Swedish Housing Research Articles

Grindsamhälle: the rise of urban gating and gated housing in Sweden

Sweden does not have gated communities, but this paper argues that processes of gating and the associated consequences are apparent in Sweden, particularly in metropolitan regions. Based on interviews, observations and analysis of previous research, the article identifies the rise of urban gating and gated housing. Urban gating restricts access to previously public land through material gating and results in a loss of the right to use-value of urban land. The rise of a new and exclusive form of gated housing associated with the lifestyles of the mobile middle class, referred to here, as the residential hotel, is spotlighted, prompting questions about the concentration of affluence in already privileged areas and the reinforcing effect of gating on existing patterns of socio-spatial polarization.

SBS symptoms in relation to dampness and ventilation in inspected single-family houses in Sweden

PurposeTo investigate the relationships between symptoms compatible with the sick building syndrome (SBS) in adults and building dampness and ventilation in single-family houses.MethodsWithin the Swedish BETSI study, a national sample of single-family houses were inspected by professional building experts, and adults living in the houses answered a questionnaire on SBS. Relationships between building factors and SBS were analysed using logistic regression.ResultsOf the respondents, 23% reported having had weekly SBS symptoms during the last three months. A large proportion of houses exhibited building or construction problems. In total, 40% of houses had dampness problems in the foundation, and this was related to a higher prevalence of both mucous and dermal symptoms, and any SBS symptoms. Furthermore, high air humidity was related to more symptoms, with the relationship with absolute humidity being stronger than that with relative humidity or moisture load. Symptoms were also more prevalent in houses with a high U value, reflecting a poor thermal insulation. Compared to natural ventilation, living in a house with mechanical supply and exhaust ventilation was related to a lower prevalence of general symptoms and any SBS symptoms, but there were only weak associations between measured air exchange rate and symptoms.ConclusionsA large proportion of single-family houses have dampness problems in the foundation, and pollutants may enter the living space of the house and affect the health of the occupants. Furthermore, absolute air humidity should be measured more often in indoor air studies.

Rain resistance of façades with façade details: A summary of three field and laboratory studies

One of the main functions of the exterior walls and façades is to protect the indoor and the sensitive parts of construction from the outdoor climate. Exposure of driving rain is the most prominent moisture source a wall has to resist. Despite this, there is a lack of information on rain resistance. Field measurements on real-life external walls show that recurrent water leakage under driving rain conditions is observed in five out of seven new-built houses in Sweden, including those with ventilated façades. About a 100 commercial laboratory façade tests, mounted by façade suppliers, and targeted laboratory experiments showed that it is almost impossible to achieve fully tight façade solutions, and keep them sealed. Nearly, all test walls with façade details leaked, almost regardless of façade type and sealing efforts. The results from field and laboratory measurements of rain resistance in new buildings in Sweden show that façades are usually not water-tight and also that very small deficiencies can cause substantial amount of water leakage.

The decline of the house longhorn beetle (Hylotrupes bajulus) in Europe and its possible causes

ABSTRACTAccording to a literature review and modern survey data from Germany, the incidence of active infestations of wooden structures of German and Swedish houses has declined significantly in the last 60 years. A similar trend can be estimated for several other European countries. In order to understand the possible causes for the decline, the available literature about HB of the last 80 years was evaluated. The decline can probably be attributed to the chemical measures applied in the past, the changed building practice, the decreased danger of introducing larvae through already-infested timber and the reduced presence of wane in timber for structural use. The article describes how questionnaires distributed among experts and the use of Citizen Science Data may contribute to the future monitoring of HB and other wood-destroying organisms.

The Swedish Housing Market from a Low Income Perspective

After the economic crisis in the early 1990s, there was excess supply of housing, but over the last 25 years, demand has increased because of rising population, rising incomes and low levels of hou ...

Low-temperature heating in existing Swedish multi-family houses—An assessment of the significance of radiator design and geometry

The current study evaluates the impacts of radiator designs and geometries. The aim was to map the thermal efficiency and performance differences of studied radiator types. A typical Swedish low-rise, multi-family house was selected to present the analysis. A Swedish climate was employed to evaluate the applicability. The on-site measurements, analytical model, and real-life performance data from radiator manufacturing were applied for the modeling work. Radiator Type 21 (1.2 × 0.4 m) showed the highest exergy efficiency; Type 11 (1.2 × 0.45 m), the lowest. There is no evidence that Type 22 (adding more convector plate) has a higher thermal efficiency than Type 21, from an engineering perspective, within the climate range of −20°C to 15°C. Baseboard radiators showed a 34% higher exergy performance than the most efficient conventional radiator, with the same surface area, at mean outdoor temperatures during an average heating season in Sweden (−1.3°C). The results also suggest that Type 21 would have higher efficiency than Type 11 during 50% time of the heating season, in severe climate conditions. In the climate of Stockholm, this efficiency advantage was 20%. For the mild climate, Type 11 and Type 21 performed almost the same over the entire heating season.

