Frieburg and Malmo (Part 2)

I was in Sweden for the concluding URBAN-NET conference (see http://www.urban-net.org/) which took place in Malmo. This gave the opportunity of looking around Sweden's most cosmopolitan border city and hear the Chair of the Council's Executive Board, Ilmar Repalu, explain about the redevelopment of the Western Harbour as an iconic low carbon settlement. Malmo used to be a shipbuilding port, home to the world's largest crane. By the 1990s the industry had died and the city was left with a large area to regenerate; 1 million sq.m. of dereliction. Sustainability was to be the motto for regeneration and so they started by attraching a Sustainable Housing Expo and built out the first neighbourhood complete with wind turbines, PVs, solar collectors, district heating, heat recovery and an acquifer heat pump into the fractured limestone that allows summer heat to be stored for winter use and winter coolth for summer use. With the advantage of off-shore wind and a PV array, the housing uses 100% locally produced renewable energy. Further developments have continued. Malmo now houses the European Academy for Green Roofs, composting and recycling has been retrofitted into existing council housing areas, and ENVAC has been fitted int to take away waste for recycling. The council bus fleet is 100% powered by biogas; 40% of people cycle to work or school across the flat but windy landscape.
The regeneration of Malmo probably would not have been successful without two features. First, the Oresund bridge now brings the city within 30mins of Copenhagen and has opened up new prospects of inward investment. Second, local government continues to have considerable resources to direct the new development. Electricity supply has been privatised but they still own the water utility and transport is run by a regional public body. When the Swedish government was proposing the creation of a number of new universities, the city council was able to buy the remaining land in Western Harbour and offer it free as a location for the new Malmo University. This was a very canny move as, not only has it resulted in a university in a stunning waterside location, but it has brought a new kind of economic and social activity only five minutes walk from the very centre of the city.
The world's largest crane has now been sold and exported to Korea. The old port workers lined up in tribute to Malmo's passing heritage to see it dismantled and sail away. Now a new iconic twisting tower dominates the skyline, home to some of the service industry that now underpins Malmo's economy. Malmo may have had some luck in being able to underpin sustainable urban development with a rising economic opportunities but it is to the credit of the local council that they took these opportunities and used them so skillfully.

Yvonne Rydin