Urban Ergonomics - A study towards a smarter use of resources and space in external shopping centers in Sweden.

Sammanfattning: As a result of 20th-century car-centric planning, many urban districts had emerged designed to serve only one function. Different residential suburbs and trade areas were dispersed scattered within and outside the cities. This has led to more dependence on private cars to meet people’s daily needs. Urban Ergonomics will discuss one type of these areas, the external shopping centers, or the big-box retail areas. External shopping centers are commercial areas that are located on the backside of cities and easy to access by car. The external shopping centers are characterized by being wide, and poorly designed with architectural typologies of huge retail boxes with enormous areas of free parking lots. External shopping centers play a direct role in increasing car traffic and often are built on important agricultural lands. Even though Trafikverket (Swedish transport administration) recommended stopping such development to achieve the climate goals, these areas are still emerging nonstop in all parts of Sweden. The problems that such areas create are beyond physical ones. Many retailers tend to close their in-city shops to move to these territories due to the cheap land prices so they can offer cheaper prices for consumers as well. In Sweden, stores that are larger than 400 sqm were not present before 1950. In 2017 it had more than 2100. Urban Ergonomics is a project that aims to address the problems related to these areas, discussing the potential they have to be production-consumption areas instead of being only-consumption. This will be achieved by applying the circular economy principles to the urban and architectural levels. While circular economy is usually discussed from the business and economy point of view. The project seeks to integrate this concept with site residents everyday lives, considering their mental health and social life, and the liveliness of such circular communities.