Candidate – Sweden
Submission by: City of Malmö
Project name: Naturmolnet
Short description
Naturmolnet is a co-creative, green meeting place that brings together the neighborhood and its residents. What once used to be an unsafe wasteland marked by its dark history has been transformed into a lush pocket park with the help and cooperation of local artists, residents and children. This form of co-creative design and architecture contributes to a dynamic placemaking process, with its character constantly evolving and changing into what its visitors bring to it. This dynamic process also contributes to a sense of responsibility and social commitment in the hundreds of school children and their parents who have participated. As a practical testbed to implement Agenda 2030, Naturmolnet aims to inspire more playful and green urban landscaping with green roofs and walls, with meadows and a stormwater play. It wants to showcase an including city planning process that creates opportunity and means to activate more people and different expressions.
Social cohesion
Naturmolnet is a co-creative, green meeting place that brings together the neighbourhood and its residents. What once used to be an unsafe wasteland marked by its dark history has been transformed into a lush community garden, or pocket green space (PGS) with the help and cooperation of local artists, residents, and children. This form of co-creative design and architecture contributes to a dynamic placemaking process, with its character constantly evolving and changing into what its visitors bring to it. This dynamic process also contributes to a sense of responsibility and social commitment in the hundreds of school children and their parents who have participated.
Biodiversity
The idea behind Naturmolnet is to create a meeting space and a “classroom in the city” that can be a source of inspiration towards building a sustainable society, focusing on education for sustainable development and the implementation of Agenda 2030. The pocket park is packed with playful green and blue solutions for the benefit of biodiversity and to create a better understanding of eco-system services and other aspects. Naturmolnet holds a great mix of plants from all corners of the earth, as well as sown urban meadows with native species brings high biodiversity to the space. The garden also holds a climate-adapted planting with plants that tolerate the city’s heat and future climate change. Plants that are not usually grown in Sweden are test grown successfully, such as for example pomegranate, pine, and Japanese apricot.
Economic factors
Naturmolnet is part of a testbed neighbourhood initiative within Case Sofielund 2030, a project running between 2019 and 2022 with funding from the European Regional Development Fund through the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. Through a cross-sector partnership involving Kungsleden, Property Owners Association BID Sofielund, the City of Malmö and the NGO Växtvärket gardening group, the space was converted into a temporary green meeting place and an outdoor classroom in the city. The space and its activities were designed in close collaboration with residents and people working in Sofielund, particularly schools, pre-schools, and associations in the locality. The pilot initiative has contributed to and a greater interest amongst property owners and the City in the temporary use of spaces and premises, bringing environmental, financial, and social benefits. Naturmolnet will live on after the testbed project is completed, through continued collaboration on the operation and activation of the site.
Climate
Naturmolnet PGS showcases sustainable solutions and ecosystem services such as increased greenery, stormwater management, sustainable energy, and social activation. Seen together, these, each relatively low-key, environment-based solutions can have a large overall effect, with increased preparedness for climate change and increased social sustainability. The site invites teaching, study visits and inspirational gatherings for schools, residents, and visitors, as well as professionals.
Wellbeing of visitors/users
Pocket green spaces (PGS), i.e., small green spaces, have in recent years attracted growing attention for their various ecological and social services. As a crucial part of urban green spaces in high-density urban areas, PGS facilitates recreation and relaxation for neighbourhoods and thus improves the liveability of cities at the local scale. Hopefully, the PGS can also help cool the urban heat island effect. Naturmolnet PGS is an example of an urban space being given a temporary green use, with planting activities and social activation of green environments helping to bring about greater well-being in the locality. With Växtvärkets well-established contact network and methods for engaging in dialogue to secure the involvement of schools, associations, and neighbours in designing, activating, and running the garden. The neighbourhood garden acts as a meeting place and a “classroom out in the city”. During the ongoing pandemic, this opportunity to meet and play outdoors has been a very valuable contribution to teaching and well-being in Sofielund. The co-creative process of creating the garden “from scratch” has created a bond for the children and their families to Naturmolnet. There is an important sense of community and ownership to the garden among the school children and others who have been part of cocreating the space.
The selection, origin and quality of used products and materials
Naturmolnet showcases sustainable solutions and methods. Therefore, all constructions are made with mainly recycled and sustainable materials, such as cultivation beds of biochar and recycled macadam mixed with composte, as well as recycled materials construction, play and plantings. The non-recycled material is chosen to be sustainable with a long durability without chemicals, i.e., non-impregnated wood such as Robinia and Larch wood. The raised wooden cultivation beds are constructed with a Japanese wood preservation technology called yakisugi, where the wood is charred instead of impregnated. Many of the herbaceous plants have been seeded instead of resource-intensive raising of seedlings at nursery.
The overall design
Naturmolnet community pocket park is all site-built and is constantly evolving and changing. It is a playful and urban garden where several local actors and artists have left their mark. Naturmolnet is a DIY place where people feel welcome and relaxed. The garden is located on a corner plot and is framed by a beautiful and patinated brick wall on one side, and a colourful mural on the other. Meadow flowers bloom along the sidewalks. The garden contains a small orchard with a path that winds between tall inflorescences. Our meeting place houses educational and inspiring installations, such as stormwater play, a cultivation wall, materials for obstacle courses share space with a stage, various seats, and a barbecue area. A green roof garden sits on top of a painted makeshift tool shed/container.
The impact on the environment
Naturmolnet aims to inspire more playful and green urban landscaping with green roofs and walls, with meadows and a stormwater play. It wants to showcase an including city planning process that creates opportunity and means to activate more people and different expressions. All together these factors help bring life to the urban space and contribute to keeping the residents interested in their own city. Naturmolnet is an attempt to showcase a holistic approach to sustainable city development, and local implementation of Agenda 2030 – in action.
The innovation value of the project
– Could Naturmolnet be the starting point for increased intermediate use of unsafe and abandoned plots to strengthen the social and ecological sustainability in our cities? Naturmolnet community pocket park is a pilot test of a cross-sectoral collaboration that facilitated citizen engagement for the co-creative transformation of a deserted plot to a neighbourhood garden with the aim to improve well-being and safety in the area. Since the start of Naturmolnet this piece of land has grown not only to be a place filled with plants but is now also a place where people gather to celebrate birthdays, dates, play games, have barbecues, or listen to a concert. Naturmolnet aims to inspire more playful and green urban landscaping with green roofs and walls, with meadows and a stormwater play. It wants to showcase an including city planning process that creates opportunity and means to activate more people and different expressions. All together these factors help bring life to the urban space and contribute to keeping the residents interested in their own city