Erfarenheter av brukarmedverkan
10 landskapsarkitekters erfarenheter av att arbeta med brukarmedverkan vid förnyelse av utemiljö.
User participation in the planning process of renewing the yards of existing residential areas was introduced in Sweden in the 1970s. It arose as a solution to many of the problems which became common in the residential areas built within the Swedish million program. The aim with the million program was to build one million homes within ten years. The same year as the million program was completed, in 1975, government subsidies to improve the residential yards were introduced. One of the conditions to get the subsidies was that the residents had to be involved in the planning process.
From the mid 1980s the interest in user participation was low, but in the end of the 1990s it was renewed. The government subsidies were gone but economics was still an important factor for the interest. Many households were facing increasing housing costs and people were interested in saving money through own contributions. The real estate owners also saw a possibility to make some savings. By renewing the surroundings of the residential areas, the social environment was improved and the residents became more careful with the surroundings.
The aim of this essay was through literature studies and interviews with professional landscape architects investigate and compare the experiences from renewing the residential yards of the million program areas in the beginning of the 1980s, and the experiences from renewing projects from around the millennium change. The survey is concentrated to the methods used and the professional roll of the landscape architect in the different projects.
The methods have not developed very much during the approximately 30 years that has passed since it became usual to engage the residents in different renewal projects. To gather the residents in different kinds of meetings was a common method in the beginning of the 1980s, and it continues to be like that around the millennium. A recurrent problem in many projects with user participation has been the difficulties to engage the residents. When meetings were held, only few of the residents have shown any interest. To solve this problem the traditional methods should be adapted to fit in the everyday life that people live today.
When user participation became usual in renewal projects, the professional roll of the landscape architect changed. Earlier, the architects had been able to manifest themselves and their own ideas. With user participation the demands became higher on the ability to communicate and to listen to many people at the same time. It was also more important that the landscape architects were patient and able to keep a dialogue with the residents through the whole project. The attitude to user participation is different among the landscape architects, and it ranges from those who do not like it to those who can not hide their enthusiasm when they are facing the possibility to get the residents involved in a renewal project.