Against Singularity : Modernist housing estates: What went wrong and how can we fix it? Case Study of Norsborg, Botkyrka, Sweden

Abstract: In my thesis I look into the case of modernist mass housing estates. They appear as a typological, functional and visual anomaly relative to the traditional urban fabric of European urban centers, as a world of its own or a city inside of a city. How to cope with their current state of decay and social issues associated with often low-income populations is an issue on the rise, thus I examine the current prevailing approaches to interventions, as well as their causes and consequences. I apply the outcomes of my research through design for the case of Norsborg in Botkyrka, a modernist housing estate on the outskirts of Stockholm built during the Milljonprogrammet era. Through my design, I seek to find the underestimated values of the place that enable us to build on them, to raise the bar of quality of the environment from minimal to optimal.