New public housing: a selective model disguised as universal? Implications of the market adaptation of Swedish public housing

Building upon the universal characteristics of the social democratic welfare regime, public housing in Sweden has traditionally been a central instrument in contributing to socially inclusive cities; however, changes in policy have gradually changed the landscape. This paper presents concerns for public housing's endeavour for social inclusion and suggests that the universal approach, of which Swedish public housing is a standing role model, is diminishing in favour of an ambiguous model of universal discourse and selective output. A ‘New Public Housing’ is emerging with higher thresholds, making it harder for economically disadvantaged groups to gain access to housing; at the same time, this is compensated by the increase of ‘social contracts’, which provides the financially vulnerable with an entrance to the housing market, however on very uncertain conditions. Increasingly catering for the most well off and the most vulnerable in society, this New Public Housing appears to exist in a contradictory state between its claims of universalism and the practice of excluding certain groups.

Retail city: the relationship between place attractiveness and accessibility to shops

ABSTRACTRetail city: the relationship between place attractiveness and accessibility to shops. Spatial Economic Analysis. This paper explores the role of retailers as an urban amenity. Using data for Swedish rural and city municipalities for 2002–08, ‘accessibility-to-shops’ measures are constructed for the shops in the municipalities and the hosting regions separately to examine the relationship between consumption possibilities and place attractiveness in a spatial continuum. Place attractiveness is proxied by a Q ratio for Swedish housing investment based on Tobin’s Q. Access to stores within municipal market boundaries is found to be relevant for the place attractiveness of city municipalities, whereas no such relationship is evident for rural municipalities.

Homeownership rates of financially constrained households

PurposeThis paper aims to examine tenure choice in the Swedish housing market with explicit consideration of households’ credit constraints in combination with age and ethnic background.Design/methodology/approachObservations of some 940,000 households were used to analyse the Stockholm housing market in 2008, prior to the implementation of the mortgage cap. The tenure choice models were estimated using a two-stage instrument variable (IV) logit and probit model with ownership or renting as outcome.FindingsThe results suggest, as expected, that being financially restricted is negatively related to owning. In particular, financial restriction is more binding for young households and households with a foreign background than for other types of households. These two sub-groups are also known to have difficulties establishing themselves in the rental housing market, and are therefore specifically vulnerable to further financial constraints such as borrowing restrictions or amortization requirements.Originality/valueThe government in Sweden has become concerned with the rapid growth in household indebtedness. As a response, a 0.85 loan-to-value ratio mortgage cap was introduced in 2010. However, critics are concerned with the effects this may have on the possibility for certain households to purchase a dwelling.

Doing good but not that well? A dilemma for energy conserving homeowners

In this paper the issue of market capitalization of energy efficient buildings is addressed by considering single-family housing in Sweden and through analyzing as to what extent the market price for a house is influenced by its energy performance. Are Swedish homeowners doing well by doing good?We make use of information provided by the Swedish energy performance certificates for single-family homes matched with data on the corresponding transaction prices, household characteristics and attributes of the neighborhood. The resulting database, covering about 77,000 individual observations, is used to analyze the relationship between the price of a house and its energy performance by means of a hedonic model. Unlike most other studies the energy performance is decomposed into energy consumption and several other variables characterizing the energy system. The main question addressed is if there is a price premium for energy efficient housing in Sweden.Our results differ from earlier studies and indicate no price premium related to the energy consumption but substantial premiums for housing attributes that improve the energy efficiency. A likely explanation is that prospective buyers of new homes base their expectations about future energy consumption on those attributes rather than on the energy consumption of the previous owner.

Recycling a fashionable wardrobe in the long eighteenth century in Sweden

ABSTRACTThis article highlights the role recycling played in clothes culture as found in examples from Lady Märta Helena Reenstierna’s diary (1793–1839) and garments in Swedish museum collections. By using approaches from Textile Studies, clothes are seen in a lifecycle perspective rather than regarding fashion as luxury consumption focusing on the moment of purchase. Recycling as a concept allows central aspects of the relationship between clothes and fashion to be discussed, such as financial resources, social expectations, legislation and age. This approach deepens the cultural-historical understanding of the use of clothing over time and the wardrobe as everyday practice. It opens up interpretations of the economic, cultural and emotional value of the fashionable wardrobe and gives insights into the consumer’s attitudes, values, fashion knowledge, textile skills and creativity. The study shows how closely intertwined the production and consumption of clothing was. I argue that recycling was crucial to keep and maintain a fashionable wardrobe over time. This is discussed in terms of the wardrobe as process and capital. The study shows that an appropriate fashionable wardrobe among women in the Swedish manor house milieu in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was the result of an active and well-considered strategy.

