Architecture and urban design plays a vital role in the way our cities and our societies are shaped. We put people in focus to inspire sustainable ways of living; our buildings and environments prioritise wellbeing, mobility and social cohesion for all. Our architecture brings people together, gets them moving, promotes diversity, and creates the conditions that empower people to lead better lives.
Social Sustainability
An equal society is based on the principle of equal rights and opportunities for all regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability or age. Cities and buildings are for all people, but then they also need to be designed for many different needs. It is a democratic right. By involving the users in the planning and design process, we gain better knowledge and it strengthens the feeling of participation and ownership for those who will use the environments.
Socially sustainable communities are inclusive, secure and resilient – a place for everyone.
Our Social Sustainability Services
Dialogue and Site Analysis
We conduct ethnographic fieldwork in order to gather knowledge of the locality and the people who live and work there. We make observations and conduct workshops, focus groups, interviews and neighbourhood watch activities. This qualitative material is then placed in relation to statistics and relevant research to form the basis for various analyses such as social impact analyses, social value accounting and child impact analyses. We always emphasise a norm-critical perspective and the relationship between social and spatial structures. We also offer methodological support for citizen dialogues and value calculations that reveal both financial and social value.
CoDesign and Placemaking
Involving users in the planning and design process not only provides us with more knowledge, it also reinforces a sense of entitlement and ownership among participants. We therefore work with cocreation through all types of full-scale testing and communal sketching and modelmaking. The process sometimes leads to placemaking activities in which we use temporary architecture to activate sites and test various types of use. The experiences, insights and ideas generated then form the basis for continued work. Our ambition is always that as far as possible the finished result should reflect the proposals developed
Process Management and Social Sustainability
In order to ensure a socially sustainable result, we work with process management in which social perspectives are emphasised, coordinated with other quality and sustainability issues and integrated into the whole. In close dialogue with the client, we formulate a vision, goals and strategy, coordinate various initiatives, plan for implementivity and monitor and analyse goal impact in the various stages of the process. We also perform economic evaluations in relation to social and ecological values.
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