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Research output: ThesisLicentiate Thesis

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Abstract

Who are we building for? This is the overarching question in this licentiate thesis.
The thesis aims to shed light on and problematise how people are included or
excluded in the built environment due to if, and how human diversity is expressed
and visible in the plan and construction process. It is based on two studies that deal
with how the intended users of the built environment are categorised in planning
and policy documents, what capacities and abilities they are expected to have, and
how values and goals linked to Universal Design (UD) can be traced in the built
environment.
The first study examined how users of the built environment were described in
documents from the planning phases of future construction projects. How they
were categorised, which groups of people were made visible and invisible, and
what requirements are placed on the user at an early stage of the process were
examined in a selection of 15 policies and planning documents from a mediumsized
Swedish municipality. The results showed that categorisations appeared
widely in the documents and that patterns of differences and inequalities were
found throughout the material. Prominent characteristics of expected users were
youth, education, health and success. Particularly notable was how older people
and people with disabilities were absent in the materials. When they were
mentioned, it was primarily in connection with issues related to accessibility or
care. The image of the user that dominated was a young, mobile and highly
educated cyclist. The study also showed how high demands were placed on the
users’ functional abilities, not least in connection with descriptions of
environmental sustainability.
The second study was carried out as a multi-case study of eight selected, recently
completed remodelling and new construction projects in Gothenburg. The purpose
of the study was to highlight the presence and absence of UD by identifying how
the completed building and sites included or excluded users. One goal was also to
identify critical phases during the planning and construction process, where human
diversity risk being lost, by examining what happens to UD-related values and
goals from start to finish of the process. The material included underlying
documents for the eight objects, 265 documents throughout the planning and
construction process, notes and 436 photos from field observations.
The results showed some clear patterns. One of the more surprising results was
how UD goals and values were more prominent in the rebuilding projects than in
the new constructions. The differences between remodellings and new
constructions also showed how UD-related goals and values appear more clearly
in projects that are not primarily market-driven and where the ambitions to create a
place for everyone is visible throughout the entire process. It shows the importance
of diversity thinking being included in thought, action and demands through the
process as a whole. The results from observations of the completed environments
showed that the invisibility of certain users in the planning stage corresponded to a
great extent with the invisibility of these groups in the completed environment.
Common to several of the new construction projects examined, mainly in housing
projects, was how a very high profile was maintained regarding green
sustainability, with innovative and costly elements, while minimum levels of
accessibility related to building regulations were not achieved. These deviations
from the regulations have not been noticed during the process, and several of the
projects have instead been highlighted as exemplary projects, as they have won
prestigious awards in architecture and urban planning. Accessibility solutions
often bore unmistakable signs of ‘adaptation measures’ that have either been
added during the process or abandoned altogether. It gives the impression that it is
housing being built for the narrow norm of ‘normal users’.
Categorisations of users existed at an early stage in the planning process and were
also found in the completed built environment. There seems to be a lack of tools to
take better account of human diversity in the planning process and assert public
interests as accessibility. The ‘normal user’ stereotype is strong, and the changed
planning conditions with a stronger market influence support this image.
The results show how it is built for a particular imagined type of people and
behaviours, while others are excluded. New inequalities arise, and special
solutions are created for some users. The studies confirm what has been
discovered in previous research in several aspects, and show a great need for
increased knowledge, changed attitudes and ways of thinking that put human
diversity in focus. More equal conditions can be achieved if we set the
requirements on the built environment instead of on the user’s functional abilities.
By increasing the demands on the built environment, based on UD’s principles and
goals, conditions can be created to achieve values such as equity, inclusion and
social sustainability.
Original languageSwedish
QualificationLicentiate
Awarding Institution
  • Department of Design Sciences
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Hedvall, Per-Olof, Supervisor
  • Ericsson, Stina, Assistant supervisor, External person
  • Sandin, Gunnar, Supervisor
Award date2021 Jun 4
Place of PublicationLund
Publisher
ISBN (Print)978-91-7895-927-3, 978-91-7895-928-0
Publication statusPublished - 2021 Jun 4

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Other Engineering and Technologies
  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Free keywords

  • Universal Design
  • Accessibility
  • Urban planning
  • Human diversity
  • Social inclusion

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