01

flying kites in the ghettoan approach to urban liminality

TodayRosengård is home for 22.000 people, many of whom endured wars, the death of loved ones, ethnic violence and days, weeks or years of walking, hiding in train wagons, human smuggling rings and the like, before arriving here.

To paraphrase Mustafa Can, exile is both a bless-ing and a curse: being in Sweden implies that one has escaped the circumstances which forced the migration, but more often than not, one is faced with a set of barriers:

- discrimination in different levels- isolation- lack of skills in the Swedish language- slow adaptation to the new culture- unemployment

How can this gap be bridged?

TomorrowWhen a person moves to another country, what do they want? Do they want things for free and the never-ending sympathy of their new countrymen?

As an immigrant myself, I believe that what one needs in their adoptive countries, is the tools to make a life for oneself...

...an education, a job.

Next to social strategy and public housing façade paint-jobs, a person ultimately wants to achieve self-determina-tion, the chance to decide and the opportunity to fullfill your own goals in your own way in a dignifying way.

Following a proverb:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him once; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Allow people to help themselves.

Lines of flight

Introduced by Deleuze and Guattari, I read this concept as the trail left by a person throughout their life. As individual beings, no two lines of flight can be the same: they are the marks of our experience in life.

1. How does a community reflect the lines of flight of its inhabitants?

2. Is a graffiti-bombed wall an act of vandalism, or a manifestation of territoriality?

3. Can the lines of flight extend and fill the spaces in between and buildings of Rosengård?

Background

Following Sartre, people are defined for what they do. Using space as a tool than as a solution, lines of flight become evident in everyday life.

Experience is what architecture does.

The problem The method The forecast

roberto OVALLEhttp://linesinthebackground.wordpress.com/

Background

“when you move in to Rosengård it’s not only a move in to the city, you move in to the modern time”

The Million Programme

In the 1960’s, Sweden faced a large housing deficit.

The social democratic govern-ment started a programme to build 1.000.000 new homes in 10 years. Rosengård was one such effort.

Known as The Million Programme, it ultimately built 1.000.006 new homes. Many of these were det-tached, single-family dwellings. Others were apartment blocks, which were cheap to build though often at the expense of aesthetics and human scale.

Rosengård was initially seen as futuristic.

Its first residents were mostly white Swedes. One third of them came from Malmö and the surroundings.

However, reality soon stroke. The architec-ture was abrupt and oppresive, green areas were largely empty and the buildings were regarded as gray boxes.

Due to cases like Rosengård’s, the Mil-lion Programme stopped building high-rise apartment blocks.

Rosengård became the future that wasn’t.

Residents soon moved out. The balance of white Swedes arriving and leaving continues being negative.

Compared to 1971, by 1991 Rosengård was 20-25% under-occupied.

However, wars (from both Europe and else-where), famine, the search for a better life and other events brought new residents to the buildings of Rosengård.

Rosengård is especially vulnerable to global events.

Modernism in the 1960’s Futurism and disenchantment White flight and substitution

The new tenants: attraction/rejection

advertising slogan

Migration in Scandinaviayearly average 2003 - 2007per 1.000 inhabitants

<0

0,0-2,5

2,5-5,0

5,0-10,0

Avoid this

place!*

1 2

The “Chinese Wall” of Kryddgården: each of these two buildings is 250m long and 9 stories high. They are currently used as student homes.

Impersonal architecture: buildings that look all the same are found across hundreds of meters. In which one do you live?

The plan of Rosengård is characteristic of modernism, with sectorized functions, vast open areas and a well-defined centre.

02

the black veilIn the heart of it all,

yet separated by a black veil

*Or so I was warned.

3

Rosengård is often on the news due to its riots. The last was this year.

After the white Swedish population began to leave Rosengård, the neighborhood became underpopulated. By 1991, it was 20% under its cur-rent capacity. However, wars, famine and other international crises saw the arrival in Sweden of thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and other kinds of migrants. Many of them ended up in Rosengård.

Progressively, the once-futuristic neighborhood became a ghetto with its set of foreign, non-Western habits. Despite being only 10min away from downtown Malmö, Rosengård became increasingly isolated from Swedish life, and today it is a place that some avoid, others ignore and relatively few know in detail.

When you come to Sweden and end up in places like this, can you call it home?

