The world?s population reached more than 6.9 billion people in July 2011. It is expected that the population growth during the next 40 years will take place mostly in low-income countries and the population increase will be 2.3 billion people during 2011-2050. A rapid urbanization is also expected to result in 57.7 per cent of Africa?s population living in urban areas in 2050.

This is a Minor field study addressing the current situation in Vientiane, Laos where focus lies on the green structures past, present and future. The city of Vientiane is growing rapidly and as a result of this there is a increasing development. The once peaceful capital known for it?s lush and green environment is standing in a crossroad where important decision must be made to preserve valuable areas. During 8 weeks inventories and observations where made resulting into a proposal for future development. The proposal is divided into three parts. The urban fringe and surrounding landscape are still quite undeveloped and have a great potential of green wedges etc. The city of Vientiane and the green network linking important recreational, commercial and cultural places. Detailed proposal over certain green objects such as parks and squares..

This project has been created with the assistance of Fredells. Fredells is a Stockholm based company with a focus on the retail of building products. Fredells also produces prefab- or prefabricated products which are either completely or partially ready for assembly the moment they arrive to the building site. These prefab-products are primarily delivered to customers within the Stockholm region. The building industry is a conservative market where the incentive to changes has been relatively low compared to other industries.

Outdoor recreation habits in metropolis and rural areasThis study aims to examine the perception of nature and outdoor recreation habits from an urban-rural prospective. The urbanization process continues in Sweden and the populations of the cities are growing continuously. Trends to build more compact and ?climate smart? reigns and with this a risk that green areas and areas where outdoor recreation can be practiced are situated further and further away from the urban population. Analyzing the responses from a survey made by the research program Friluftsliv i förändring 2007 we have examined if and which differences exists between urban and rural areas regarding their perception of nature, outdoor recreation habits and factors influencing the practice of outdoor recreation.

The project has been implemented in collaboration with Carl-Johan Lundberg on Deltagruppen Ltd in Jönköping. Problem introduction comes from Carl-Johan's own experience from the hotel sector. The problem that all hotels has is that they sell two products, i e. simple - and double rooms. Persons that travel in companies do not desire always to share bed.Focus in the work is to develop a product that holds together two simple beds and forms double bed, concurrent that it goes that converters to two simple bed without needing to disassemble the product and be done invisible.

The effect of climate change places demands on how we build cities. Cities have to be built denser to meet the objectives of sustainability but as a result of this densification city green areas are at risk of exploitationand disappearing. The question this raises is whether there has to be an opposition between a dense and a green city?Urban trees are playing a very important role in cities. They stand as the major part of the vegetation in citieswhich are otherwise dominated with concrete and stone.

Technology based self-service (TBSS) used in supermarket self-scanning checkouts is a relatively new phenomenon in Sweden. Studies on TBSS as a self- checkout device have been formerly carried out but with focus on the customer perspective. The authors therefore saw a challenge in covering the self-scan checkout concept, from a company perspective. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate, through a management perspective, the changes brought about by implementing an innovative TBSS system in Swedish supermarkets, and its effect on the competitiveness of the company. This is done by presenting and linking the theoretical framework and empirical study in the research.

The catchphrase this project has been; the boundaries between ornamentation and improvisation are fluid.My aim was to focus on my work process, giving me the space and time so develop my design further regarding shape, color and combination of different styles in patterns.This is an explorative project where patterns were created without a predetermined product of which the patterns would be applied. In a later stage the character of the pattern determined which product that would be most suitable for application.It resulted in a collection of patterns for wallpaper and clothing. The motives are foxes, geometrical shapes and squares from a notebook. These motives form an ornamental expression in the patterns with the purpose of embellishment and therefore increase the emotional value of the product..

The title Urban furniture for young people reveals that this paper handles two central phenomenon in landscape architecture; the form and content of the urban spaces, respectively the users and their need for an appropriate outdoor environment in the city. In this paper youth is referred to as 15-18 year olds and the paper is based on theories of their physical use of the city?s outdoor environment. Urban furniture refers to equipment and components in the public room which becomes furniture when people takes them in to claim and gives them a meaning and a function that is useful for the moment. The starting point is that the users, in this case youths, defi nes urban furniture as something signifi cantly more than traditional park furniture, bicycle racks and waste baskets. This paper aims to investigate how the city?s furniture can be developed to meet the youths need to see each other, move and make their marks in the public room. The theories about how youths uses the city are presented in the Theory chapter.

