Exploring the world's built environments and seeking sustainable solutions.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Innovation on the Waterfront: Bo01 in Malmo

Malmo, Sweden is in the process of transforming itself from industrial port city to a modern metropolis based on new jobs, universities, and tourism. Much of the city’s success is predicated on creating and promoting sustainable design. The landmark for Malmo’s transformation is the Vestra Hamnen (or western harbor) and the Bo01 housing area, part of an international exposition on housing design in 2001. The most prominent and famous of the residential structures is the Turning Torso designed by Santiago Calatrava, a 45 story tower seen from all over the region, and the symbol of Malmo’s turnaround.

The photos you see below are based on three themes we offered the students: innovative housing design; visible storm water management as art, and the water’s edge as a recreation and aesthetic space. Bo01 is sustainable in a number of ways: virtually car free, dense and well served by city busses, walk-able, surface storm water drainage, solar water heating, 100% renewable and efficient energy for heating and electricity (wind, solar, waste to energy, heat pump using the sea and the limestone sub-surface, district heating), high level of recycling, and unique design.

We spent a lot of time at the waterfront on bikes, on foot, and basking in the July sunshine enjoying the cool waters of the North Sea (and the occasional ice cream).

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