An excercise in sticking togetherThe biggest minorities

in Rosengård’s districts

An exce

IraqLebanonAfghanistanYugoslaviaSomalia

IraqYugoslaviaDenmarkBosniaPoland

YugoslaviaBosniaDenmarkTurkey

Poland

YugoslaviaBosnia

IraqLebanonAghanistan

YugoslaviaLebanon

IraqBosniaSomalia

YugoslaviaBosnia

IraqPolandLebanon

YugoslaviaDenmarkPoland

MacedoniaLebanon

A place where my kids can play outside

We finally left the war behindMan! All I want is a job...

I’ll give my children a better life

I just couldn’t afford to live in Copenhagen anymore

The Human Element03Who lives where?

To close, I will say that silence would be a brutal denial. A silence that is now my curse and my punishment.Til slutt vil jeg si at stillhet vil være en brutal fornektelse. En stillhet som nå blir min forbannelse og straff.

Mustafa Can

Young a

nd u

nemplo

yed

How to tr

ansform

Parents and children: the other gapWhen families migrate, a dichotomy is often present: while parents may feel lonely and have trouble learning the language or habits of their new land and find their culture to be relegated, migrant children (if they are young enough) will often adapt quickly to their new land, and might consider it their true home, over their country of origin. How does this gap feel?

An x-ray of the new Swedes

44% of the population is under 24; a majority are women but they are less visible in the streets.

86% of the nearly 22.000 people here are first or second generation Swedes; white Swedes continue to leave.

The average person lives in Rosengård some 5 years; most units can be rented but not owned.Why be in a place you can’t own?

Scholarity and employment lag behind Malmö’s average. 20% less people finish high school in Rosengård.

Many arrived as refugees from armed conflicts from coun-tries like Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan etc.

Football is very popular: FC Barcelona and Sweden National Team striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic hails from Rosengård.Here’s the potential!

304

396

323

346

477 50

7

577

Pre-Million Programme

Million Programme

Million Programme

The youngest, most

populated and most

unemployed

6

Rosengård

3

Malmö% of the population under 24

% of unemployed

44 29#

this silence

into a

landscape of prod

uction?

The neighborhood04Divide and use: functions in space

The feeling of being there

1

2

1 2

3

3

Where have all the teachers gone?The soft walls Meet me at the crossroads Spiritual growth

Sports facilities Open areas Places for education Residential areas Commerce Major road Intersection Worship Agriculture Religiousland

Kids go to school, but schools stay away from them.

Open areas: cushion between the Million Programme and Malmö.

Trade is almost non-existant away from the main roads.

Activities of growth require a pilgrimage.

The three Rosengårds

Key

PlanScheme

Hotandcold

Shade

Wind &turbulence

South North

2 3Strangers confined. Inner garden. No-Man’s land.

01 02

Rosengårdin

2. Inhuman scale

5. Abruptness

3

1

2

Monoliths in the desert

The fortress: building as boundary

Limit and connection

1

1. Lack of identity

Lack

3. Disconnection

3. nection

4. Linear-city5

concepts

Initially intended to be interconnected with the rest of Malmö’s commercial life (such as Triangeln), Rosengård Centrum has become an architectural metaphore of its home com-munity: in spite of its centric location, it is blind to its outside.

As of 2010, there are plans within the commune of Malmö to open this blinded box to its surroundings, though it is worth mentioning that among its commercial offer, it has a Middle Eastern gift shop and an Arabic book shop.

“RoCent” is built on a bridge that crosses Amiralgatan, and it contains one of Rosen-gård’s most important bus stops (located in a tunnel) which, ironically, is what most Malmöers ever see of Rosengård.

Though technically not in Rosen-gård (it lies in Hyllie, across the Inre Ringvägen, a few hundred meters South of the Herrgården district), the Mosque of Malmö is the biggest in the entire city, and is the spiritual landmark for the muslims of Rosengård, the city and neighboring communities.

The mosque has been targeted by arsonists a number of times.

Conceptual proposal05Planning the future... together

2010Today

2012First effects of solidary trade

MillionProgrammehousing

Pre-MillionProgrammehousing

Worship andspirituality

Sports EducationAgri-

culture CommerceOpenareas

Majorpedestrian

paths

Issues to address

Inflexibility

Monofunctionality. Little room for change. Modernist urbanism in action.

Identity

Rosengård, the place of riots. What more does it have to offer?

Distance

Lack of attachment and identification between residents and community.

The gap

More unemployment. Less education. The language and cul-tural barrier. How to overcome it?

Seclusion

Not Sweden. Not home. So where is Rosengård in the local and national psyche?

Key concepts

Active insertion

It involves a joint ef-fort and commitment. So far, the relationship authorities-Rosengårders has been mostly one sid-ed: a paint job here, a new park there.

