Street Moves

Street Moves started in the spring of 2020 with the mission to make our streets more sustainable, healthy, and vibrant – through design.

Together with municipalities, design teams, and the public, new solutions were developed to explore how streets could be used. The project tested various working methods and tools to inspire municipalities and other actors to transform urban spaces and make them more accessible, lively, and welcoming.

During the spring and summer of 2020, ArkDes collaborated with LundbergDesign ↗ to create a modular solution for the street. The prototype consisted of a wooden base plate with adaptable parts to accommodate, for instance, bike parking, outdoor gyms, seating areas, or planter boxes. It was tested on streets in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Helsingborg.

Experiences from these first projects were continuously integrated into a more effective method. Street Moves was further developed in Helsingborg and Gothenburg and later applied to transform urban spaces in Hultsfred, Härnösand, Södertälje, and Umeå. In total, the methods were used in seven Swedish municipalities – and in November 2023, they were also tested in San Jose, USA.

With Street Moves, streets could be transformed quickly and easily – without major construction work. Temporary prototypes were placed directly on site, inviting the public to try them out, share feedback, and help shape the final results. New ideas were tested right on the street – step by step making Sweden’s streets more sustainable, healthy, and vibrant.

Street Moves was led by ArkDes and funded by Vinnova ↗, Sweden’s innovation agency. The project was part of the mission to make all of Sweden’s streets sustainable, healthy, and vibrant by 2030. Sweden aims to meet the goals of the 2030 Agenda ↗ and to achieve net-zero emissions of fossil fuels by 2045. Public actors must lead the way. Street Moves used simple and exploratory methods where the urban environment and people were the focus, not cars.