Malmö was industrialized very early by Swedish standards due to its location on the Oresund. In the 70’s and 80’s, many of the ship building industries upon which the city was built began to fail and close down and there was an economic crisis. Many people lost their jobs and the city faced a serious decline. The city had to make dynamic changes and decided to plan for the future. Following the suggestions of city planners, Malmö’s politicians pursued sustainability as a way to help define Malmö and to make it interesting.
The success of the Malmö University has helped to shift the image of the city and bring people back to Malmö instead of leaving for nearby Lund, a university town.
Malmö’s relationship with Copenhagen is viewed differently by people on each side. Copenhagen is realistically much larger, in area and population, more urban. Malmö seems like it’s always trying catch up, however Malmö is happy with its comfortable walkable city. The Öresund Bridge has opened the city up to a larger market and larger economy that create more possibilities for the people. Mr. Johansson expects to see more effects from the connection to Copenhagen in the next 50 years.
Västra Hamnen, the new sustainable district of Malmö, began as an experiment. Following the loss of its industries, Malmö was stuck with many old industrial sites that were a blight on the city. Västra Hamnen was one such site. The intention of developing the area beginning with an expo of competing architects was to spark interest in Malmö, create an icon of the city that would put it on the international scale. And Calatrava’s Turning Torso is quite the icon.
What is it about the people in Malmö that makes this possible?
While a city like Stockholm has a lot to offer, it is very tied up by its traditions and cannot change as quickly. Malmö is small but dense and on the rise. It is a city of contrasts. Like many cities, there are some very nice and tidy places and then there are some rough areas. They are very proud of how diverse they are as a Swedish city; they have the highest proportion of immigrants and 36% of its inhabitants are first or second generation. Of course, there are some social tensions with so many ethnicities within the city. However, having such a mixed population there is a lot of acceptance of differences. From these differences, rises also creativity. This is one of the factors that Mr. Johansson believes is important in understanding why the people of Malmö are so open to new ideas and willing to adapt.
Another aspect is as a budding university town, the growing student population is also an early adapter of new and positive changes. However, most of the general public in Malmö is not really interested in or aware of the role of sustainability in the city. This is slowly changing as they see more and more people coming to the city and recognizing Malmö for its ecological achievements.
The Swedes are very fond of nature, as exhibited by Malmö’s many parks and preserved natural areas. Only two generations ago, most people still lived on farms or in rural areas. A couple minutes outside of Malmö, you are surrounded by farmland rolling fields of green. Natural land and parks are very important to the people of Malmö, and they take the time to appreciate it.
What’s next for Malmö?
Densify. Malmö is desperately trying to fight urban sprawl. With the goal of reducing the daily use of the car, they do not want to spread the city out anymore unless they can develop and build the infrastructure for fast public transit to connect people to the city center. They are adopting a dual development plan, where they will further densify and grow inwards while also developing limited area outwards. There are many brownfield and old industrial sites within the city that need redeveloping. Condensing the city is also important because of the surrounding valuable arable land for which the southern region of Sweden, Skåne, is known.
Improve Public Transportation Even More. Opening in December this year, the City Tunnel is a huge project for Malmö. Basically, it will connect people through Malmö via underground train system. While there are only three stops being built, these stops will help commuters come to and through the city with less changes in transportation, making it more convenient and faster. Because the buses are reaching capacity, Malmö plans to also develop an electric tram system throughout the city in the near future. This system will make transportation in the city more reliable and more sustainable.
Goals. Climate neutral by 2020. Have the entire city run on 100% renewable energy by 2030.
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