On June 12, the final seminar of the Mo-Bo innovation project funded by Viable Cities took place. In connection with this seminar, the report "Mo-Bo | Mobility services pave the way for innovative architecture" and a short leaflet "Steering towards new goals Residential blocks with p-number 0" were published and can be downloaded below.
The seminar presented results and lessons learned from the Mo-Bo innovation project. Mo-Bo is a housing concept where mobility services solve residents' transportation needs in a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable way. How can the sharing economy and mobility services be integrated into the home? What does the architecture look like? What systemic changes are needed to get there?
The project was led by Theory Into Practice (TIP) and also involved KTH, Laterre Invest AB, Upplands Väsby Municipality, SLU (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), Trivector, Urbio and Uppsala Municipality. During the presentation, the project group described the entire journey of the project where the planning process, innovation project and construction project have been run as parallel and interacting processes.
In his presentation, Felix Melin from Urbio pointed out how the parking garages under courtyards that are common today do not allow for large trees and the retention of rainwater during heavy rainfall. In Mo-Bo, however, courtyards without garages underneath provide more opportunities for greenery. While construction costs can be reduced, larger trees and more greenery can benefit the health of residents, increase resilience to climate change and enhance biodiversity (see also article on Sustainable City).
Paulina Soliman from Trivector, a company focusing on sustainable transport and mobility, highlighted that only 5 per mille of new construction is testing the new mobility project. At the same time, new construction represents only 2 percent of the total housing stock. This means that more pilot projects are needed where we dare to drop the requirements for car parking and that we must dare more in ALL new production, she says. "All new construction projects should incorporate innovative thinking so that they become a showcase for the city of the future," said Paulina Soliman, while emphasizing that in order to have a real effect, change must also take place in the existing stock.
The presentation was followed by a panel discussion with Carl Ståhle, expert in digital property development at Sveriges Allmännytta, Åsa Hult, who works with sustainable mobility at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Jessica Elmgren, project manager for sustainable travel at the City of Sundbyberg, and Fredrik Johansson, PhD student in strategic sustainability studies at KTH. The discussion was moderated by Ulrika Gunnarsson Östling, associate professor of planning and decision analysis at KTH.
More collaboration, target management (what do we want to achieve), more courage and a visualization of the cost of parking spaces are needed to succeed in planning and building for reduced car traffic, the panel said.
- Now we are looking forward to the next step in the Mo-Bo project, where we want to collaborate with more municipalities and other actors who want to contribute to shifting the norm on how architecture and mobility can interact to create living environments with a better quality of life for more people, while contributing to the transition to climate-neutral cities.
If you have any questions about the Mo-Bo project, please contact the project manager:
Anna Sundman, Theory into Practice
anna@theoryintopractice.se
Publications
Mo-Bo | Mobility services pave the way for innovative architecture
Sharing economy and mobility services are paving the way for innovative architecture. In the Mo-Bo innovation project, the project partners are developing a housing concept with mobility services to solve residents' transport needs in a sustainable way. Mobility services enable more people and goods to be transported by fewer vehicles, which means smarter use of resources and space. In the vicinity of the dwelling, large areas and costs that were previously invested in private car spaces are freed up. In today's 'Normal' in residential architecture and urban planning, the environment is largely shaped by private car use. In Mo-Bo, the project partners are exploring the 'New Normal' - housing with shared mobility services. What does that environment look like? What are the spatial innovations?
STEERING TOWARDS NEW TARGETS Residential blocks with parking spaces 0
Access to parking has a major impact on travel choices, but parking rates also determine the design of our living environment. Parking ratio 0 opens up new, more attractive solutions in the housing market. Increased green structure, expanded services and mobility services, and space-efficient housing solutions become possible.