2 maria_nordström_effects of urban development on children

Contemporary urban development in Sweden.

The Effect on Children’s Outdoor Situation.

CHANGES IN BUILDING, PLANNING AND USING.

Stockholm as a case in question.

Maria Nordström

Associate professor in psychology, environmental psychologist and senior

researcher atStockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Alnarp

maria.i.nordstrom@slu.se

Ny Swedish Landscape

Sweden is a sparsely populated country with a population of 9 million people. A process is now going on with a rapidly increasing concentration of people to the big cities and in particular to Stockholm, the capital.

Stockholm, grows with approximately 40.000 new inhabitants every year. The number of inhabitants today is ---.

There is an intense quest for land to build on in Stockholm. Spaces not being used or built on are used for intensified building. Having been a green city, Stockholm is now becoming a stone city, with consequences for – among others – children, growing up and living there.

Stockholm

The capital of Sweden has a population, in the centre and in its widespread suburban areas, of 1,4 million people. It grows with 40.000 people every year.Intensified building takes place in centrally located areas. Any urban open space is attractive for building. Conflicts arise over open spaces in the city. One group of citizens hit by the intensified building are children as open spaces disappear and traffic grows.

Changes of behaviour, attitudes and planning

From plenty of space to little outdoor space – children are an interesting case

Children are involved in conflicts over space in Stockholm

Two ”typical” Stockholm examples of conflicts over space BUT with good outcomes for the children and for the city:

the Kungsholmen ’free school’ in a central locationand its new outdoor space, the Pipier-pocket

&

the Aspudden school-grounds in a semi-central location