second is the knitting of social fabric. Older women's daily movements, pauses, acts of care, small conversations, and quiet attention to others are not incidental. They are what holds a community together. By designing spaces that support these everyday behaviours, the project recognises older women not just as users of space, but as people who actively maintain the warmth and familiarity of neighbourhood life.
Set on a former industrial shipyard in Copenhagen, the project uses their everyday experience as a way of asking who the city is really planned for, and how a former industrial site can become a warmer and more connected urban community.
Josefine Angvald Westesson / Carpets of Urban Rest
This thesis explores how architecture can create conditions for urban rest, functioning as restorative spaces within the city. The city is composed of public spaces, the streets that connect them, and buildings that frame a gradient of in-between spaces ranging from public to private. Within this structure, urban rest can be understood as a set of environments in which the pace of the city slows and opportunities for recovery emerge across diverse social and spatial conditions. The thesis investigates how these spaces can remain accessible to all residents in increasingly dense urban contexts while responding to present and future climate challenges.
As cities continue to densify, spaces for rest are becoming more limited, while challenges such as heat, flooding, and noise place growing pressure on the urban fabric. This project explores how in-between spaces within a neighbourhood can be transformed into climate-resilient environments that also expand access to urban rest. At the same time, it considers how these transformations can support social sustainability by creating opportunities for interaction across both semi-private and public realms.
Through the study of two neighbourhoods in Malmö, Heleneholm and Södra Sofielund, the project examines how a shared vision of urban rest can be realised through different spatial strategies, with a particular focus on courtyards as semi-public environments where private and public realms intersect. One approach is within an existing, fragmented urban structure, while the other introduces new built form to redefine and strengthen spatial conditions. The thesis outlines an adaptive approach that activates the existing urban fabric, particularly courtyards and threshold spaces, as a connected network of urban rest across the private-public gradient.
Anna Deliowska / Arctic Spine - Urban Planning in the Remote / Arctic Settlements
This thesis explores how urban design can respond to the urgent pressures of climate change and cultural transformation in Arctic settlements. The approach is based on recognizing that northern communities are deeply connected to the land. Rather than redefining ways of life, the project seeks to create spatial frameworks that strengthen existing practices by introducing solutions capable of accommodating both climatic instability and demographic change. Ultimately, the goal is to enable people to remain in the region, adapt and thrive without having to choose between cultural continuity and physical safety.
Using Iqaluit as a case study, the design promotes development within clearly defined boundaries,
prioritizing already services land. Planning vision introduces the Arctic Spine, a network of informal
pedestrian routes, boardwalks and public realms designed to reduce dependency on vehicles while
incorporating snow and wind analysis into neighbourhood design. A mix of housing typologies
responds to diverse needs, avoiding segregation and instead, it encourage everyday interaction
between residents.
The intention of the design is not to script how people should live, but to create opportunities for
communities to shape spaces according to their needs. Additionally, places like harbour market
reconnects Iqaluit’s future with its history as a trading point, providing space for local exchange and
social interactions. Around that area, the proposal explores kelp forests and introduces harvesting
spots, strengthening long-term resilience for local industries.
In conclusion, Arctic Spine argues that sustainable urbanism in Arctic settlements should not replace
existing ways of life, but reinforce them, by positioning design as a tool that enables communities to
adapt and thrive within changing environmental and social conditions.
Julia Olsson / Street of recovery: Designing for reduced stress in everyday urban environments
Street of recovery explores how urban environments can be designed to reduce stress in everyday life, with a particular focus on movement corridors. While existing research often emphasises parks and green spaces, this project addresses the streets that structure daily routines and urban movement.
The study focuses on Sölvegatan in Lund, a central connection between the university and the city centre. The street is characterised by high movement intensity and overlapping flows of pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles. In its current condition, it functions primarily as a transport corridor, with limited spatial clarity and few opportunities for pause, interaction, or sensory variation.
Based on site analysis, research, and dialogue with local stakeholders, the project identifies spatial
conditions that contribute to everyday stress, including unclear hierarchy, noise, lack of greenery, and limited capacity for staying.
The design proposal reconfigures Sölvegatan into a human centred and green urban corridor. The
street structure is reorganised to prioritise pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport, creating a
clearer and more predictable spatial hierarchy. A sequence of social spaces is introduced along the
corridor, ranging from small scale interventions to larger nodes, enabling both movement and longer
stays. The design also integrates climate adaptive and sensory elements throughout the street.
