Defossilise Väster – Testing a fossil free urbanity for the debate

Abstract: Humanity is facing one of the greatest challenges ever. Climate change and global warming is a great risk and our consumption and dependency of fossil fuel are important causes of this accelerating issue. My thesis aims to design an entry for the professional debate about what urban areas in a fossil free future might be like. I’m investigating how an urban environment that requires as little transportation as possible, with as little added energy as possible, can be created in an existing area through a set of strategies and design principles. The project is framed in a scenario where fossil fuels don’t exist and the design applied on the Väster neighbourhood in Lund, Sweden. In my defossilised Lund, people have got their time back. Work is next door, children can walk by themselves to the neighbourhood school and food is grown and processed within reach. The neighbourhood streets are taken back from the car and turned into a versatile public space. There’s no longer a need for tedious, stressful commutes and everything you need for your everyday life is within walking and biking range. Consumer goods, bikes and household items are to a great extent manufactured locally or in the region from recycled materials and can be repaired within a stone’s throw from home. Everything is within human range and reachable by human power.