Den blå tråden

Sammanfattning: This thesis revolves around rain, more specifically the relationship between urban development and rain. In this part of the world rain is often considered something negative and something that we want to avoid. Architecture has been implemented in order to create structures which protect us from the water falling from the sky. Rain is something we complain about to our friends and colleagues, it forces us to cancel our outdoor activities, it threatens to drain our harvest and to molder the precious memories we have stowed away in our basements. As the climate changes and the number and frequency of cloudbursts increase, so does the need for new rainwater management solutions. We need to change the way we think about rain, from threat to resource. With the purpose to problematize the way rain is handled in an urban context, this thesis explores how existing methods can be developed and challenged in order to integrate water into our existing urban structures. The aim is to create values around an open water management by using water as a spatial resource. The project takes place in Gothenburg, a city known for the amount of precipitation that hits its grounds every year. The municipality of Gothenburg has come up with a new initiative which is to become the world’s best city when it rains. They want to combine culture, design and innovation in order to emerge as an inspiration worldwide when it comes to storm water treatment. By analyzing where the rain gathers and flows the project eventually evolves into a framework for stormwater management applied on a path going through the central parts of Gothenburg, called the Blue Thread. Along the blue thread several urban spaces are identified and altered in order to root the project into the surrounding community, as well as support and strengthen the biodiversity and culture of the neighborhood.