Active insertion im-plies that the people of Rosengård WORK for achieving their goals, be it economic progress, self-determination or something else.

Solidary trade

The patchwork of Rosengård offers skills and experience for activities such as having your clothes mended by a tailor or getting your shoes fixed by a seasoned shoemaker.

Solidary trade implies that this trade can happen in a fair way: small businesses can find it difficult to compete against traditional commerce, so Rosengård can become an area of the city where its registered residents can enjoy tax exemptions for a period of time.

For example:

- reduced sales tax and business taxation for a period of 10 years, available only to registered residents.

- micro-businesses can be jointly financed between the Swed-ish government, the EU and the residents in proportional amounts

activeinsertion

collaborationsolidarytrade

+ =

home-grown

The great amount of open space available in Rosengård can be slowly converted to a productive ground. People can grow vegetables there, and if there’s a surplus, maybe even sell it.

school + agriculture

Schools can teach basic urban gardening. There’s plenty of space in Rosengård to make field practise.

the shop

Due to the solidary trade scheme operating in Rosen-gård, now the neighbors can co-finance small home busi-nesses. Being the most pop-ulated district, Herrgården would be a good place to make business.

The lush neighborhood06Wind of change

2015Growth underway

2020Harvest time

teach your kids

Small newspaper and maga-zine libraries are opened in the neighborhood. Maga-zines appeal to youngsters and newspapers to an older audience, and they can func-tion in apartments scattered around the neighborhood. The kommune can fund the project and the neighbors can oper-ate it.

Rosengård-Games

Sports like BMX or skate-board have been around for over 20 years. Just like it happened in Västra Hamn (near the Turning Torso), a skate-park could be built here. Being outdoors and made of concrete, it requires rela-tively little maintenance, and the next Tony Hawk could come from Rosengård.top of the world

Rooftop gardening is another way to use an existing build-ing. Smaller buildings (3 floors or so) would have more benign temperatures and less wind than 9-floor buildings, and when they are not in the shadows of high-rise build-ings, they can receive an entire day’s sunlight. This would also allow for more di-rect contact with the activ-ity as Rosengård farmers may not even have to leave their buildings (useful, for exam-ple, if you have small chil-dren or reduced mobility).

The bazaar of Herrgården

The most populated district will continue growing. The creation of jobs in this area is vital and can be aided by the presence of many skilled, yet jobless people. Its cen-tric location between the mosque and Rosengård Centrum also means an advantage in space.

Örtagården’s Skatepark

With a population project-ed to grow in the coming years, Örtagården is a spe-cial place. Its many small hills and large central open space allow for a project of reconnection: reconnect-ing the 9th floor with the street level, reconnect-ing the old people with the young people, and the arts with sports.

Recovering the spirituality of the public space.

The promenade of Kryddgården

Currently a straight path connecting McDon-ald’s with Rosengård Centrum, this strip of land (which, according to projections from Malmö Stad, will be the place in Rosengård to see the most growth in the years to come) can tear down its fences and activate its ex-isting basketball court, which can act as an urban stage for buskers, preachers or break dancers. Chess boards or small shops can ca-ter to everyone from a senior citizen to a dog-lover.

07 Map of lost experiencesthe walk as a method

Get some walls dirty.

The desert.

3-D?

believe in yourself

An oasis.

A bedouin tent.

Connection Cohesion Transition Attachment Appropriation

five actions to introduce on site

08 The OrchardA place called Herrgården

Why here?

- Population: 4.900 people (probably higher), expected to increase. - It’s one of the places that has seen riots in recent years.- It is the youngest and most unemployed neighborhood.

- 96% with foreign background.

- Large muslim population.

A

B

C

D

E

X

Rosengård CentrumThe commercial and administra-tive centre of Rosengård.

RosengårdsskolanIt has been attacked by unknown persons and its library and com-puter room are understaffed.

Rosengårds parken& sports placeIncludes football fields, skat-ing rink, indoor gym, etc.

Colonial gardensThe gardening area with shacks to keep tools. Its eventual sur-plus could be traded.

Malmö MoskéThe biggest mosque in Malmö.Victim of arson several times.

A X D ELand use concept

Foreign shops in Sweden: a surprise box. The only personalized (?) feature are the antennae.

Conceptual proposal

Past, present and future.Top row: exploratory models. Each model shows a conceptual intention to be introduced in the project.

Second row: the paintings derive from the models previously mentioned. They aim to explore architectural and compositional intentions.

Bottom: collages of spatial intentions, made using all the previous material.

Taken from “The Persian Bazaar, veiled space of desire”by Mehdi Khansari & Minouch Yavari

shopping centre = bazaar ?

