Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Densification is one of the urban visions for sustainable development - a vision that has become a part of the solution to the unsustainable sake dilemma. With the dense city land will be saved, energy consumption reduced and social cohesion improved. The dense city is considered to be ecologically, economically and socially sustainable. Applying an urban design concept has thus proven to be problematic. Density has been found to be a complex concept
which is far more complicated than measuring how much built surface that needs to be covered.

It is also not disputed what different degrees of densification mean and whether densification in itself is sustainable. Yet the policies that interpret sustainability continue to advocate exploitation of high density. On the whole, the idea of the dense city has become powerful
rhetoric. A strong argument for building high density cities is, among others, that they will be socially beneficial. This work will thus be focusing on the social elements of densification. It will theoretically examine whether densification really is likely to be socially beneficial. Malmö will be examined against the rethoric of densification. Bo01 in Western Harbour in Malmö will be
studied as an example of densification, where the term social sustainability was current in the discussion in the planning of the area.