Pending for Renovations: Understanding the Conditions of the Multi-family Housing Stock from before 1945

The Swedish housing stock is once again in focus for national energy savings, as it was after the oil crises in the 1970s and 1980s. The contemporary debate has a one-sided focus on energy savings and barriers for implementation of existing energy efficient renovation measures but also on large stock of industrialized housing built after 1960. The need for renovation is equally urgent in older stocks of housing, also in those that already have been renovated but are in need for further interventions. In this paper we focus on multi-residential housing built before 1945 in Gothenburg, Sweden, representing cultural and historical heritage values. The opportunities to ensure high energy efficiency with new measures in a second renovation should aim to find a balance with heritage values, social values, function, aesthetics and management aspects. In order to get an understanding of the conditions of the stock in focus, we apply both a top-down and bottom-up approach. In the top-down approach, data are gathered from different sources such as energy performance certificates, the national property register, and geodata from the City of Gothenburg. By combining information from these databases, three data subsets have been defined for the bottom-up approach: non-renovated buildings, buildings renovated to a small extent and buildings renovated to a large extent. Three case study buildings were selected out of these data subsets. The choice of renovation strategy differs between the cases. Case study building 1 has been left virtually untouched while case study building 2 and 3 have been renovated to different extent. The next step in this research project is to identify suitable renovation alternatives for these building typologies.

Striving for Sustainable Development and the Coordinating Role of the Central Government: Lessons from Swedish Housing Policy

Housing plays an important role in the development of welfare policies and also often in achieving sustainability goals. There exists, however, implementation gaps between policies and practices in urban development and housing. Here it should be possible to draw lessons from policy implementations in the past. In this article we explore the strategies of the Swedish central government in implementing a social housing policy in the mid-20th century. The policy was successfully implemented in that it resulted in the rapid expansion and modernisation of the Swedish apartment stock in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and acute housingshortages and poor housing standards were overcome. The main lesson learned from the Swedish case study is the critical role of the central government in implementation throughthe strategic coordination of policy aims, instruments, stakeholders and interests throughout the implementation process. Although the central government could have used hard, almost authoritarian policy instruments to force the realisation of the new policy, it mainly used soft policy tools and focused on coordination. In the contemporary networked governance setting, the central government, like no other player, still has the potential to guide and coordinate implementation processes for the realization of sustainable housing visions.

Do attitudes expressed in surveys predict ethnic discrimination?

ABSTRACTSurvey data on people’s reported attitudes towards ethnic minorities are sometimes used as a proxy for ethnic discrimination. However, there is weak empirical evidence of a link between reported attitudes and discrimination. In this article, we use survey data on people’s attitudes towards ethnic minorities combined with a direct measure of ethnic discrimination from a field experiment in the Swedish housing market to re-examine this policy-relevant issue. We find clear evidence of a link between reported attitudes towards ethnic minorities and the extent of ethnic discrimination: in regions where attitudes are more negative, there is more discrimination, and vice versa. Thus, in contrast to most prior studies, our results suggest that reported attitudes may be a useful predictor of ethnic discrimination.

Improving Nutritional Status of Older Persons with Dementia Using a National Preventive Care Program.

The aim of the study was to investigate the outcome of change in body weight associated with use of a structured preventive care process among persons with dementia assessed as at risk of malnutrition or malnourished. The preventive care process is a pedagogical model used in the Senior Alert (SA) quality register, where nutrition is one of the prioritized areas and includes four steps: assessment, analysis of underlying causes, actions performed and outcome. An analysis of data from SA with a pre-post design was performed. The participants were living in ordinary housing or special housing in Sweden. 1912 persons, 65 years and older, registered in both SA and the dementia quality register Svedem were included. A national preventive care program including individualized actions. The Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form was used to assess nutritional status at baseline. Body weight was measured during baseline and follow-up (7-106 days after baseline). 74.3% persons were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. Those at risk of malnutrition or malnourished who were registered in all four steps of the preventive care process, increased in body weight from baseline (Md 60.0 kg) to follow-up (Md 62.0 kg) (p=0.013). In those with incomplete registration no increase in body weight was found. Using all steps in the structured preventive care process seems to improve nutritional status of persons with dementia assessed as at risk of malnutrition or malnourished. This study contributes to the development of evidence-based practice regarding malnutrition and persons with dementia.

