Suburban retrofitting : a useful strategy for swedish urban planners?

Abstract: There is an on-going generational shift related to car culture, occurring in the developed world. After decades of increased driving, a decline can now be seen in twenty of the developed countries. Moreover, one out of five regional shopping malls in America is either dead or likely to fail within the next five years. This has given rise to a new urban planning strategy called “suburban retrofitting”. The strategy mainly concerns redevelopment of suburban areas; involving densification of the area’s built environment, a diversification of functions and improved public transportation to the area. The most common mode of public transportation used within suburban retrofitting is light rail. Most suburban retrofitting projects to date have been carried out on sites of dead shopping malls, and the literature focused on suburban retrofitting is, so far, mainly focused on American conditions. Thus the purpose of the thesis is to relate the theories about suburban retrofitting to the Swedish urban planning context, to see if these theories are useful and relevant for Swedish urban planners and policymakers. This question is highly dependent on whether these strategies can be considered to contribute to sustainable development. A case study is carried out about the redevelopment of a commercial area called Kungens Kurva, in Huddinge, south of Stockholm. The area will be denser, take on a city like character and be supplied with public transport. However, some important aspects of this project differ from the theories about suburban retrofitting: no housing is planned, substantial space for parking remains and shopping will still be the dominant activity in the area. The preconditions for suburban retrofitting differs greatly between Sweden and the U.S. Thus, the subjects for suburban retrofitting in Sweden might currently rather be the “million program” suburbs than commercial areas at the urban fringe. One of the reasons for this is that, in Sweden, commercial areas at the urban fringe are often still doing economically well. Which means that the preconditions for fundamentally changing the character of these areas – by introducing housing and diversifying the functions in the area – simply is not good enough. Other factors that make a radical transformation of commercial areas difficult are the strong regulations concerning noise and pollution. It is particularly the regulations concerning housing that make suburban retrofitting projects adjacent to highways problematic in Sweden. As for introducing a light rail system to the area, it is only a rational choice for the Swedish cities that already has such a system. The subway system has proven to be far more effective in diverting car trips to locations at the urban fringe. Therefore it might be a better choice for suburban retrofitting projects in Stockholm.