Perspektiv på miljonprogrammet. Arkitektur, kulturhistoria och miljöanpassning som delar av hållbar utveckling

Licentiate thesis, 2006

Perspectives on Million Homes Programme Aspects of architectural, cultural and environmental values as part of sustainable development LOTTA SÄRNBRATT Department of Architecture Chalmers University of Technology SE – 412 96 Göteborg, Sweden Abstract As part of the Swedish Government’s policy for residential districts in the vulnerable metropolitan regions, the National Heritage Board participated in the project “Cultural Heritage in the Metropolitan Areas” with the aim of developing new ways for collaboration and to draw attention to values and qualities in the architecture of ’late modernism’, in the three big cities Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. The aim of this study is to elucidate different ideas and conceptions about values in the metropolitan areas and to demonstrate how these ideas are concretised in renewal projects. This thesis is based on an empirical case study, with examples of renewal in three of the suburbs of Göteborg, as well as interviews with planners, architects and conservationists. My study deals with how the architectural, cultural and environmental values have been taken care of and utilised in the regeneration of the housing areas. In what way have refurbishment projects been implemented? Have the changes been carefully accomplished? How are the housing areas being evaluated by different actors? What arguments do the planners, architects and conservationists propagate for in their solutions? The assignments of the architects have been to design the improvements of housing areas that suffer from technical and functional problems. The real estate owners often like to do something spectacular to improve the image of the often-stigmatised areas. The conservationists, on the other hand, aim to preserve architectural qualities as part of the cultural heritage. The issue is to discuss how to improve the architecture of housing areas in such a way as to still protect the characteristics of the historical traits while supporting sustainable development. In my discussion I argue that architectural, cultural and environmental values may be defined as ’essentially contested concepts‘. The essentially contested concept means that the discussion must be open and rational and the vagueness of the concept must be accepted by the participants in the discussion. The report is written in Swedish with an English summary. Keywords history of architecture, cultural heritage, housing, metropolitan areas, renewal, Million Homes Programme, modernism, Sweden