Who is Governing the Commons: Studying Swedish Housing Cooperatives

This study examines current governance structures related to multifamily buildings designed by single actors (developers) and operated in cooperative forms. The study analyses the long-term sustainability of the resource regime of study (multifamily buildings) and inked governance structures by applying Ostrom’s eight design principles for long-term survival of self-organized resource regimes (Common-pool resources or CPR’s). The study also searches for signs of movement towards social innovation and collective action in current governance structures. We argue that the structures governing planning, production and operation of housing cooperatives in Sweden do not fulfil the eight design principles for the long-term survival of the resource regime of study, nor do they encourage movement towards social innovation or collective action. In order to ensure the long-term survival of the resource regime of study and to increase innovation in governance structures, five adjustments are proposed; changes in the structures governing risk/profit distribution, communication, collaboration and information between actors in the Swedish cooperative housing sector.

The Pyrrhic victory of civil society housing? Co-operative housing in Sweden and Norway

Co-operative housing in Sweden and Norway are true success stories of civil society housing in terms of market shares. This stands in stark contrast to some other European countries, where attempts to promote co-operative housing have consistently met with difficulties, both politically and in the market. The paper explores the history of co-operative housing in Sweden and Norway since 1945 through the lens of path dependence. Notably, co-operative housing changed gradually in both countries between the 1950s and the 1990s, when co-operative companies went from being civil society organisations espousing the ideals of self-help, democracy, non-profit and solidarity, towards becoming more market oriented and profit seeking. We argue that two drivers, ‘the logic of conflicting member interests’ and ‘the logic of competition and growth’, contributed decisively to this development. These drivers may also be good candidates for general mechanisms of civil society housing based partly on collective or individual ownership – if they are not kept at bay. In our view, there seems to be some trade-off between the pursuit of civil society objectives and market success. This should serve as a marker for advocates of civil society housing.

From Folkhem to lifestyle housing in Sweden: segregation and urban form, 1930s–2010s

This article analyses the political and ideological transformations underlying the gradual privatisation and deregulation of the mid-twentieth-century Keynesian model of housing provision in Sweden. We identify a series of three political and ideological shifts in housing policy and urban form since the 1930s: regulating Folkhem housing, deregulating Folkhem housing, and back to business in housing. We argue that even though the Folkhem parole of ‘housing for all’ differs extensively from the current situation where the market is ‘housing the privileged’, segregation trends have, from the Folkhem to the post-welfare period, been shaped by both state interventions and market forces. Second, we argue that there is a continuing trend through which newly constructed housing has metamorphosed from a basic human right for the working class into an expression of individual distinction and ‘style’ for the upper middle and middle classes. While privileged classes, more than ever before in modern Swedish housing history, have the possibility to choose new forms of housing, the most impoverished groups live in residual and often stigmatised peripheral housing areas. One main conclusion is that recent forms of housing for privileged groups signal a cultural and ideological shift towards new, more elitist conceptions of housing and privilege.

More Than Meets the Eye. “Castles and Manor Houses in Sweden” Revisited

SummaryThe landmark book series Slott och herresäten i Sverige (transl. Castles and Manor Houses in Sweden), published in 1966–1971 by Allhems förlag, is still today considered the most important art historical reference work on Swedish manor buildings and country houses. The 18 volumes seem to present a near complete picture of the nation's rich heritage of manor buildings, combining the comprehensive and topographically organized guide book with the thoroughness of the architectural monograph. This paper will address the more problematic aspects of the book series, its critical role in the writing of a Swedish architectural history and in shaping a national country house narrative. While each volume provides an authoritative and concise overview of the history, ownership and stylistic development of the most significant manor buildings in the province – their architecture, interiors, gardens and collections – the presentation with its general descriptions, formal analysis and neutral tone omits a more in-depth analysis of these complex environments as well as underlying social, political and economic aspects. The descriptions have, in a sense, been working against the depth of historical understanding and the identification of more complex networks. As a consequence, the Swedish manor house is presented as a continuous and self-contained “treasure house”, with the critical perspectives and broader European context very seldom present in the characterizations.

Indoor Air Environment—Hygienic Factors and Limits

Complaints on the indoor environment of the residents in recent decades have become a common problem in the Swedish housing. The buildings themselves are said to be the cause of problems, and it is given a vague picture of both the exposure and the effect of the problems. The symptoms that residents and users state are often common in the population such as headache, fatigue, mucosal disorders and skin problems. It must be considered that the air that people routinely inhale contains impurities of various kinds, both in- and outdoors. An important source of contamination indoors is the microorganisms that are pathogenic, so called agents. Examples of infectious agents are viruses, fungi, bacteria and protozoa. The purpose of this project is to examine whether a physical measurement is possible to obtain for identifying a possible threshold level of air pollution in the indoor environment. In this study, carried out through physical measurements, the results show major deficiencies in the Swedish school environment. If we study the emissions in the important health-related size range of particles larger than 5.0 microns, before and after measures, the environmental benefits are clarified since over 90% of contaminants larger than 5.0 microns have been eliminated.