Bevara eller förtäta? Att balansera på Plankan i Hornstull, Stockholm

Sammanfattning

Almost a fifth of Sweden's current housing was built in a project called “miljonprogrammet”,which translates into “the million programme”. The morphology for these neighborhoods is acombination of high density and large recreational spaces, where the built intensity is balancedby generous open areas. Since the turn of the latest century, densification of already claimed landhas been framed and used as a sustainable strategy in addressing housing shortages. Within thisdiscourse, the open spaces in “the million programme” areas have been labeled as one of themost efficient spaces for this densification, mainly due to the spaces being viewed from adominant planning perspective as “poorly used” spatial qualities. Simultaneously, Sweden'shousing market has become more market-driven according to neoliberal politics. This studyexamines the phenomena of densification in the context of Plankan, an inner city rental housingcomplex in Stockholm that was built as part of “the million programme”. Through site analysis,policy review and interviews with residents and project stakeholders, the findings suggest that Plankan’s densification has mostly achieved its main goal: to offer more housing in a central areaof Stockholm, as well as making the courtyard safer and more actively used. However in thispursuit, general qualities of the previous housing and courtyard have been overshadowed, as wellas some development promises have not been kept. By highlighting the trade offs, hiddenmechanisms of densification as an urban development strategy is revealed, such as how theepistemologies of the compact city can obscure or “unmap” the modernist courtyard spaces.