Cultural heritage in planning : urban transition in Hjorthagen

Abstract: The thesis examines benefits and challenges of using cultural heritage as an asset in urban development. The work is based on a theoretical overview of contemporary concepts relevant for the subject and discusses today’s discourse on cultural heritage and cultural values management in relation to influences from architecture and planning. The case study is Hjorthagen in Stockholm, a housing area and a district with a post-industrial site. Hjorthagen has an acknowledged cultural heritage and is the location for a big urban development. Thus the district provides possibility to investigate approaches to cultural heritage in urban planning and management as well as to examine factors which set what is considered as cultural heritage and how it is performed in a renewal process. Expert interviews, document study and field study are applied in order to illustrate complementary aspects of the theme. The thesis acknowledges urbanity as layered, complex and dynamic and assesses why it is crucial to originate from cultural heritage and site specifics in state of transformation. The thesis concludes that when influencing landscape with architecture and planning it is crucial to be aware of the multiple understandings of culture and meaning of a place. This is done by a trans-disciplinary work based in the perspective of the non-professionals that are related to the site in transformation. Regulations with the intent to safeguard cultural heritage and cultural values are needed in order to sustain the pressure from economical interests, however they can lead to a simplification of narratives. The summarising aspect is that the successful interface between preservation and development is site and case specific and consequently without general definition. Further research should examine methods of assessing cultural heritage and values which could give a result that is applicable among disciplines and thereby foster inter-disciplinary work. This would also adress cultural values and heritage’s connection to social, ecological and economical sustainability as well as reflecting over how the discourse is influenced by ruling norms and prevailing paradigms.