The first stop on our
journey was to rent bicycles once again from a local shop on the canal. After
watching local cyclists to pick up on patterns that may differ from our
Copenhagen cycling crash course, we headed to the Malmo equivalent of “City
Hall” to meet up with our friend and Park/Bicycle Traffic Planner Olle Evenas.
After a delicious traditional Swedish lunch we had the pleasure of listening to
Olle present the work he and the city of Malmo have been pursuing for several
years. It was fascinating to see how invested the city was to make cycling and
walking the easiest and fastest form of transportation. He was glowing as he
told us about the “Swedish Cycling City of the Year” award Malmo had received
just yesterday to add to their past two championships. Olle and an intern of
his, Johan were unbelievably passionate about improving the infrastructure of
their city to in turn improve the lives of their citizens.
After the quick but powerful lecture we headed back out to
the bikes to explore Malmo at ground level. The first thing we noticed was how
much less dense the bike traffic was, which allows Malmo to have two way
bicycle paths rather than two lanes on either side of the road. We headed first
through the beautiful historic streets to the Western Harbor, an area of former
industrial docks and warehouses which has been transformed into a spectacular
mixed use, heavy residential district over the past decade. The area is
anchored by the Santiago Calatrava designed “Turning Torso,” a building which
Malmo has strongly embraced.
The Western Harbor was built much during the same time as
Orestad, the somewhat less successful development we had visited in Copenhagen
yesterday, however this place felt entirely different. Rather than focusing on
the raw density within the given space, obvious thought was put into designing
for proximity and real world users. The spaces between the building felt quite
natural, as if they had evolved over a much longer period of time. The work
Kristy is doing for this course will focus on this new development, so stay
tuned for what should be an excellent synthesis!
We next moved on to study the first in a series of themed
playgrounds which saw heavy use from the locals. Olle told us that Malmo, and
Sweden as a whole is in the midst of a baby boom which explains to masses of
children we had been seeing all around. As we biked through the city, we had
the opportunity to see many of the improvements described to us earlier in the
day first hand. It was exciting to see how ideas moved through the design
process and into the real world for use by the public. After being in
Copenhagen, where most of the green space seemed to be within more private
inner courtyards, it was refreshing to see the reemergence of the street tree
in Malmo. Olle spoke often about the learning process that he occurs while
designing and implementing their new ideas. Since many of these ideas are quite
revolutionary, only through careful observation and analysis can they further
refine the product that they deliver to their citizens… ease of use.
One of the most powerful experiences on our journey today
was biking through a space within one of the enormous public parks which had
been planted with a series of concentric rings of beech trees. These trees had
been trimmed down over the years to create an incredible amount of spatial
enclosure that would make the gardens at Versailles green with jealousy. What
made our travels on bike and explorations of spaces so great today was the
ability to see the users within the space activating that place and bringing
the energy of life.
Overall, I think it is safe to say that the 8 hour flight
across the pond was worth it to see the wonders of Malmo we experienced in the
last 10 hours. I can’t imagine a place I’d rather celebrate my birthday than
here. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds in Lund!
Cheers,
Ross
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