Bo01

The project envisioned a mixed-use neighborhood, with a strong presence of public spaces. Almost half of the entire site land (46%) was dedicated to open and public spaces, with the remaining buildable area hosting residential buildings (78%), followed by offices (11%), leisure and recreational buildings (5,5%), commercial areas hosting restaurants and retail shops (2%) and institutional and public buildings, such as schools and parking spots (3,5%).

The project did not envision any economic-related impact or objectives, as the industrial area has been converted into a mainly residential neighborhood, with few areas dedicated to offices, restaurants and retail stores. However, the allocation to some areas for offices and commercial purposes might have benefited the economic development of the local community. In general, the project contributed to the rise of property value within the neighborhood and the surrounding areas.

As part of a sustainable and environmental-aware redevelopment project for the Western Harbor area of the city, the Bo01 neighborhood development had significant impacts on the urban ecosystem of the area. The redevelopment project focused on improving resource efficiency, especially regarding energy production. The entire energy consumption of the neighborhood comes from renewable resources. The district heating system implemented employs energy from the Boel wind energy plant, closely located to the neighborhood, from geothermal energy produced through a heat pump system, from solar energy generated with solar tubes and flat panel collectors, and from the biogas produced by the recycling system. The renewable energy mix employed provides energy for the entire district, with a production of 6,300 MWh/year for heating, 1,000 MWh/year for cooling, and 4,459 MWh/year for electricity consumption. The energy system implemented also helped to decrease emissions produced by energy resources, compared to employing fossil or non-renewable sources. The environmental objectives of the projects further aimed to improve the neighborhood urban resilience and climate adaptation. The infrastructural works performed on the site allowed the implementation of a circular waste management system, where the organic waste produced by the buildings is collected and stored in underground vaults, passed under a biological fermentation process and turned into biogas (methane). The biogas produced is employed in the district heating, to produce electricity or to fuel buses. Similarly, non-organic waste is recycled in the central facility or incinerated for the district heating. Due to its position on the Oresund Strait, the neighborhood has been equipped with an important water management system to ensure water drainage and discharge of quality water. The rainfall water is collected on green areas and green roofs, while rain gardens and courtyard ponds collect stormwater and improve water quality, before discharging it to the drainage system and in the saltwater channel. Lastly, the Bo01 project focused on restoring and improving the biodiversity of the ex-industrial site by dedicating a vast area to public and green areas, such as courtyards and ponds. The redevelopment project ensured the implementation of nature-based solutions, as private developers needed to satisfy certain environmental requirements for each parcel in order to ensure biodiversity – e.g. nectar-rich vegetation to provide food for insects, installation of birds and bats boxes, planting trees of different species, courtyard spaces left for ecological succession. The entire implementation phase saw the collaboration of an ecologist to support developers and the municipality in ensuring the employment of coherent biodiversity measures.

The Bo01 redevelopment project brought also some benefits on the social side of the community. The project aimed to improve the sustainable mobility system already employed by the Municipality by providing vast areas for pedestrian walks and more than 8 km of bicycle paths, connecting the neighborhood to the other Western Harbor areas. The implementation of a frequent and widely present bus system helped to serve the residents and discourage the usage of private cars, still higher in Bo01 compared to the rest of the city. Lastly, the intervention brought a significant improvement in terms of public safety, achieved through the purification of the area by removing the contaminated soil and treating it for the contaminating materials – i.e. aromatic hydrocarbons, by replacing them with clean fill and a thick layer of topsoil.

The Bo01 redevelopment project did not receive any sustainability certification.

The neighborhood redevelopment project had been implemented with the employment of public funding from the National Government and international institutions for the conversion of the industrial area, the soil decontamination and the installation of the project infrastructure. The development rights of each parcel were then sold to private developers which invested private resources, cooperated with the Municipality and followed the project masterplan and guidelines delineated in the Quality Program.

The redevelopment of the shipbuilding industry site, its decontamination and the construction of the project infrastructure were financed by the Municipality of Malmö. The Municipal Government employed direct government grants from the Swedish Government through the Local Investment Programmes (LIP), amounting at around USD 33 million. The public funding program was established by the National Government to finance local municipalities and support their investments in sustainable and ecological projects. The resources provided through this program were targeted to subsidize the costs of site decontamination and installation of the project infrastructure. Less consistent funding – around USD 2 million – was provided by the European Union to support the installation of the renewable energy elements of the project. In accordance with the Quality Program, the Municipality compensated the cost of the site redevelopment by selling the development rights of the individual parcels to private developers which invested private resources for the individual development projects. This was facilitated by the application of the land assembly, through which the public authority purchased all the land and provided private actors with development rights at higher prices after the realization of soil remediation and public infrastructures which increased the attractiveness and reduced the risks for private developers.

Image from Metropolitaneando, retrieved here. Used under Content License.