The Case of Hammarby Sjöstad - A model of the goals of the EU’s Urban Agenda?

Abstract: Fast urbanization all over the globe has resulted in the need of sustainable urban development. The European Union that has been aiming to become a leader in sustainability globally, has answered to this need by creating an Urban Agenda that aims to guide the EU member states and cities to develop in sustainable matter. However, the document itself is not that powerful, since it cannot bind the EU member states to execute urbanization in sustainable matters.Hammarby Sjöstad is one of the leading sustainable urban development projects in Sweden. This project has managed to draw attention globally. It is visited from different parts of the globe, and it’s one Stockholm City’s largest neighborhood projects. The project has even been part of creating a sustainability model on a Swedish national level, this model is called the Hammarby model. The case study of Hammarby Sjöstad is an interesting way to approach sustainable urban development in European level. With the theory of New Urbanism, the project neighborhood is scrutinized, to find out how sustainable it actually is and how well it relates to the EU’s Urban Agenda. From an environmental perspective, it has a lot of in common with the EU’s Urban Agenda, while from a social point of view, the Hammarby Sjöstad project has not managed to become as sustainable that it has been aiming to become.Key Words: Hammarby Sjöstad, EU Urban Agenda, Sustainable Development, Urban Development, City Planning