MKB’s project Greenhouse was a major environ-mental investment in the mid-2010s, which was both a cutting-edge example for other construc-tion projects and a social investment to increase Augustenborg’s diversity and attractiveness.
Augustenborg has set an example and taken steps ahead of its time, but the focus has been dif-ferent and tackled difdif-ferent, contemporary, prob-lems. Now, in 2020, Augustenborg is continuing to manage and develop what it built and renewed.
Over the decades strong individuals have pushed through major projects, by finding the resources to establish and then develop Augustenborg.
The players who pushed for ideas, drive and re-sources during Augustenborg’s three major leaps have looked a little different. The City of Malmö was a key driver of the first two projects as it kicked off construction in Augustenborg, leaving the area’s development to the newly formed hous-ing company MKB. MKB worked with various departments from the City of Malmö that had re-sponsibility for Augustenborg, to create the condi-tions needed to push through the Eco-city project.
Greenhouse was mainly created by MKB.
MKB and the City of Malmö are still the two main players that will be able to initiate and im-plement continued development in Augustenborg to meet the challenges of today. MKB owns and manages the majority of Augustenborg’s proper-ties. There is a long list of others who need to be involved to continue development, but MKB and the City of Malmö take the initiative.
Today’s starting point and driving forces It is important from a global perspective to set a concrete example and build models of genuine social, economical and ecological sustainable de-velopment. Malmö was the first city in Sweden to adopt the UN’s Agenda 2030 global sustaina-bility goals. The City of Malmö has also adopted far-reaching climate and environmental targets and commitments to meet the international Paris
climate agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Furthermore, Malmö is the only Swedish municipality to have supported The Shift1, a UN initiative on universal housing rights. Role models and examples are needed to meet these goals and commitments. Augustenborg is particularly well placed to lead the way.
From a neighbourhood perspective, there are several opportunities, in the reasonably short term, to make Augustenborg an even better lo-cal, national and international role model for sustainable development. Since much has already been done in Augustenborg and since the City of Malmö, through MKB and its own departments, has a strong influence, then this could be done rel-atively quickly and with limited resources. Signif-icant development and innovation support from the EU and the national government will likely also be available for some measures.
Governments in both Sweden and the EU are heavily focused on the transition to what could be termed a “climate-positive welfare society”, in part through the EU’s new European Green Deal2. Augustenborg could lead the way within a few years. Augustenborg’s success in creating major change without sharpzly increasing housing costs and segregation is an important part of this. Au-gustenborg could also be an important part of the proposed national efforts to promote innovative urban development, known as the plus energy city.
Some of the actual conditions that create op-portunities for this in Augustenborg are: planned densification in conjunction with the new railway station in Persborg/Augustenborg; plans to relocate parts of the Service Department’s operations from workshops, warehouses and offices; planned and partially started renewal of green areas; planned new development of loft apartments; new op-portunities for the development of climate-smart energy and mobility investments; and continued involvement of the residents in collaboration with MKB and relevant municipal departments.
1 See https://www.make-the-shift.org/ for more information.
2 See https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en for more information.
Per-Arne Nilsson, Mats O Nilsson, Bengt Persson Per-Arne Nilsson, senior environmental strategist and former head of section at the City of Malmö’s Environment Department. He has worked with sustainable development at both local and global levels for many years.
Mats O Nilsson, head of department at MKB Fastighets AB and managing director of the Scandinavian Green Roof Institute. Has worked for MKB for 15 years and is part of the company’s management team.
Bengt Persson, PhD, landscape architect and former senior lecturer specialised in dissemination and cooperation at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Has been employed as a consultant on the development of strategic environmental projects in the City of Malmö since the end of the 1990s.
In addition to general social problems such as high levels of crime, lack of safety, high proportion of newly arrived refugees and social exclusion, there are three more general challenges that today's hous-ing construction is focused on meethous-ing:
- climate change adaptation, - long-term sustainability and quality - affordable housing
In the discussion on how to make rents affordable, already existing housing is often forgotten. Newly built homes do not provide rental levels that the resource-poor and those in need of housing can af-ford. It is impossible to push down rents in newly produced homes to the levels in buildings that are several decades old. This also applies to day-to-day needs and the costs of meeting them.
