Trade has since ancient times been a cornerstone of the origin and development of life in thecity and is until this day serving as a central function of the city’s attractiveness. Theattraction consists of, among other things, the jobs that diversity of services creates but alsothe lifestyle that the city offers in return. Consumption thus affects the city’s design, functionand use and vice versa, therefore there is also a strong relationship in the form of dependencebetween the city and commerce. When commerce moves out of town to external shoppingcenters and this said relationship gets disturbed, it leads to social, ecological and not leasteconomic consequences. Ecological and social consequences can for example be aboutmotorism and its carbon emissions and an increased dependence for the less well-off. Whileeconomic consequences can relate to the risk of business being depleted as competingdiscount store chains push prices towards small businesses. This bachelor’s thesis consists of a comparative case study of the two Swedish municipalitiesUddevalla and Landskrona, where both qualitative and quantitative methods for the analysisare combined. The qualitative part of the analysis is carried out through an idea analysis ofmunicipal policy documents that concern the general planning. In addition, the quantitativepart consists of an attribute analysis and deals with various percentage changes in trade fromthe year 2010-2015. This in order to examine how different political community planningideals appear in the documents, this in order to be able to draw conclusions about whether theplanning ideals and the actual development between central and external trade correlate. The case study showed that Landskrona, which has taken a stand against commercialestablishments outside the city center, has a trade development that is in line with themunicipality’s planning ideal where trade is moved back to the inner city from the otherinternal trade area. Uddevalla pursues a similar line in the matter that the greatest focusshould be on the establishment of central trade. However, the development does notcorrespond with the municipality’s planning ideal regarding trade as the central tradedecreases during the examined period in favor of external trade. Despite these broadly similarplanning ideals, it can be concluded that even if the development in Uddevalla is not in linewith the municipalities’ vision in the same way as in Landskrona, Uddevalla has the biggestfinancial success.

Denna uppsats analyserar i första hand hur stort utrymme begreppet platsspecificitet får i dagens stadsplanering. I andra hand ser studien på hur plats i en allt mer generaliserad stadsplanering förhåller sig till dagens planeringsideal. Ett vanligt förekommande är att nya stadsdelar byggs utefter samma ideal, med liknande arkitektur, oavsett om det sker i en hamn, centralt i staden eller på åkermark. Planerare verkar sällan göra någon djupare platsanalys vilket kan leda till att unika plastkvaliteter förbises. I skandinavien börjar dock städer tänka mer på hur en plats kvaliteter kan upptäckas och skapas före marken exploateras permanent. I danska Köge finns stadsomvandlingsprojektet Köge Kyst, där temporära aktiviteter och mänsklig interaktion är en stor del av planeringsfasen. Genom att studera detta projektet visar den här uppsatsen ett exempel på hur en skandinavisk stad förhåller sig till plats i förhållande till rådande stadsbyggnadsideal. Med teoretiska analysverktyg studeras Köge Kyst-projektets visioner, planering och utförande där fokus ligger på platsanvändning och planeringsideal. Studien visar att Köge Kyst trots sina nya metoder för platsanvändning slutar i en stadsdel som inte sticker ut från mängden. En slutsats studien drar är att problematik uppstår många gånger i mötet mellan plats och ideal, där dessa två faktorer ofta krockar. Uppsatsen ger därför utrymme för fortsatt forskning kring platsens betydelse för hur en god och platsspecifik stadsdel kan skapas. / This study analyzes at first hand how much room the construct sitespecificity gets in today`s urban planning. In second hand this study has looked into how site in an ever more generalized urban planning relates to today´s planning ideal. A common occurrence is that new districts are built according to the same ideal, with similar architecture, no matter whether it takes part in a harbor, central in the city, or on arable land. Planners rarely seem to do a deeper site analysis, which can lead to unique sitequalities being disregarded. In Scandinavia, however, cities are beginning to think more about how a sites qualities can be discovered and created before the land is permanently built. In Danish Køge, there is an urban transformation project called Køge Kyst, where temporary activities and human interaction are a large part of the planning phase. By studying this project, this essay has provided an example of how a Scandinavian city relates to site in relation to the current planning ideal.  With theoretical analysis tools, the Køge Kyst project´s visions, planning and execution are studied, where the focus is on site-use, and planning ideals. The study shows that Køge Kyst, despite its new methods of site-use, ends up in a city transformation that does not stand out from the crowd. One conclusion the study draws is that problems often arise in the relationship between place and ideal, where these two factors often clash. This essay therefore provides scope for further research about the importance of site-understanding for the creation of new site-specific districts.