This is a paper about the social services waiting rooms. Our aim with the study has been to:?Describe and problematize the physical environment in social services waiting rooms. A wider purpose is to lift the question about the waiting room as a significant part of peoples encounter with the social services.? To be able to achieve this purpose, we have used two questions: What does the physical waiting room environment look like in social services in Stockholms län? How can we understand and problematize the physical environment factors impact on people who visits these Environments? We have observed and photographed ten waiting rooms in ten different social services in Stockholms län.

This dissertation examines how creativity can be of benefit for the school. It discusses if there is a need or demand for it and how the present situation is in Swedish schools. Defining creativity accurately is difficult but it is relevant to look at the Environments that use creativity. There is a vast amount of literature that uses creativity and it varies to some extent. Creativity originates from meetings and combinations, both within and outside of the individual.

Introduction: The world is changing rapidly and the uncertainty that characterizes today´s society makes companies preparations for the future crucial. Purpose: To examine how CEO:s in small companies look at the future and what kind of preparations they make in order to meet it. Hereby, our ambition is to find out whether there is a difference between companies working in industries characterized by different degrees of stability. Mode of procedure: The purpose of this thesis has been fulfilled by interviews with four CEO:s from industries characterized by different degrees of stability. Result: The companies working in relatively unstable Environments tended to be relatively more flexible and have an emergent strategy formation process, whereas companies working in relatively stable Environments displayed relatively less flexibility and tended to have a planning strategy formation process..

In outdoor education the empirical outdoor experience is an important basis for a learning process ? the teacher can affect learning with the choice of location. In order to develop the model in school, we need to build on teachers' perception of how their every day schoolwork looks like. This paper takes as its starting point at three teachers' perception of their learning environment and outdoor Environments as well as a theoretical model of the site's importance in the learning process. The paper addresses both the importance of a structured and a unstructured meeting with outdoor sites.

This essay discusses people's perception of what is important for their well-being where they live. The main aim has been to find out what factors in the outdoor Environments of the city are appreciated and why they are valued positively. A comparison has been made between Uppsala in Sweden and Tarapoto in Peru to see if, and in that case what, differences can be found in the values of people. I chose to carry out a survey study that got a response rate of 57 persons in Tarapoto and 63 in Uppsala. The results show that there are some common basic values, but on the whole the outdoor Environments are valued differently in the two cities. In short, the Peruvians value functionality, cleanliness, small distances to family and service, while the Swedes value a central location and short distances to friends apart from functionality and good service opportunities. Conceivable reasons for this might be for example different cultural prerequisits, material standard and climate. .

Nature-like plantations are areas that, by today?s maintenance procedure usually gains low prioritiy and are forgotten. Most nature-like plantations are currently disadvantaged and have in many cases grown up and formed dense,impenetrable and brushwoody green volumes. These green volumes is rarely used, but usually only fills out gap surfaces. With proper care nature-like plantations can become health promoting Environments in the increasinglyhardened urban Environments.How vegetation systems work and how trees and shrubs interact is dependent on many factors.

Can landscape architecture be seen as an economical asset rather than as a cost? Can well designed outdoor Environments affect real estate values? This study investigates the economical value of landscape architecture and its influence on real estate prices. Research results on the relation between landscape architecture and real estate values are here compiled together with a survey made among players on the Swedish real estate market of their attitudes towards the problem. This study shows that the players on the Swedish real estate market often are unaware of the economical effects of landscape architecture pointed out in the compiled research. The study also shows that to use this information in actual projects several steps need to be taken: better knowledge of the problem, more and better compilations of research results, effective channels to spread the compiled information, proper employment and implementation of the knowledge. Extended knowledge of the relation between landscape architecture and real estate values will result in new ways of making money on outdoor Environments. This would in turn have consequences for how the real estate business treat outdoor Environments and how landscape architects work. The study is divided into four main questions: 1: Is there a relation between good landscape architecture and real estate prices? 2: What is the view of the players on the real estate market in this matter? 3: Is there more knowledge, research and practical models at hand? 4: What future steps can be taken to broaden the knowledge and apply it to real situations?.