Augustenborg a plus energy city
Sweden will hold a world fair in 2030 with four other smaller expositions every other year from 2020. The initiative aims to ensure that districts that are planned, built and rebuilt in Sweden over the next ten years are given a better chance to reach sustainability targets and create values that bene-fit the entire city and its inhabitants. The starting point is the concept plus energy city where plus also stands for solutions that give more than they take.
Augustenborg has taken major strides towards plus energy through the Eco-city investments and the continuing development such as the Greenhouse project. It now has opportunities to go further on the road to becoming a plus energy district. Few other places in Sweden and Europe have followed a similar path to Augustenborg, using simple means
to redevelop an existing neighbourhood, and de-signing it in such a sustainable way. Current plans would put Augustenborg even further ahead of other similar residential areas.
Augustenborg – good homes of the future It is time for Augustenborg to take the next step to lead the way for Malmö, Sweden and the world in establishing how good homes of the future can be developed through managing and complementing the existing housing. Augustenborg’s urban devel-opment will be both good and wise. Alongside the residential area, there is a school, train station and a range of amenities that provide the building blocks for a healthy daily life. When the Internal Services Department gradually stops parts of its operations
in the workshop and warehouses, this will leave space for higher density development. Even within the existing residential area there are opportunities to provide more homes in a positive way, directly linked to the train station.
Tomorrow’s good living is being developed in Augustenborg with long-term perspectives and reasonable rents, by retaining a responsible cus-tomer-focused strategy to manage and develop the older housing stock allowing current residents to stay and supplies homes to new tenants at afforda-ble prices. Another way of expressing this is that it takes responsibility for the responsibility of the future.
This is in line with the City of Malmö’s commit-ment to develop housing, symbolised by the city signing the The Shift, among other things.
Can Augustenborg become a plus energy city? The cover image for Plusstad, en nationell kraftsamling för export av innovativ stadsutveckling (Plus energy city, a national effort to export innovative urban development), a proposal from Samordning för bostadsbyggande (Coordination for house building) and Fossil Free Sweden, describes an urban landscape with integrated food production and enhanced ecosystem services.
Image by Studio Sofie Stenberg AB
Illustration of a proposed new development next to the Persborg station. New apartments run along a new street facing the railway, with bushes planted in front of the tracks. Further noise protection is provided by a taller barrier.
A new tunnel under the railway line, extends the cycle path towards Västra Kattarpsvägen. A new preschool will be established next to Södervärnstråket.
Image by Mandaworks. Background: Google maps
Augustenborg – research and development of blue-green urban solutions
Augustenborg is a strong, established research and development area and testbed for measures to in-crease biodiversity and environmental stormwa-ter management together - so-called blue-green solutions. The botanical roof garden was unique in the late 1990s when it was installed, and the site has been vital in driving green roofs nationally and internationally. The City of Malmö’s Internal Services Department made a huge contribution by allowing green roofs to be installed on its work-shop and warehouses in the area. Using project fi-nancing from Vinnova and Formas, among others, the project has continued for years.
Now it is time to take Augustenborg’s Blue Green City Lab, where blue-green solutions are tested, to the next level. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, has long been a user and stakeholder in the botanical roof garden
and the testbed for organic urban cultivation technology that is in part funded by Vinnova.
Participants include Sustainable Business Hub, which commercialises and spreads the blue-green innovations. SLU is now part of a project to turn Augustenborg into an urban experimental site for plant production, to research and develop plant systems and cultivation models for urban green-ery. This unique research and exhibition site can help develop the multifunctional blue-green envi-ronments of the future. These can provide locals with a good, educational and recreational outdoor environment while providing blue-green solutions to help meet the challenges of climate change.