Vegetation, stormwater systems, shading, and seating are distributed as part of a continuous system, improving microclimate, reducing noise, and supporting everyday comfort. Together, these
interventions create a street that accommodates both flow and pause, allowing for a slower and
more varied use of space.
The project argues that streets should not only move people efficiently, but also support how people
feel while moving, positioning everyday urban spaces as an important tool in addressing stress in
contemporary cities.
Sergiusz Wasilewski / Hovedstadens Letbane - Håndbog
After more than 50 years since the last tram ran through the streets of Copenhagen, light rail returned to the urban fabric of the city in 2025, connecting Ishøj with Rødovre, with a future extension towards Lundtofte scheduled to open in the summer of 2026. However, despite recurring discussions and proposals over the past 20 years, there are currently no clear plans outlining where, how, or when the network might be developed.
Light rail, as a mode of public transport, has been present in many European cities for over 150 years and remains valued as a convenient and pleasant way of moving through urban environments. What began as horse-drawn carriages has evolved into a modern, electric system that meets mobility demands and enhances the urban experience through the “tram effect”.
In the context of Copenhagen, the tram network was introduced in the 19th century and expanded over time, eventually reaching nearly 100 km of track across the city and its suburbs. However, due to shifts in planning approaches in the mid-20th century, the system was gradually phased out, leading to its complete removal by 1972 in favor of bus services, which at the time were perceived as modern.
Debates around the reintroduction of light rail in Copenhagen have resurfaced repeatedly. Since the development of Hovedstadens Letbane, these ideas have gained traction, as the existing L1 line provides a backbone for expansion.
This thesis explores a selected proposal for expanding the light rail network in Copenhagen, presenting five additional lines and focusing in detail on the L6 line. The aim is to demonstrate that, despite the diversity of urban typologies along its route, reintroducing light rail into the city center is not only feasible but can also contribute to improving both the quality and quantity of urban space.
Jiadian Wang / From Stockpile to Landscape: A Time-Based Ecological Transformation
Across many cities, post-industrial sites are going through major transitions. Thesesites are often polluted, fragmented, and underused, but they also offer newopportunities for regeneration. Shougang Industrial Park in Beijing is one of thesecases. Today, the North Zone has been redeveloped and is active, the Southeast Zoneis mostly built and integrated with the city, while the South Zone remains underused.It contains industrial remains, contaminated soil, and disconnected spaces, with verylimited public use.
To respond to these conditions, this project proposes a time-based ecological strategy. Environmental repair and ecological recovery take time, so the design works with gradual change. The approach is structured around “Contain, Evolve, and Connect over time.” First, polluted soil is stabilized to make the site safe. Then, vegetation and ecological systems are introduced step by step. Over time, blue-green infrastructure helps reconnect fragmented areas and link the site to the larger landscape. These actions are organized in phases, moving from control, to growth, and then to spatial connection.
The project aims to transform the South Zone into an evolving ecological landscape. Over time, the site becomes greener, more connected, and more accessible. New pathsand spaces support everyday use, while ecological systems continue to grow andadapt. In the future, the former industrial area becomes a place where ecological systems and urban life can exist together.
Maria Raafat Talaat Nashed / Mental Wellness Enviroments
The awareness of mental health and wellbeing has lately increased, revealing rising levels of stress and anxiety. In addition, after the COVID‑19 pandemic people became more reliant on social media and remote work, which changed how we interact with local communities and exposed mental‑health needs that may not be supported by recent restrictive measures in city
planning.
According to recent WHO reports, more than one billion people worldwide live with mental
disorders such as anxiety and depression, and about 71% remain undertreated.
The built environment plays a vital role in addressing mental health. Living in a healthy
environment, having access to natural places, and the presence of calm areas and social
interaction within the neighborhood contribute to mental and physical wellbeing. Mental
wellbeing is not only an individual condition; it is strongly influenced by the built environment.
This raises the question: how can urban design interventions re-establish healing environments
that support mental restoration? A healthy environment is any setting that allows restoration and
regulation of our thoughts and emotions, resulting in more positive cognitive behaviour and life
satisfaction.
This thesis investigates the district of Kirseberg in Malmö, focusing on Vattenverksvägen and
three focus areas. Ongoing urban transformation, particularly in Södra Kirseberg/Östervärn,
combined with the removal of an existing bus line, risks increasing car dependency, weakening
the viability of local services, reducing everyday activity, and causing a gradual loss of social
presence within the neighbourhood.
The project interprets Kirseberg as a leaf-like urban structure, with Vattenverksvägen acting as
a central vein distributing movement and restorative spaces from active urban edges toward a
calm interior landscape supporting mental wellbeing. It focuses on three strategies for the
healing process: a green typology to establish a green spine connecting green infrastructure; an
active typology for multimodal mobility; and a restorative-core typology for social places that
support a sense of belonging and identity.