The outdoor environment at Children's hospital, the University Hospital, Uppsala, is used by sick children at the Children's hospital, their families and the hospital staff. The staff at the Children's hospital wanted to render the site more attractive and available. This graduation thesis is a proposal about how the outdoor environment at the Children's hospital can be improved. The aim is to design an environment for the sick children, their families and the hospital staff that will serve as a place for relaxation and privacy, as well as for play and movement. In order to find support for the redesign of this site I read literature about theories concerning healing Environments, healing gardens, children's play and designs for children.

The purpose of my study is to describe how educators think about the play environment, the nature and its importance for the children's development and learning in preschool. The study is based on qualitative interviews with four active educators. The results of the study show that the teachers regarded the children's interests to a great extent when the different play Environments were structured. They are also based on different themes that they have seen that the children were interested in, such as the fire station, hair salon or shop and café. Educators designing not only these play areas for different types of play for the children, but the different Environments also have a learning purpose. The outdoor environment however attracts greater interest from children, to where they have more space to move freely in and outdoors, there are no limits to the children.

With climate change, the temperature and relative humidity in Sweden are increasing. The majority of historical Environments lack protection against this increase, which also increases the risk of mold infestation in these Environments. One of these Environments is N??s Slott, in which several rooms have recurring mold growth on objects and furniture. By examining one of the rooms in the castle that is in the risk zone or has mold growth, factors behind the mold growth can be investigated in order to create a basis for future actions against mold.

The research of today shows that natural Environments are importantfor children's physical and mental development. It alsoshows that children often opt out of the traditional equipmentplaygrounds have to offer. By breaking the boundary betweenthe playground and park, is it possible to create a new spacethat will encourage rather than demand play? Through gatheringinformation and talking to landscape architects, designers,and children, I realized that today's parks already have Environmentsand objects that could be used for playing. But whatthey need is something that makes the environment even moreinviting for children to play.

This thesis explores different ways of navigation in virtual Environments. It also investigates how virtual Environments can support human memory. Tests are done using a self made virtual model of Orkanen Library, Malmö högskolas school library. Among the different navigation tests that were done, a visual guidance in form of a line on the ground leading to the goal is showed superior when navigating a virtual environment but that people prefer legible landmarks instead. Tests were also done which show that a 3D-model of a real location supports context based memory.

This paper deals whit the problems concerning social organisation in the county of Dalarna in middle Sweden during the Middle Ages 1050- 1528. This paper also deals whit the every day ife in Dalarna during the same period. In the paper archaeology, ethnology, history and osteology is used in order to create a so accurate as possibly picture of every day life at the farm, the villa and the keep. Each environment is compared to each other in order to try to see the social structure of the county. The geographic frame for the paper is the part of Sweden above the border zone of Limes Norrlandicus, or lower Norrland.The results presented in the paper shows that Dalarna most probably had a flat social organisation in the meaning that the every day life and its artefacts was much the same in all the Environments.

The purpose with this final thesis has been to study the aesthetics and design of roundabouts and to ascertain important factors that influence the experience of them. The investigation was carried out through literature-, field studies and interviews with persons that in different ways have participated in the formation of roundabouts. Furthermore, six roundabouts have been explored in more depth so that the survey would get a more practical link. These six roundabouts all occur in the rim of a city and do thereby have an important role as a gateway. The Environments in such contexts are often complex which adds additional difficulty in achieving a visually appealing design, especially when taking into account the usually high traffic intensity.

The city?s public Environments are meant to be perceived as safe and inviting areas to visit any time of the day. In recent decades the number of vandalism complaints has doubled and graffiti has become so common that it received a separate category in the crime statistics. With this type of impacts in the public Environments the experience are precarious and a boring sight. It?s difficult to put a price tag on these types of crimes, the number of unreported cases suspected to be large.