Planning tool receives research funding

FOJAB arkitekter has been awarded a grant of SEK 100,000 by the Arkus Foundation to develop a tool for climate-smart planning. The aim is to measure, at an early stage of planning, how climate-smart a project will be. By relating it to nine quality criteria, the tool provides figures on the project's climate footprint in terms of tons of carbon dioxide per capita.

A basic model of the tool is described in the publication Planera klimatsmart! which a project group at FOJAB, led by Magdalena Hedman, produced in the spring.

- 'We looked at current international research to see what factors and relationships affect carbon dioxide emissions,' says Magdalena Hedman. 'Then we asked ourselves the question: How can we meet this challenge in our physical planning? And how do we make the knowledge available and measurable at an early stage of planning?

The criteria against which the project will be measured fall into three main groups:

• Localization - where in the world is it located?
• Structure - how does it relate to the outside world
• Transport - how to get to and from there?

It will now be possible to develop and deepen the tool - the intention is to make it more user-friendly and goal-oriented. It is primarily intended to be used by planners in the municipalities in their strategic work. One of the questions asked by the project group is whether the calculation model should relate to an ideal case or be adaptable to the individual municipality's own conditions.

- 'Through our assignments, we have a pretty good idea of the concrete issues that municipalities are grappling with,' says Magdalena Hedman. Arkus supports practice-based research - it goes hand in hand with how we want to work. The whole point of this is to produce a tool that is accessible and relevant. In this way, we make it easier for our colleagues and partners to achieve the set sustainability goals.

The development work is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. The intention is also to have the practical tool available for use.

The Arkus Foundation is a forum for research and development in architecture and spatial planning, whose mission is to initiate, plan and finance practice-oriented research and development projects. We work for and with the Arkus members association, which consists of the country's leading architectural firms.