In conclusion, mental health conditions are widespread and closely tied to the environments
people are exposed to, which means restorative environments can help mitigate the effects of
mental disorders. Regularly visited urban places can serve as refuges with healing qualities. A
healthy environment is any setting that allows restoration and regulation of thoughts and
emotions, leading to more positive cognitive behaviour and greater life satisfaction.
Cassandra Lundgren / Going out, coming home: Exploring perceived safety in daily urban environments
The thesis project ‘going out, coming home’ investigates how perceived safety shapes everyday movement across urban environments. It starts from the understanding that feeling safe is not an additional quality, but a fundamental condition for accessing and using the city. Without it, mobility, social interaction, and participation in public life are limited.
The project draws on research from environmental psychology, urban design, and safety studies, combined with local data and spatial analysis. Perceived safety is approached as a relational condition, emerging through the interaction of spatial structure, social presence, and individual experience. Building on this, a set of design principles has been developed as a spatial framework, focusing on light, visibility, people, aesthetics, and process as interdependent factors shaping how environments are perceived and used.
Based on spatial analysis identifying fragmented routes, limited activity, and physical and visual barriers, the area surrounding Persborg station in Malmö is used to test the five design principles across the site. The proposal targets specific nodes and connections to support a coherent network of public space. By complementing existing routes with new ones, gaps are addressed and continuity strengthened.
Applied across this network, the principles create opportunities for people to meet, see, and be seen; ensure an easy-to-read environment where people can move with ease; cultivate places that express care and ownership through maintenance and human-scale detail; support safe movement through layered light; and ground design decisions in co-design and local knowledge.
Together, these interventions strengthen connections and increase presence across the area, supporting safer everyday movement and contributing to a more accessible and inclusive public life.
Hanna Galas / A regenerative design strategy for the railway barrier in Praga Północ, Warsaw
The multifaceted impact of transport infrastructure on spatial, social, and cultural barriers in the city
What happens when the infrastructure designed to connect a city ends up dividing it instead? This thesis investigates the relationship between urban mobility and spatial justice, examining how roads, railways, and transit corridors generate barriers that are not only physical but social and cultural: separating communities, limiting access to opportunity, and reinforcing patterns of inequality inscribed in the urban fabric over decades. It argues that mobility is not merely a technical question of
movement, but a critical dimension of equity - determining who can participate fully in city life and who is left at its margins.
The design project responds directly to these findings. Located near Dworzec Wileński in Praga Północ - one of Warsaw's most historically layered and infrastructurally fragmented districts - the proposal is rooted in both existing urban conditions and the city's long-term urban development
ambitions. At its core is a new mobility hub conceived as a major interchange connecting tram, bus, rail, cycling, and pedestrian movement. The relocation of railway tracks below Aleja Solidarności unlocks a new strip of land, transformed into a mixed-use development of housing, workspaces, and cultural programs - stitching together the previously fragmented edges of the district. The street itself is reimagined as a green boulevard with a new tram line at its centre, replacing car dominance with a corridor of movement and public life.
Praga Północ carries a strong and distinctive identity - shaped by its pre-war architecture that survived the Second World War, its working-class history, and its thriving cultural and artistic community. The design strategies seek to honour this character, ensuring that regeneration
strengthens and preserves the social fabric and cultural life that make Praga irreplaceable. Through scale, permeability, and the generosity of public space, the project transforms a zone of division into a place where people choose to be.
Archive of Previous Degree Projects
Sumesh Thangam Madasamy / Regenerating Urban Industrial Waterfronts:
Synergies Between Resilience and the Active Public Realm Stavanger, Norway
Stavanger is a coastal city shaped by decades of industrial and oil- based development. As it transitions towards a more climate resilient and inclusive future, the city must reconsider how its urban waterfront can be served better to both people and the environment. This thesis focuses on regenerating the eastern harbour industrial waterfront by creating a strong connection between resilience strategies and active public realm.
The design approach, that transforms the underutilized industrial land into to a new layer of the city by accommodating sea level adaptation and enabling vibrant, everyday urban life. Through land extensions, flexible flood edges, mixed use cores and seasonal cultural events, the design activates the waterfront as a socially inclusive, walkable and ecologically responsive urban district.
By transforming current structures and spatial patterns to accommodate new uses and public life, the proposal enhances rather than eliminates the sites industrial character. The goal is to shape the waterfront that works across seasons, responds to climate demands and reflects the evolving identity of Stavanger in a post-oil era.
