Integrerade Gröna Typologier

Can a systematic review of typical development patterns contribute to greater biodiversity and create space for more ecosystem services? The project Integrerade Gröna Typologier, part of ArkDes Open Call 2021, was initiated to shift the focus beyond the street’s role in planning towards a more sustainable society.

Today’s planning processes often treat parks, green areas, and courtyards as parallel elements to buildings, rather than as fully integrated parts of the built environment. At the same time, green and blue elements in streetscapes have become increasingly important for addressing today’s climate challenges. Integrerade Gröna Typologier (Integrated Green Typologies), carried out by Warm in the Winter ↗ and Ekologigruppen ↗, highlights the need for a holistic perspective on urban surfaces – to identify untapped opportunities that can strengthen both ecological and social values.

Funded by ArkDes in two stages, the project aimed to discuss the need for ecosystem services and biodiversity alongside issues of housing provision and sustainable mobility. By working with various building typologies – a key concept in planning used to describe, analyse, and design built environments – the ambition was to achieve broadly applicable results.

The urban area of Åkersberga in Österåkers municipality ↗ was selected as a reference for analysing typologies with varying densities: low-density areas with terraced or detached houses, medium-density areas with open block structures, and high-density areas with closed blocks. The team investigated existing ecosystem services and identified areas where green and blue structures could be strengthened. For each typology, they analysed features such as street width and character, the design of public and private spaces, and building placement and height. They also mapped green space ratios, floor area ratios, and the capacity for ecosystem services.

The work resulted in a comprehensive and systematic report. One conclusion, for example, was that varied building heights within closed blocks are beneficial, allowing sunlight to reach inner courtyards. This creates brighter, more attractive environments with favourable microclimates, benefiting both people and biodiversity. For blocks with more open development, the project team found that residential courtyards should be designed and maintained as living ecological systems, integrated with the surrounding green structure.

As an outcome of the Åkersberga case study, the team developed a shared tool based on a selection of indicators deemed most relevant for the tested typologies. This became one of the project’s key results – facilitating communication across disciplines and providing general insights applicable to other contexts. The tool is presented in the project report.