Pilot project offers cities everywhere new strategies for applying design to address migration, growing populations, and economic equity.
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To view a digital press kit, including the full report and high-resolution imagery, click here.
MALMÖ, August 23, 2017 — Van Alen Institute yesterday launched the Opportunity Space Festival, a pilot project that uses public space design to support social and economic inclusion in Malmö, Sweden.
From August 22 to September 2, the festival will offer job training programs, youth dance workshops, communal meals, and other activities to help refugees and long-time residents meet each other, build skills to enter the job market, and develop visions for a more inclusive city. These programs will take place daily in Enskifteshagen Park, in a custom-designed temporary pavilion selected from an international design competition organized by Van Alen.
More than one million refugees and migrants entered Europe in 2015, and Sweden received more per capita than any other European nation—10,000 a week in fall 2015. As a gateway to Scandinavia, and a rapidly growing and diversifying city, Malmö is an ideal place to explore issues of social and economic inclusion that many cities face today.
Both new arrivals and growing numbers of native-born Swedes face barriers to full participation in the social and economic life of their communities. Analysts estimate that the average age at which Swedish residents find their first “real” job (for instance, one that would allow them to secure a mortgage) is 29, and that it takes new arrivals up to seven years before they are gainfully employed.[1]
In October 2016, Van Alen launched the Opportunity Space design competition in Malmö, attracting nearly 300 teams from 45 countries around the world. Each team developed a proposal for a temporary structure in Enskifteshagen Park that could house programs supporting social and economic inclusion.
The winning team, consisting of architects from Sweden and the U.S., including representatives of ARExA, Milou Group, Walter P Moore, and Virginia Tech School of Architecture and Design, Center for Design Research, drew inspiration for their proposal from Swedish labor union buildings that served as venues for public meetings and cultural activities. The team’s proposal creates a prototype for temporarily activating public space to address the challenges and opportunities of 21st-century cities.
Van Alen then assembled a unique, cross-sector coalition of more than 30 NGOs, businesses, and government agencies to organize the festival and offer programs; Skanska Öresund is donating the labor to build the pavilion.
Festival programs include the following:
- Design Transformations, which brings together a group of job-seeking and newly arrived architects and engineers with experienced mentors and local stakeholders to design and build temporary tables, seating, and planters in the park
- Malmö Share, a platform connecting new arrivals and long time residents who want to share skills and services
- Us Vs Them, a panel discussion on how the twin impulses of fear and belonging are driving global politics from Trump to Brexit, and shaping our everyday lives
“Cities around the world are grappling with the challenges and opportunities of immigration and economic equity,” said David van der Leer, Executive Director of Van Alen Institute. “As part of Van Alen’s broader exploration of how the built environment shapes behavior, the festival programs and pavilion offer a small-scale demonstration of how design can change our attitudes and support a stronger civil society.”
“Malmö thrives on the kind of innovative collaborations that are enabling the Opportunity Space Festival to respond quickly to rapid social change,” said Christer Larsson, Director of the City of Malmö Planning Office.
“This project shows that public spaces can be designed and activated so that people from many different backgrounds can participate in creating a more open, democratic city,” said Monica von Schmalensee, White Arkitekter CEO.
“The festival is an ambitious pilot for guiding people—those from here and those who come from far away—to education, employment, and the social life of the city.” said Camilla Wieslander, Managing Director of Skanska Oresund. “We’re proud that our construction team built the pavilion at the heart of the festival.”
“IM’s main focus in Sweden is creating meeting places for mutual integration of people from many different backgrounds,” said Martin Nihlgård, Sweden Director of Individuell Människohälp (IM). “The festival creates a new model for physical spaces to support social and economic inclusion.”
“We’re thrilled that our pavilion can create an iconic platform and greater visibility for so many local partners who are making Malmö a more socially and economically inclusive city,” said the design team lead, Rik Ekström of ARExA. “We hope this project can show other cities how they could design public spaces to encourage similar exchanges and encounters.”
To view a digital press kit, including the full report and high-resolution imagery, click here.
[1] SCB (Statistics Sweden); the etableringsålder (“age of establishment”) is a statistic used in Sweden to track the age at which 75% of residents are gainfully employed; the statistic on new arrivals is also based on a benchmark of 75% of the immigrant population finding gainful employment.
THE COLLABORATORS
About Van Alen Institute
At Van Alen Institute, we believe design can transform cities, landscapes, and regions to improve people’s lives. We collaborate with communities, scholars, policymakers, and professionals on local and global initiatives that rigorously investigate the most pressing social, cultural, and ecological challenges of tomorrow. Building on more than a century of experience, we develop cross-disciplinary research, provocative public programs, and inventive design competitions.