The stormwater facility as an educational development opportunity
Augustenborg is a unique area for VA Syd, which is responsible for Malmö’s stormwater and sewage network. It is an example of how to create enough
capacity to manage sewage and major rainfall by greening an existing combined sewage infrastruc-ture, rather than using more expensive technical solutions. The Eco-city’s solution is still a unique example of how to environmentally adapt storm-water management in an existing residential area.
This is also done without particularly favourable topography as the area only slopes slightly.
VA Syd wants to create so-called Water-wise Cities and Augustenborg is the leading example of how to do it around existing buildings. The use and management of the system will be especially in focus during the development of water solu-tions and stormwater management in Augusten-borg in the coming decade.
Augustenborg in the future
What will Augustenborg look like in five years?
The area is already a radical example of environ-mental regeneration and a role model that should be imitated in more existing residential areas than has been the case. The question why there are not more Augustenborgs has been raised in some parts of this anthology. There is no clear answer, but
there are potential explanations, including: for-tunate circumstances, urgent development needs, influential individuals who drove the changes, and access to external grants that covered some costs but primarily motivated further investment from MKB and the City of Malmö.
Like other residential areas that require radical refurbishment, Augustenborg needs both the driv-ing force of individuals and organisations and mo-bilised resources to take its next development step.
There are pressing development needs because the stable positive social development of the Eco-city years has stagnated recently, but also because more people need affordable homes. The driving forces are in MKB and the City of Malmö and resources can be found in external grants that unlock inter-nal investment. But urban development does not happen overnight. Changes to let Augustenborg set an even more interesting example in 2025 need to be initiated now. There are signs of growing in-terest in developing Augustenborg’s next stage, but these need to be united into an overall ambition to build on the Augustenborg of today.
At the Blue Green City Lab, Augustenborg’s experimental test site for blue-green solutions, combined solutions are being developed to meet urban climate challenges.
Image by Sanna Dolck
Ten ideas to make Augustenborg a role model for Agenda 2030 in Malmö and the world 1. Keep adding to the buildings in Augustenborg, to offer climate-adapted, high quality
and sustainable housing at reasonable costs. There are already plans to install several smaller attic apartments, and there is a possibility to start a new housing development next to Persborg station
2. Adapt Augustenborg’s Blue Green City Lab (BGCL) to be an international hub for knowledge and development of urban blue-green solutions. BGCL is based on increased collaboration between the City of Malmö, VA Syd, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Sustainable Business Hub and the Scandinavian Green Roof Institute. This can be an important step to bring research and development to a part of Malmö where it is missing.
3 Expand local investment in new blue-green solutions in Augustenborg and its surrounding area. New flood prevention measures are needed in nearby residential areas, and additional green infrastructure is needed in Augustenborg and its surrounding areas. MKB has started a major investment to install better planting beds and more trees in Augustenborg.
4 Transform Augustenborg into a local smart energy community to boost resilience and provide an example of climate-smart energy supply. Here local solutions such as solar energy, energy storage, energy efficiency and smart control combine with opportunities and incentives for residents and businesses to join the transition to a climate-friendly society.
5 Invest in biochar for plant beds, on roofs and as a component in building materials.
This can both create better conditions for plants and water management and a long-term method to bind carbon and reduce climate change.
6 Invest in education around sustainable development in Augustenborg. This should build on and develop initiatives and activities that are already happening in the school, at Gnistan, on the water walks, through guided tours and Augustenborg’s botanical roof garden. Utilise the entire neighbourhood as a living classroom.
7 Support the development of culture and leisure activities in Augustenborg.
Ensure Gnistan and its rabbit hotel become permanent features that can be further developed.
8 Stimulate and strengthen retail and businesses in Augustenborg that contribute to sustainable development and build on Augustenborg’s profile as a forerunner in sustainable development.
9 Create a digital twin for Augustenborg to store information and spread knowledge about sustainable development. The digital twin can further internal development and planning and disseminate knowledge of sustainable development in Augustenborg.
10 Sign Augustenborg up to the proposed new national efforts to export innovative urban development 2022-2030, which is based on demonstrations of plus energy districts.
Image (right) by Sanna Dolck
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