Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The relevance of streets in the transition towards sustainable mobility cannot be overlooked; however,
achieving sustainable urban street transformation remains challenging due to the complexity of
existing transport systems and urban development's dependence on the given system. Autonomous
vehicles (AVs), as a transformative technological innovation, present a significant opportunity to
disrupt the current paradigm. The landscape perspective and its operational methods provide a
possibility to formulate revised protocols for the transformation of urban streets. Taking these two
views as its entry point, this thesis addresses the question of how to implement sustainable AV street
transformation from a landscape perspective. The research employs the concept of three scenarios to
systematically categorise and analyse current conceptual designs for AV streets, finding that these
designs are insufficient for sustainable transformation. This insufficiency is attributed to their reliance
on traditional masterplanning thinking and neglect of public value-based changes, among other
factors. Consequently, the study explores the potential of the landscape perspective and its operational
methods to address these shortcomings and achieve sustainable AV street transformation. Design
approaches for dynamic planning, which can bridge the competing top-down planning and bottom-up
design protocols, are interpreted, analysed, and adaptively applied to the context of AV street
transformation. The study then outlines design strategies for AV street transformation, focusing on the
aspects of who (actors involved), how (organisation of design actions), and when (time-based
strategies). An experimental design is conducted in the Lokstallarna area of Malmö, Sweden, guided
by the developed design strategies, resulting in a design framework to steer the transformation of AV
streets. The findings of this thesis propose a new avenue for the sustainable transformation of AV
streets and underscore the significance of design approaches from landscape architecture in shaping
future urban streets.