The Redesign of Public Space in Rosengård: An Assessment of Bennets Bazaar, Örtagardstorget and Rosens Röda Matta

Sammanfattning: After having built many housing units and even district to fulfil the requirement on the millionhomes program to meet the need for housing, the city of Malmö is now working on improvingthe quality of its living environment. This program was a part of a further reaching projectaiming at solving the problem of access to housing and improving the quality of the builtenvironment. The million homes program, which lasted for around a decade in the 1960’s and1970’s, was part of a bigger scale urban development project aiming at providing housing topeople moving from villages to cities.The challenge faced by the city of Malmö today is not only to build enough to meet the demand,but also to make public space welcoming and attractive and to improve the environment createdby the million homes program. This is a part of the new urban development project for the city ofMalmö.This thesis is an assessment of the redesign of public spaces through the example of redesignprojects which took place in Malmö, more specifically, in three areas in Rosengård: BennetsBazaar, Örtagårdstorget and Rosens röda matta. Our research is mainly based on JanGehl(2006)’s theory, but we also used works from authors from other related fields such asKärrholm (regarding territoriality), Shabout (regarding public space in Iraq) and Sawalha(regarding the use of space by women in Middle Eastern countries). The research for this thesiswas carried out through theoretical research, interviews and observations.The results of observations and interviews show that in daily life Bennets Bazaar is the most usedpublic spaces among the three. Nevertheless, it fails to attract people from the rest part of the cityas expected. As for Örtagardstorget, people seldom spend time there. It seems to be a passingarea between the parking zone behind it and Bennets Bazaar. Rosen Röda Matta achieved theaim of serving as a stage but is hardly ever used in normal days. The four factors, which arecomfort, identity, culture and accessibility, are concluded to be the key elements that influencethe current outcomes of the three target areas.This thesis also shows the limits of Gehl’s theories when applied to a multicultural environmentlike that found in the studied places in Rosengård. It highlights also the important role ofconcepts such as those of the culture, identity of a place and perception of public space.