Aesthetic Preference as Starting Point for Citizen Dialogues on Urban Design: Stories from Hammarkullen, Gothenburg

Brita Fladvad Nielsen,Ruth Woods,Wenche Lerme

doi:10.17645/up.v4i1.1648

Brita Fladvad Nielsen, Ruth Woods + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v4i1.1648

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Abstract

This article sets out to describe the role of aesthetics in citizen dialogues during the upgrading of a local swimming pool in Hammarkullen, Gothenburg. The swimming pool became an important project because of its role in a larger neighbourhood renovation project that allowed the municipality to focus on citizen engagement and inclusion. The engagement process showed the importance of the local swimming pool for a marginalized group of women of Somali origin, and a decision was made to keep the swimming pool instead of demolishing it. This led to collaboration between project coordinators, the Public Art Agency, an artist and an architect. Individual qualitative interviews focusing on storytelling were undertaken with key stakeholders. The findings show that aesthetic quality mediated the communicative processes between project coordinators and citizens. Art in public space is more than just aesthetics or something to look at; art provokes a wide variety of responses and artists use a variety of means to engage with their public and creating dialogue. Yet the project managers failed to consider the creative process of the architect and her perspective on aesthetic quality and building functionality. Stakeholders take different stances to whether aesthetic quality can be a way of grounding, communicating and evolving, or whether it is a matter of beauty where the artist or architect takes the lead. While the project coordinators affirm sameness, different understandings of aesthetic quality actively negotiate social differences. Inability to consider creative practices’ work processes in relation to citizen dialogue can result in conflicts between art, architecture and governance during the transformation of a neighbourhood.

Highlights

Planning authorities within city municipalities increasingly take the role of negotiators between private stakeholders rather than as managers of urban design
The stories show that aesthetic quality and public art effectively opens up dialogues between citizens and implementing stakeholders; yet it seems as if project coordinators, and the artist, at some point start speaking on behalf of the included women instead of keeping them in the process when the project moves towards implementation
We introduced this article by explaining the inability of planning processes to act holistically once implementation begins; and this project ran into the same difficulty despite the work to create dialogue at the beginning

Summary

Introduction

Planning authorities within city municipalities increasingly take the role of negotiators between private stakeholders rather than as managers of urban design This is largely due to the increased need of integrating lib-. Urban Planning, 2019, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages 67–77 eralized service distributors such as energy utilities into planning, and the inability of planning processes to act holistically once implementation begins (Campbell, 1996; Juhasz-Nagy et al, 2017; Nielsen, Juhasz-Nagy, Wyckmans, & Andresen, 2016) Within this technically focused era of integrated planning, municipalities ask for improved ways to engage citizens and implement citizen’s needs into multi-stakeholder processes (Eising & Jabko, 2001). The goal of this study was to learn from its impact on social innovation in neighbourhood upgrading and planning

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