This thesis also explores how mid sized Nordic cities like Stavanger can approach post industrial regeneration with design strategies that are adaptive, futuristic and grounded in local needs. The project contributes to the broader discussion on resilient cities and transformation of urban waterfront by tying environmental performance to social and cultural vibrancy.
Chiara Marquart / Future-proofing the Public Realm
A process-oriented approach to a sustainable transformation in Vienna
This project seeks to contribute to the ongoing shift in how we respond to climate change—approaching it with the urgency it demands. It is located in Vienna’s 15th district and builds on spatial analysis, mapping of underused areas, and a contextual reading of socio-climatic conditions to highlight both spatial restrictions and hidden potentials. The selected site serves as a test fi eld for a visionary transformation of the public realm - one that promotes fair distribution and qualitative public spaces and shows how these sites can be transformed into connective elements that encourage social interaction and climate resilience.
Rather than only proposing a fi xed masterplan, the project focuses on process: exploring how short- and long-term approaches can work together to shape an inclusive and sustainable urban environment. The design proposal is not only an image of what the public realm could be in the future, but also an invitation to refl ect, experiment, and engage in dialogue about the role of shared space in a changing city.
The central question is: How can a shared vision of a human-oriented, adaptive city be translated into phased interventions that reshape the public realm and promote social and environmental resilience?
The neighborhood of the chosen design area today is marked by heavy traffi c along Linke Wienzeile, predominance of parked cars, and subway entrances on a large infrastructure island. Green infrastructure is scarce, and the potential of the Wien river as a public blue space remains untapped. Yet, the area holds high public value for residents, businesses, and schools. The vision transforms it into a vibrant community-oriented place: streets for people, minimal car traffi c, safe cycling networks, new public assets such as a community sports and arts center, and above all, a revitalized, accessible Wien river with barrier-free, high-quality public spaces for encounters, recreation, and urban nature.
Chaithanya Divakaran / Transforming the Big Box Landscape
Walkable and Multi-functional Local Centre
This thesis addresses the challenge of transforming car-oriented, mono-functional retail landscapes into multi-functional, walkable local-centre. It assembles an integrated framework from recent research and translates it into a design approach to be tried in a case study.
In contrast to the proposed multi-functional approach, a monocentric urban system concentrates functions and advantages in a single dominant core, leaving many residents with longer routine trips and uneven access. Studies stress that polycentricity performs best when centres are integrated and connected by efficient transit systems. Multi-functionality, coupled with the public realm, is a reliable route to everyday urban life, while inward-facing retail formats with parking erode permeability and street vitality. Hence, the thesis adopts a proximity-based accessibility lens, securing nearly equal access to different kinds of everyday opportunities and organising them so users can reach one activity within a 15-minute walk. It also positions walkability and urban greening as health and equity levers and studies pedestrian dynamics to guide design that reduces friction, simplifies decisions, and makes legible, direct routes that are supported by inclusive, child-friendly measures such as raised crossings, protection at conflict points, shading, tactile cues, good lighting, and passive surveillance.
This thesis applies these strategies and principles in a real-world setting to learn from its application by
- Reallocating street space to walking and cycling.
- Connecting nodes via transit and clear bike or walk networks.
- Planning for proximity and variety (10–15-minute reach).
- Re-parcelling and re-fronting big-box plots.
- Curating active ground floors with everyday services.
- Adding civic anchors to stabilise footfall
The case is in City Syd in Skalborg, Aalborg: a big-box landscape, positioned to benefit from a high-capacity public-transport spine. The design proposal tests how the above strategies can convert a car-led retail zone into a recognisable local centre within a polycentric network. In short, the project demonstrates how the Skalborg case study can transform big-box territories into vibrant local centers where daily life is accessible, pedestrian-friendly, and centers are defined by variety, connectivity, and care.
Mengtong Li / Echoes of steel and sea: Sustainable regeneration of the former shipyard in Tianjin, China
In the context of global post-industrial transformation, many cities are grappling with the challenge of sustaining urban growth while repairing ecological damage left by decades of industrialization. Abandoned brownfields, though often seen as scars of the past, also represent latent potential for reimagining urban futures. These transitional landscapes offer rare opportunities to reconnect fragmented ecological systems, revitalize community life, and reshape urban identity.
This project is situated in Tianjin, a historic port city in northern China, and focuses on the former Xingang Shipyard—once a thriving hub of maritime industry, now a site of ecological degradation and spatial decline. Despite its deterioration, the site retains significant industrial structures—such as workshops, cranes, and waterfront assets—that bear rich historical and cultural value. These remnants form the foundation for a new type of urban regeneration rooted in memory, resilience, and inclusivity.
