The Royal Climate Garden : a design proposal on how to adapt Kungsträdgården, Stockholm, to a warmer future climate

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to find strategies to mitigate the negative effects of an increased temperature and apply them in a design proposal to an urban space of social importance. The chosen site was Kungsträdgården, which is located in central Stockholm, Sweden. Climate change is a contested political debate and a global issue. The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has in recent years established that it is with 95% certainty human activities that is causing the change in the global climate. The impacts will affect people and ecosystems around the world and the effects will be most noticeable in cities. Cities generally experience a higher temperature than their non-urban surroundings. This phenomenon is referred to as the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI). The elements, which increase the temperature in cities, are the large amount of impervious surfaces, buildings, lack of green spaces and the large amount of traffic. In order to define mitigating strategies, literature studies to determine what elements that help decrease temperature were conducted. The strategies to decrease temperature included vegetation such as trees and open grass, biodiversity, location of the green space and wind corridors. They also included water features such as fountains and ponds with vegetation. Vegetation at several levels are important for maximum cooling effect and to allow the cool air to spread. Along with the literature study, a site study were conducted to determine the physical features of the site today (2017). This to understand what is heating and cooling the space. Although people are major contributors to climate change, cities are spaces made by and for people. Therefore, this work does not only focus on the climate aspects of the site, but the social aspects as well. Thus, social studies were conducted to determine how the space is used. This thesis is an attempt to try out solutions for temperature decrease and to learn what is required of urban spaces in the future. Our final design is a conceptual idea of how an urban space in a city can be re-designed in order to cope with the future climate in the aspect of temperature increase. We decided to create a multifunctional space with five different parts, each with its own climate benefits based on our found climate strategies. The parts are an entrance with pond and amphitheatre, an event surface with semi-permeable ground material, a broadleaved forest, a raised boardwalk and an open grass surface and waterfront. This thesis highlights the importance of green spaces as a way to reduce the impacts of climate change in cities. It also shows the difficulties of balancing between climate aspects and social aspects when designing an urban space. In order to adapt an urban space to climate change and an increased temperature, vegetation is vital, and the removal of impervious surfaces. We think landscape architects have a responsibility to plan for a sustainable future, and we need to be the voice for the changes that needs to be made. Hopefully before it is too late!