Refurbishing the Eco-city Augustenborg Malmö, Sweden – social processes and landscape design at the turn of the millennium

Speakers: Ann-Sofi Högborg and Bengt Persson

Image: The Eco-city Augustenborg, eds Monika Månsson and Bengt Persson, 2021.   

The housing area of Augustenborg in Malmö, Sweden, is stunning according to its loveliness and functioning as a working landscape - for drainage, biodiversity and play, but also by the fact that it was refurbished 25 years ago with an existing community. Since the 1940s the Augustenborg residential area has been a model and a success story. When Augustenborg was planned and built in 1948-1952, it was the first major housing development project in post-war Malmö. The story of Malmö’s modern transformation that puts focus on sustainable urban development, in fact began in Augustenborg. When the Eco-city project was implemented in the late 1990s, it was the first time an existing residential area had been transformed through a major sustainability initiative and environmental regeneration. In this FOLAR talk we will focus on the social processes and the landscape design that led to what Augustenborg is today.

Ann-Sofi Högborg, MSc, Landscape Architect, owner of Svenska Landskap AB (Swedish Landscapes Ltd). Expert in socially based residential landscape design. Responsible for social processes and landscape design of the first part of the refurbishment of the residential gardens in the Eco-city Augustenborg 1999-2001.

Bengt Persson, AgrD, MSc, Landscape Architect, owner of Landskapsarkitekterna i Lund AB (Landscape Architects of Lund Ltd). Expert on the history of 20th century residential gardens in Sweden, co-author of Swedish Residential Yards 1930-1959. One of the editors of the anthology The Eco-city Augustenborg – experiences and lessons learned, published 2021.