Central Peripheries: speculation and strategy for a land less mentioned

Abstract: As the contemporary discourse surrounding urbanism is almost exclusively focusing on aspects of density and traditional urban qualities, it entrenches notions of what constitutes a proper city and countryside. But beyond this urban-rural dichotomy is another highly contemporary landscape. A territory usually mentioned as sprawl, peri-urban, wasteland, edge city, etc. Although its existence is due to mobilization, telecommunications, globalization and other phenomena of modern life, it is a landscape without an own name or place in public awareness.This thesis provides a case study of how to map and intervene in such a landscape, specifically along the border between Malmö and Burlöv municipalities in southern Sweden. Its structure is composed of a sequence of three parts:1 Spatial Conditions:Divided up in the sections Network, Fringe and Void. These describe and discuss the dynamics between technology, economics, social practices and planning in a landscape that is neither urban nor rural.2 Spatial Investigations:In which the creative agency of mapping is used to produce maps that reveal the complexity of the landscape between Malmö and Burlöv. As the municipal border comprises two administrative peripheries it is chosen as a section through this ambiguous landscape.3 Spatial Interventions:A proposal for design strategy that aims to provide a platform for a new awareness and appropriation of the peri-urban landscape. The strategy consists of five parts spanning from basic infrastructures to modular furniture and is combined with a concept for gamifying the site to create incentives for its use.The thesis is concluded with a discussion of the possible effects of an eventual implementation of the design strategy, as well as a reflection on why landscape architects should take the role as active agents in peri-urban landscapes.