This paper is about the facades and the streets impact on theexperience of the city and how architects can create cities forthe human kind with simple tools that makes a hugh difference forthe experience of urban space.As the cities are growing in a faster rate and as more people moveto the cities, they will also affect more people. The differentstructures that can be found in the cities therefore gets moreimportant and giving design to city structures also gets morecomplex because of our higher demands on urban functions andcontent. It?s difficult to evaluate the ultimate city structuresince all people experience their city in different ways, butarchitects still should be able to create urban spaces thatis suited for the human kind, just as we can create differentbiotopes for flora and fauna. Therefore there must be generalideas of what the human being experience as good or bad and theseshould be guidelines when designing urban space.Since urban space is something that most people experience everyday it doesn´t always have a clear impact on them.

Title: The process of gentrification ?the transformation of declined neighbourhoods into attractive ones Gentrification = ?A social process of change where people with high socioeconomic status move into neighbourhoods which traditionally has been dominated by people from the lower classes or from ethnical minorities.? (Nationalencyklopedin 2010).In many cities around the world, disinvested neighbourhoods become the place to be, where everything happens. This usually occurs when different social groups, such as bohemians, homosexuals and artists, move into a declined and disinvested neighbourhood. After a while, people from the middleclass move in to the area due to its increased attractiveness, and start to renovate their properties. This usually leads to higher rents, which force some of the original inhabitants to leave the neighbourhood.

The use of energy is an important question in today´s society, and a substantial part of the energy that is used today is used in our homes. To lower this usage is vital, and there are regulations in place both on the national and the local level, that say that new apartment blocks must be built to consume less energy, which in the end will lower the impact on the climate.One way to make the housing sector more environmentally sustainable, is to produce energy issions that are bad for the environment, for example to build wind turbines close to or even on the buildings, so called urban wind power. The scope for this report is to see if urban wind power could be a sustainable alternative for the residential area that Svenska Bostäder plans to build in Albano in Stockholm.There are extensive scientific theories regarding wind and wind power, and a literature study is made to investigate past knowledge in the area. Efforts have been made to find earlier trials with urban wind power and, both scientific research and trials where urban wind power actually has been installed. The theory chapter deals both with the wind itself and how electricity can be generated from wind.

Our everyday life is becoming more active and the activities we perform influence the way we dress. Due to an increase in activities undertaken in an urban environment, demands are changing and the need for active wear that meets the new demands follow suit. The four characters represented in the research can be seen as a reflection of the functional features needed, including base layer, mid layer/insulation and shell.Despite the increase in activities, most of our clothes are still constructed on static dummies or drafted on a table in 2D and the main developments within the active sportswear field is driven by material innovation. By creating garments on a body in movement, my aim is to develop new functions and expression in active sportswear through construction.Construction methods in active sportswear are examined and understood through observations and reconstructions and constitute the foundation of a study of movement for a design recovery.The movement and features required for leading an active urban life sets the direction of the development of new func- tional garments. A series of trial and error sessions and draping fabric on a live model in movement created the prototypes used in functionality tests to establish their feasibility.

This thesis is the result of the class Examensarbete, 15 credits of the mechanical engineering program at Halmstad University. The class represents the final part of the program with the aim to attain a Bachelor of Science. It´s a project made during the spring 2014 in collaboration with Alutrade AB and ScanBox Thermo Products AB.The assignment is to develop a new transportation trolley for ScanBox. The aim is to complement their range with a product that opens up to new markets. That set new demands for materials and also manufacturing- and assembly methods.

Product development is a risky business; many products never yield profit, but it is also ne-cessary for a company?s survival in a competitive business where the costumers change their requests constantly. Consumer-led product development is developed from the wish to fill the consumer?s needs and expectations and thereby be more likely to succeed. Lindell?s Gårdsslakteri AB is a local slaughter and meat processor in Västergötland.