Research grant to look at "city compaction"

In 2050 the world’s urban population is expected to have reached 6 billion. In estimation this would entail an areal expansion equivalent to the whole of Spain, Germany and France put together. How these urban areas are built will impact greatly on climate change and biodiversity.

Researchers Johan Colding and Åsa Gren from the centre and the Beijer Institute have received a grant of 1,5 million SEK for research to increase the understanding of environmental pros and cons of “city compaction” – densifying the city – focusing on the Stockholm region.

The project aims to critically review arguments for city compaction in academic literature; to build knowledge concerning what kind of land that is used for compaction in the Stockholm region; and to investigate, together with architecture researchers, how compaction can be designed to better promote biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Colding and Gren are excited about the grant as they see these challenges as key for sustainable development globally:

“The urban landscape is ever growing and changing and will continue to do so,” says Colding. “We are now at a point where the decisions we make on how to build and develop cities will be of critical importance and determine our chances of reaching sustainability and building for resilience in the systems we depend upon.”

“The UN Sustainable Development Goals includes one that specifically is about sustainability in cities. With the rate and scale of urbanisation today it is clear that this kind of research is needed to find ways of reaching that goal,” Gren concludes.