Opportunity Space is part of Van Alen Institute’s broader inquiry into how behavior is shaped by the built environment. It follows initiatives such as Justice in Design, a study of how the design of jails impacts the health and well-being of both the people inside them and the communities in which they sit; Ecologies of Addiction, a data-collecting research initiative exploring how the built environment impacts addiction in London, organized with Imperial College London’s Sustainable Society Network; and Shore to Core, a design and research competition that includes developing a framework to identify, measure, and analyze relationships between the design of the built environment and individuals’ well-being in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida and beyond.
About White Arkitekter
White Arkitekter was founded by Sidney White in 1951 and is Scandinavia’s leading architectural firm, with over 900 employees working in 16 offices in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and the UK. Our work is research-focused and our expertise encompasses architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and interior design.
For nearly two decades, White has invested in establishing a unique research-based department of highly qualified experts in the field of sustainable design. Our founder’s aim was to improve society through architecture, and his legacy lives on in our ambition to contribute toward the building of a sustainable world.
About the City of Malmö
Malmö, Sweden is the commercial center of southern Sweden and an international city with 300,000 residents from approximately 170 different nationalities.
Malmö is undergoing a transition from an industrial city to a city of knowledge. Older industries have been replaced by investments in new technology, training programs, and infrastructure — including the Öresund Bridge, which connects Malmö to Copenhagen. Malmö University, which opened in 1998, is Sweden’s latest venture in the field of higher education, accommodating some 24,000 students.
Over the last years the City of Malmö has received many international awards for its focus on sustainable city development and pilot projects such as Augustenborg and the Western Harbour. Malmö was also appointed as the first Fair Trade City of Sweden.
About Skanska
Skanska is one of the world’s leading project development and construction groups with expertise in construction, development of commercial and residential premises, and public-private partnership projects. Based on its global experience, Skanska aims to be the clients’ first choice for green solutions. The group currently has 41,000 employees in selected home markets in Europe and North America. Skanska’s sales in 2016 totaled SEK 151 billion.
About Individuell Människohjälp (IM)
IM is a Swedish member-based organization fighting and exposing poverty and exclusion through development cooperation, integration, and fair trade. Founded in 1938, IM is currently working in five regions and thirteen countries worldwide.
IM’s international work focuses on people´s right to education, good health, and ability to sustain a life in dignity. All projects are implemented in close collaboration with local partner organizations. IMs work in Sweden is focusing on integration and inclusion into society. The strengthening of civil society is both a means and an objective in all activities.
About Architects Sweden
Architects Sweden is the professional organization for architects, interior architects, landscape architects, and spatial planners in Sweden, with 12,800 members, including 2,600 students.
THE DESIGN TEAM
About ARExA
ARExA is a multi-disciplinary research and design practice based in New York City that is dedicated to advancing the understanding and implementation of the built environment. ARExA’s current focus is on innovative urban housing solutions and grant-funded sustainable food systems research.Project Team: RIk Ekström, Managing Partner; Darrick Borowski, Partner / Design Director; Sean Karns, Director of Special Projects; Peter Park, Design Associate
About WPM
Walter P Moore is an international company of engineers, architects, innovators, and creative people who solve some of the world’s most complex structural and infrastructure challenges. WPM’s 600+ professionals work across 18 U.S. offices and five international locations providing structural, diagnostics, civil, traffic, parking, transportation, enclosure, and construction engineering services, designing solutions that are cost- and resource-efficient, forward-thinking, and help support and shape communities worldwide. Project Team: Gustav Fagerström, Digital Practice Leader; Steve Lewis, PhD, PE; Jeff Thompson, PE
About Milou Group
Milou Group is an innovation driven company that explores architecture, technology and new real estate. With an entrepreneurial spirit and a range of cross-disciplinary collaboration Milou Group develop new concepts and solutions that rethink living and working in cities, meeting the ever changing demands of global users in the new economy. Project Team: Milad Barosen – Co Founder | CEO; Kim Turley – Tech Director; Mathias Eliasson – Architect
About Virginia Tech A+D, Center for Design Research
The Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design, Center for Design Research links the academy, industry, and design practice by creating opportunities for collaboration through applied research. The work of the CDR and its participants expands the scope of design and embraces collaboration across many scales and disciplines with the goal of technological innovation and paradigm shifts that enable more with less in ways that have the potential to expand the research of design/designers to influence systemic global impact. Project Team: Nathan King, Co-Director / Assistant Professor