The central aim of the project is to develop an integrated regeneration strategy that transforms the shipyard into a resilient urban waterfront. The design approach is guided by three interrelated objectives:
- Ecological Restoration – Rehabilitating damaged land and re-establishing ecological networks through green infrastructure and landscape interventions.
- Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage – Preserving and reinterpreting industrial structures to maintain cultural continuity and local identity.
- Creation of Accessible Public Spaces – Designing open, diverse, and inclusive spaces that foster community interaction, civic engagement, and sustainable urban growth.
The proposal envisions a shift from a site of production to a vibrant space of living and service. It introduces a series of adaptive and sustainable design strategies that blend historical preservation with contemporary needs. More than a physical transformation, the project explores the co-creation of cultural memory and collective urban futures, ensuring that the site evolves in dialogue with its people, its past, and its ecological context.
Ultimately, this regeneration is not merely about renewal—but about reconciling history, nature, and modern urban life in a meaningful and forward-looking way.
Emilia Przydryga / Small Town's Problem, Rethinking Remote Small Urban Areas in Rural Settings
Rural and small urban areas constitute a fundamental dimension of the European territorial fabric and identity. Rural regions encompass over 80% of the European Union’s land area and are home to approximately 137 million people, accounting for nearly 30% of the total population. They are widely valued for their contributions to food production, stewardship of natural resources, preservation of landscapes, and provision of recreation and tourism opportunities. However, in recent decades, processes such as globalization, urbanization, and demographic change have significantly reshaped their roles and functions.
Small urban areas—defined as towns with between 5,000 and 50,000 inhabitants—are crucial intermediaries within this landscape. Across the EU, approximately 14,000 such settlements accommodate nearly 43% of the population. Their role extends beyond their size: they act as nodes of economic activity, cultural life, and service provision, forming essential links within broader territorial networks. Yet, these areas face considerable challenges, including population decline, aging demographics, economic stagnation, deficiencies in infrastructure and public services, and high levels of car dependency.
The relationship between rural and small urban areas is deeply interdependent. They share overlapping challenges and futures, making integrated strategies essential. The Polish National Spatial Development Concept highlights the importance of strengthening remote small urban centers as catalysts for broader rural development. By reinforcing these local hubs, positive impulses can radiate into economically weaker surrounding areas, fostering more balanced territorial cohesion.
This work examines the case of Słupca, a small urban area embedded in a rural context, to illustrate these dynamics. The design follows three strategic dimensions aligned with the EU’s Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas: connectivity, resilience, and strength. Each element is translated into design-oriented solutions, offering both local responses for Słupca and transferable guidelines for similar towns across Europe.
Moa Arthur Sahlqvist / Coexistence between preservation and regeneration
Industrial redevelopment has become an increasingly pressing urban challenge as cities expand and central industrial areas are drawn into the evolving urban fabric.
While regeneration projects often succeed in giving former industrial sites new roles, the preservation of the industrial legacy is frequently reduced due to conflicting demands between industrial and central urban functions. What is often retained is primarily the architectural shell where these businesses once operated, detaching redevelopment from the social and cultural dimensions of production. Coexistence between Preservation and Regeneration explores how design strategies can ease friction between conflicting functions while layering preservation, transformation, and new development in a context-responsive approach, using the case study of Ringön, a central industrial and business district in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The research examines the cycles and patterns of industrial redevelopment, as well as commonly applied planning approaches such as zoning and mixed-use development, highlighting both their benefits and limitations. Zoning has enabled industrial functions to persist in central areas by separating conflicting land uses, yet this separation becomes less sustainable as city centers demand integration. Mixed-use development encourages diversity but often generates tensions between established and new uses, frequently leading to displacement. These challenges are particularly relevant in Ringön, where the operational needs of local businesses may come into conflict with Gothenburg’s ambitions to densify the urban core and reconnect the city to the waterfront.
In response, the project proposes a conceptual design that employs mindful zoning divisions, based on interviews and the existing urban framework, with gradual phasing as a crucial factor for adaptation. Principles of mixed-use development are applied as connecting links to the broader context, while a new zoning plan introduces transitional “bridging zones” to mediate between existing and new development. The design strategies Anchor, Connect, and Enhance aim to preserve Ringön’s cultural and productive identity while creating opportunities for new forms of public life. Ultimately, the project envisions a resilient urban future grounded in the coexistence between preservation and regeneration.