LAN3016YF (L0103) 
Instructor: Martin Arfalk

Where the City Meets the Sea: Landscape as a Driver of Urban Transformation

How can landscape become the driving force in transforming an entire city district? This studio explores how bold landscape ideas can become catalysts for urban transformation. We will develop expressive design interventions that create identity, inspire change, and shape the evolution of a new part of the city. We are interested in landscapes that do more than look beautiful—they should perform, organize, connect, adapt, and become memorable places that people identify with. The ambition is to explore the full capacity of landscape architecture through form, function, and memory.

Our project site is Nyhamnen, a former industrial harbor located next to Malmö Central Station and the waterfront. Malmö is Sweden's third-largest city and part of the Öresund Region, one of Northern Europe's fastest-growing metropolitan areas, connected to Copenhagen by the Öresund Bridge. Historically defined by vast expanses of asphalt, industrial silos, brick warehouses, and long quay edges, Nyhamnen will be transformed over the coming decades into a dense, climate-conscious, mixed-use neighborhood with approximately 9,000 new homes and 21,000 workplaces. The transformation aims to reconnect Malmö's historic city center with the sea.

The studio investigates how landscape can reveal the site's hidden qualities and become the primary framework for future development. Existing buildings, infrastructure, and landscapes are seen as opportunities that can give the district character and identity. Buildings, density, and program are explored as elements that support the landscape, while climate adaptation, biodiversity, and public life become integrated and visible parts of the design.

The studio is built around an iterative design process: reading the site, testing ideas, and landing a vision. Through sketches, drawings, discussion, and continuous testing, concepts are challenged and refined into compelling design proposals. Final work may be communicated through drawings, images, animations, or a combination of media.

Students will also have the opportunity to join an optional study trip to Copenhagen, Malmö, and Stockholm, visiting the site, meeting people involved in its transformation, and exploring relevant reference projects firsthand.