Workshop day #2: Making Göteborg great for both the north and the south.

Today we made several conceptual breakthroughs.

In the morning we were conceptually still in the Thinking Big phase, which were well-matched by the client who offered conversations with several well-skilled local ‘experts’ in various themes such as climate, cultural contexts, real estate norms and crime prevention.

In the early hours we spoke (among others) with experts within climate, cultural analysis and crime prevention/safety.

The talks led to several new ideas about the real-life challenges of “stitching the city together over the river”; a statement made official by the advisory board yesterday.

Among other things, it became clear that we had to understand the north of the river (the working class + ethnic minority-dense area) as well as the south of the river (old city centre / shopping area / rich Sweden).

If you want to stitch the city together, you have to know what you are stitching together.

The insight from the experts, explaining the big social class differences between the south and north of the city made us rethink our use of the northern river shore; the free harbour, now occasionally occupied by 400 meter containerships, but otherwise empty.

Originally we thought of the free harbour as a place to seduce the south to travel the north side. But with the new insights from the experts, which included the fact that many Muslims commute from around the Göteborg region to a part of the northern city – creating a hidden centre not known to us before (and according to the expert; also hidden for the municipality) – enabled us to rethink the functionality of the free harbour. The free harbour has to be an amazing place for both the people in the south and north.

It might sound as an obvious decision, but when looking at the municipality’s existing plans for the north side, it doesn’t look like they want to get the best out of the two life forms. Instead, it seems like the culture of the rich south is planned to cross the river with no problems and thereby pushing the many less privileged, including immigrants from Gambia, Serbia, Somalia and other countries, further north, a population who in population-size will increase by 4,000 every year, thereby counting for 50% of the entire population growth in Göteborg.

Instead of pushing the north further away, we suggest to turn the entirety of the free harbour into an inspiring, relaxing, exciting and relevant free harbour for both the north and the south.

On the infrastructure part, a bicycle strategy for the north and south was developed and a new ring structure for cars was begun. Furthermore, a strategey for the south side was created to make it easier for the south to commute to the river.

The plan was very well received by the advisory board who did their first check-in on each of the ten teams.

In the late afternoon, we did a field trip to the north side of the city, to see the area with hour own eyes.

Tomorrow it’s all about being more practical ideas that will reflect our insights into concrete action steps and build constructions that can be started as soon as the workshop is done. Tomorrow is where we drastically move from Think Big to Start Small.