1“...In the modern world, manufacturing has disappeared from the shopping center. In the traditional world, things were made in ba-zaars. (...)

Making things was not simply a technical ac-tivity now gone from shopping centers, it was a continuous sensory experience for the eyes, the nose, the ears, at times the taste buds and even touch.”

2“The other difference between traditional ba-zaars and contemporary centers lies in the na-ture and quality of their respective architec-ture. (...)

The architecture of the bazaar was an experience

of discovery, it created a mystery in which both men and things played a strange role, only partly defined through their specific function of selling and making or of buying and waiting to be bought.”

SnacksCaféFood standsHookahHalal

home-madeFOOD

2nd hand and newtraditional

mendingCLOTHING

Calling cardsMementos

craftsSOUVENIRS

locally grown vegetablesgrain“ethnic” products

GROCERIES

gamesinternet

bootlegged merchandisenewspapers and magazinesbooks

INFO

locksmithblacksmithfabricworkelectronics repairseamstressshoemaker

HANDWORK

hide and seekrunjumpclimbslidekisstrustshowteachsharetalkbuskpreachsingdancegraffitiskateboardBMXsee & be seensmokestrollwalk the dog

etc...

THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

Content

A

B

C

D

E

Amiralsgatan

Inre Ringvägen

Plan of suggested activities and spatial diagramation1:100

meet

show

cross

shelter

gather

leave a

messa

ge

There was once a man named Abdul Alhazred. He had read so many books that he had gone mad. Mad like the sands

of the desert...

connect

I’m

her

e, b

ut p

leas

e do

n’t t

ell a

nyon

e.

climbWORK

See

Here you can get

cover from the rain,

snow or hail.

GROW

and seenbe

Happy BombChronology of growth

09

1 2 3 4Today: transit space. Use the existing first! -Private spaces activate.

Transited areas come alive. New ways to use space.

New activities bring newways to engage the place.

public and privateA bazaar alternates private and public space. Private space al-ready exists, while public space is a blank sheet of paper.

complexity and orderBazaars feature a highly complex structure, where activities are located according to their needs: leather workers need ventilation while food shops need open space.

management

neighbor council

City of Malmö

The bazaar is managed by both the munic-ipality and the community. This aims at balancing the economic interests with what’s best for the community. Want to open a small business? Ask the neighbors!

intimacyA number of islamic buildings (including souqs -markets-) are organized around a central court. In Rosengård, this has the effect of creating intimacy in a naked landscape.

growthThe organizational scheme al-lows for growth to happen as it is needed. This is very impor-tant in a neighborhood, a place which can only be understood with time.

the veil1. The place used in different ways by different people.

2. A module showing its guts: workshops, sales areas, shopper areas, advertising, seeing...

3. Smell, touch, see, taste...

All over the place.

Long section A-A1:100

A

A

Hey mom, I’ll be home for dinner!

OK son!

123

ForecastConsequences

10

Enjoying your neighborhood and making money in it have the advantage of improving your bond to it. Rosengård is an impersonal neighborhood: all the buildings look the same, most walls are clean, the architecture is completely anonymous. Re-conquering the space and making the walls dirty (be it with graffiti or dirt) is the biggest act of pride. Leaving my name on the wall means I wanna be identified with it.

loss of controlRosengård is a strict place. Its inhabitants are constantly told what NOT to do. But what CAN they do? Architecture and development are only successful when they transfer control and operation completely to their user. Different from previous effort, involving the popu-lation as part of the solution means that the ultimate fate of the neighborhood will be in their hands.

Rosengård has a negative reputation and it is avoided by most people. By having the means to make a decent living can offer the opportunity to erase some myths.

The people of Rosengård, like the people of Västra Hamn, Stockholm or São Paulo want, essentially, one thing: the possibil-ity to live in peace.

Instead of being known

for its riots, Rosengård

can be known for the hard

work of its people.

1

2 reterritorialization

Skateboard repair shop. With over 10.000 youngsters, businesses like this have a potential market.

Lost and Found: in times of economic strife and unemployment, bartering offers the chance to exchange skills and goods.

Making the land produce: small, economic interventions can offer a point of social meeting and an option to work and produce, as well as other unplanned uses.

3

demythification

Migrating is like growing up. You must make a name for yourself, leave behind your home and flourish in a difficult environment.

Therefore, active insertion and the chance to work offer that one thing which we find in successful adults: emancipation.

Emancipation means that you have succeeded in your quest for a better life.

self-determination

Not the end.

4