ARKITEKTEN – Gehl in Rosengard

Gehl Architects are featured in the latest Arkitekten, the official publication of the Swedish Architectural Association. Helle Søholt and myself, Kristian Skovbakke Villadsen are interviewed onsite as part of the office’s on-going work in Rosengard housing estate in Malmö, Sweden. The area, a typical 1960′s housing development categorized as a deprived housing district. Since 2006, Gehl has been working with the owner and manager of the Estate, client MKB (Malmo commune social housing unit). Together we have developed a strong collaboration and raised the bar in design excellence for the area.

Whilst respecting the existing qualities and looking for ways to strengthen the existing cultural and social structure of the neighborhood – we have sought out new opportunities in an area with a long history of social turmoil. Helle and myself discuss in the article the strategic framework we have developed explaining the principle design guidelines which work at the core of the strategy. As part of this effort we organized design competitions for the new rail station and also a Design Brief for an international invited competition to work on the densification of the area. We have also worked on designs for the public space, the results seen in the article operate as an amalgamation of smaller interventions working as urban acupuncture governed by the overall framework vision.