S.O.S. Climate Waterfront - Stockholm Conference

On Monday 23rd May 2022, researchers and experts from Portugal, The Netherlands, Italy, Greece and Poland arrived in Sweden for the second workshop of SOS Climate Waterfront in Stockholm. The workshop was organised by KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Intercult. The participants stayed for a 4-week intensive workshop. River//Cities Platform as a non academic partner of the project was represented by it’s President Iwona Preis.

The aim of the workshop was to exchange transnational ideas and examples of best practices in Sweden and specifically Stockholm. Local experts, municipal representatives, stakeholders and international experts worked together, participants exchanged views, gained new perspectives, discussed new approaches and created masterplans.

The sites in focus

The sites in focus for investigation were:

- Lövholmen is located in northwestern Liljeholmen. The area is transformed from an industrial area into a mixed district with housing, schools and preschools, parks and offices.

Several of the old industrial buildings are empty and in poor condition. Some of them will be demolished and replaced by new homes. At the same time, culturally and historically valuable environments and buildings must be saved and given new use. Today’s area is opened up so that the quays and shoreline will be accessible to the public. Bicycle paths are being expanded, parks are being organized and ecological connections are being developed.

- Frihamnen Approximately half of the cruise liners visiting Stockholm each year call at Frihamnen. There is a large, modern cruise passenger terminal at the port which enables Stockholm to accommodate several turnarounds. Here, a modern urban area with an inner city character will emerge. In the future, the Freeport will be able to accommodate approximately 1,700 homes as well as premises for offices and services. Around 4,000 jobs can be made possible in the area. There is currently no active planning work in Frihamnen. This is planned to begin within 3-5 years. In the area today there are a number of ongoing activities. The port’s cruise operations will remain when the area is expanded

- The Stockholm Royal Seaport – Norra Djurgårdsstaden –  is one of Europe’s most extensive urban development areas. A total of at least 12,000 new homes and 35,000 new jobs are planned. One of the city’s designated sustainability profile areas. As part of Norra Djurgårdsstaden, Värtahamnen will be developed into a district with mixed functions such as offices, housing, trade and service, coordinated with the preservation of existing ferry and cruise operations. The area is estimated to be able to accommodate a total of approximately 1,700 homes and approximately 20,000 new jobs. Värtahamnen consists of Södra Värtan, Valparaiso and Värtapiren.

(*the statistics are taken from vaxer.stockholm)

The four weeks of the workshop – Site visits

The four weeks of the workshop were full of site visits, guided tours and inspiring lectures. Our invited guests had the chance to experience the city and its waterfront, learn more about the future plans of the city planners and enjoy relaxing times while meeting international experts in their field of interest.

During the first weeks of the workshop, KTH university organised visits at the three areas of focus where the participants followed guided tours and learned more about each place, examined the areas, took photographs and got inspired.

The participants were hosted at the KTH facilities to work in groups during the whole month. At the end of each week, the participants presented their concepts and progress and got useful feedback from their colleagues.

At KTH university, they also watched presentations and lectures about the climate change scenarios and planning in Stockholm and followed guided tours on its facilities.

During the workshop Intercult organised site visits at the sustainable districts Hammarby Sjöstad and Sickla, the museums ArkDes and Fotografiska and Stockholm’s Culture House where the international experts learned more about the city and its culture but also about sustainable practices from Swedish cities, industrial expertise in the field of integrated urban planning, sustainable energy, water and waste management, smart infrastructure and the role of culture in sustainable city planning / building.

The detailed programme of each week is presented here:

Programme of the first week

Programme of the second week

Programme of the third week

Programme of the final week

Nordic Talks events

On the occasion of this workshop, Intercult organised two Nordic talk events with general title: “The future of our cities – Challenges and solutions in the Nordic region and internationally” funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers & Nordic Council. 

For the first event, Pedro Ressano Garcia from Lisbon, Katarina Larsen from Stockholm and Ana Neiva from Porto were invited to discuss about the future of our waterfronts in a talk with title "Climate change on urban waterfronts – SOS for the cities and citizens?“ moderated by Iwona Preis.

The second event took place at Intercult’s office. The subject of the discussion was “How can culture / artists contribute to the social resilience of the city?“ and the invited speakers were Hugi Ásgeirsson and Annika Bromberg from Sweden and Karen Jonkers from the Nederlands. The discussion was moderated by Iwona Preis, Director of Intercult.

The Stockholm+50 UN summit

During this month, the Third Plenary meeting of “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity”  took place five decades after the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment.

World leaders and representatives from government, business, international organizations, civil society and youth gathered in Sweden to drive action towards a healthy planet for the prosperity of all. The event comes at a crucial time as the Earth is in emergency mode, and urgent action is needed to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.

Intercult is a member of the “We don’t have time” organisation that is the world's largest review platform for the climate, connecting everyone who wants to solve the climate crisis.

As they say: “If a large enough number of people want change, and if that energy is directed towards those in charge – change comes” and our project S.O.S Climate Waterfront aims to inspire those in charge to make this change!

Nordic Talks - session 1 was declared as an associated event under the Stockholm+50 international meeting hosted by Sweden and Kenya in Stockholm, Sweden 2-3 June 2022.

Individual visits – learning from the city

The participants were encouraged to discover the city also individually and share their views with the group. Stockholm was introduced as an personal experience and the diversity of the backgrounds and interests of the international guests was shown by the unique choices of architectural and cultural visits. Tipping point exhibition, Långsjön island, Markuskyrkan in Skarpnäck, rooftops in the city are some of the many places that they visited.

Final presentations

Τhe participants presented their masterplans at KTH university the last day of the workshop. Representatives of the main focus areas and city of Stockholm were physically present and members of the organizational team that could not be in Stockholm participated online at the presentation.

The masterplans were innovative and very impressive given the short working time.

On behalf of the organisers KTH university and Intercult, we would like to thank all the participants that travelled to Stockholm and gave us inspiration as well as all the people/guides/representatives that collaborated with us and offered us the opportunity to arrange together this magnificent programme!

Participants list

Group 1 - Lövholmen 

Nils Brattgård (SE)

Metha Bregman (NL)

Shea Nee Chew (SE)

Ana Neiva (PT)

Elena Paudice (IT)

Magdalena Rembeza (PL)

Group 2 – Lövholmen 

Sri Pascarini Agustina (SE)

Tullia Valeria Di Giacomo (IT)

Tomasz Hoppe (PL)

Angelos Kottas (GR)

Letty Mora (SE)

Group 3 – Frihamnen

Marina Causí Jiménez (PT)

Karen Jonkers (NL)

Jacek Józekowski (PL)

Emma van der Saag (SE)

Group 4 – Frihamnen

Malika Ashmarina (SE)

Jakub Gorzka (PL)

Renata Carlos de Oliveira Goncalves (PT)

Androniki Fliatari (GR)

Group 5 – Värtahamnen

Paulina Bone (PL)

Claudia Mattogno (IT)

André Augusto Prevedello (PT)

Yuxin Pu (SE)

Martyna Varslavenaite (SE)

Group 6 - Värtahamnen

Natalia Chrysikou (GR)

Giulia Luciani (IT)

Henriette Nishimwe (SE)

Elisavet Papageorgiou (SE)

Isaac Simão Santo (PT) 

Learn more about the conference and see the digital exhibition HERE