The Good- & Socially Sustainable Street, from a Human Perspective : Focusing on the Relationship between Physical Environments and Social Life, with Hornsgatan in Stockholm as a Case Study

Sammanfattning: With over 300 years serving as a traffic route it is no wonder that Hornsgatan has the role of a major ‘artery’ in today’s Stockholm. This thesis will analyze and investigate how the street environment on Hornsgatan is affecting the people spending time on the street, and how a better street life and street quality can be brought out when it comes to enhance the social aspects for the street and its people. Through methods such as observations of the street and interviews with business owners, the case study of Hornsgatan have been based upon some theories by famous theorists when it comes to improving streets (and urban life) in cities, e.g.; Appleyard (1981), Jacobs (1993) and Gehl (2010). The results from the case study and the interviews show that Hornsgatan have both factors of what a ‘good’ and socially sustainable street should have; mix-use, the presence of people and social activities, active ground floors and different traffic modes, and factors that contribute to a less attractive street life; the heavy traffic, lack of places to sit, lack of greenery and lack of social activities for/between people. To reply the question if Hornsgatan is a ‘good’ and socially sustainable street or not, the answer is both yes and no. As Appleyard (1981) states, “[…] there is no single perfect street […]” (Appleyard 1981, p. 245). Instead each street and its situation are unique. However, with guidelines and aspects for how a street can be improved, at least some help can be brought out for its improvements.