The lack of affordable housing has been a long-standing problem for many cities in Sweden, and the recent refugee crisis has only highlighted the difficulties for economically weaker constituencies to enter and sustain in the existing housing market. The pressing situation and a new law, obligating the municipalities to supply housing, forced the authorities to look for solutions. The thesis investigates the recent changes and use of one of these offered solutions – temporary housing permits. Using a qualitative approach, it tries to capture both the formative-discursive processes and the material outcomes of this measure, in order to understand what informs the decision and its possible implications. The study employs theoretical concepts from Giorgio Agamben’s theory on the ‘state of exception’, as I consider them important for the understanding of the processes. The interventions in the housing system are made possible only by declaring that the shortage of housing is in an ‘exceptional situation’, one that can only be resolved with irregular practices, exceptions from standard norm and regular procedures. A look into the legal-formative mechanisms and the materialization of the temporary housing permits is given. The thesis argues that a wider perspective is needed and tries to bring into the discussion the political and social aspects of using a measure like this one. Although conceptualized as a quick and temporary remedy, it is maintained that the utilization of temporary housing permits can potentially have harmful long-lasting effects on the understanding of housing provision, living standards, and planning processes. This suggests that authorities have to be careful when using exceptional measures and calls for a fundamental and systemic re-thinking of housing in general.

Fung Tat Wai Ken. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2008-2009, design report." / Urban Ruins: Empowering the Underprivileged --- p.4-17 / "This thesis is inspired by two social and economic issues: Urban Ruins and migrant workers. Here urban ruins refer to suspended or abandoned structures resulting from speculation failures caused by market and financial fluctuations. Through a comparison between these unoccupied and often unfinished structures and ""traditional"" ruins like those resulting from natural disasters, it is obvious that they share common characteristics and Urban Ruins are thus named. For example, they both consist of visible and invisible parts, though they represent different time and space." / Guangdong Region --- p.18-23 / "Following the real estate boom in the 1990s, there were once more than 300 Urban Ruins in Guangdong Province. However in the past 10 years, most of the suspended projects have been resumed and completed by developers, this phenomenon has given rise to worries at the beginning of research that it might not be the right time to touch on this issue, yet the recent financial crisis has again proven the periodic nature of the issue that is worthwhile further investigation." / Shenzhen - Dongmen Building --- p.24-37 / "Dongmen Building one of the remaining few existing Urban Ruins in Shenzhen urban area. It is a special case that the cause of its suspension is not only financial and market forces, the original developer has been cheated by other company, taking away all the capital that were invested into this building, the construction was then brought to a halt since the completion of the concrete structure more than 10 years ago. This is going to be the site of the intervention." / Shenzhen - A Transient City --- p.38-43 / "Apart from the property market, Shenzhen has been growing exponentially since it was declared Special Economic Zone in 1979, plus its geographical advantage of its proximity to Hong Kong, it has been functioning as the hinterland to Hong Kong providing cheap products and services. The manufacturing industry and services sector flourished, attracting migrant workers from all over China. These migrant workers do not have a local hukou, meaning they are not registered residence in Shenzhen, they face problems of employment, accommodation and low wages. Making the migrant workers the underprivileged and over exploited group in the economy." / "According to a recent survey, there are as much as 100 million migrant workers in China, of which one tenth of them are working in the Guangdong Province. Migrant workers, together with associated Village in the City issue pose a rising social demographic problem to the authorities." / Program --- p.44-49 / "Based on these two issues, Urban Ruins and migrant workers, a programmatic approach has been adopted. The proposed program is composed of 3 scales, firstly on a city wide scale responding to periodical market fluctuations that created Urban Ruins by taking the abandoned structure as a host for intervention. Secondly on a national-wide scale dealing with perennial population flow of migrant workers and tourists, providing temporary residence for migrant workers who are forced to stay in Shenzhen or those who just arrived in search for jobs. Thirdly on a more local scale, accommodating daily needs of public transport and recycling in the Dongmen commercial district." / Empowering the under-privileged and the over-exploited --- p.50-53 / "Going back to the title of the thesis, how to empower the under-privileged? It could be achieved by using their own expertise, agricultural knowledge, by means of an urban farm. The urban farm ties up all the other previously mentioned programs, they work in a symbiotic relationship that the public transport interchange bring shoppers to the marketplace where the produces from the urban farm, while the kitchen waste collected from the commercial district can be treated at the recycling centre suppling organic fertiliser to the urban farm. The temporary residence is run on the financial support from the profit of the marketplace and also the hostel for tourists. This establishment could be a centre for new arrivals in Shenzhen, providing vocational training of hydroponic agriculture and accommodation while they can look for other jobs." / Hydroponics and Vertical Farming --- p.54-57 / "The conventional type of farm is not feasible on the tower due the required soil depth cannot be achieved on the origi- nal structure. Hydroponic farming is introduced to produce high economic value crops like fruits and flowers. Moreover, the skills required by hydroponic farming can be acquired by the migrant workers as vocational training." / Parasitic Approach --- p.58-64 / "In order to maintain a ruin-like quality of the existing structure to create a""scar of greed"" in the city, the design approach would partly retain the existing appearance and introduce the new programs as parasitic structures. Three parasitic operations: Attachment, Add-on and Intrusion were identified from a study of parasitic structures. In the preliminary design proposal, the growing area is applied an attachment on the southern facades with other programs such as residence punching through into the existing structure as intrusions."

Natural disasters are affecting a significant number of people around the world. Sheltering is the first step in post-disaster activities towards the normalization of the affected people's lives. Temporary housing is being used in these cases until the construction of permanent houses are done. Disposal of temporary housing after use is leading to a significant environmental impact because most of them are filled with thermally insulative polymer foams that do not degrade in a short period. To reduce these problems this work proposes to use foams made with compostable thermoplastic polylactic acid (PLA) and degradable kenaf core as filler materials; these foams are made using CO2 as blowing agent for insulation purposes. Foams with PLA and 5%, 10% and 15% kenaf core were tested. Different properties and their relations were examined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal conductivity, mechanical properties, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray μ-computed tomography (μ-CT) and building energy simulations were done using Energy Plus by NREL. The results show that mechanical properties are reduced with the introduction of kenaf core reinforcement while thermal conductivity display a noticeable improvement.

The subjects of ‘youth’, ‘substance use’ and ‘homelessness’ are interconnected, but only a relatively small number of studies have examined the relationships between all three components. Literature highlights how homeless substance users are constructed as ‘vulnerable’ – yet ‘deviant’. Furthermore, academics have examined how people manage the ascribed identities of ‘substance user’ and ‘homeless’ as well as that of ‘youth’. According to sociologists, people’s self-identities and actions develop as a consequence of interactions with their socio-spatial worlds. Therefore, it is useful to contextualise the act of substance use within these complex interactions. This thesis explores the meanings and contexts of young, homeless people’s substance use. Data were obtained through an ethnographic study conducted in a homeless hostel over a seven month period in 2013 in which twenty-two young people (aged 16-21) and twenty-seven staff members participated. The majority of data were derived from participant-observation encompassing 200-250 informal interactions with the young people and 100-120 interactions with staff along with observations of people’s actions and descriptions of events and appearances. The field-notes were supplemented by four semi-structured interviews and a focus group, involving a total of eleven young people. Drawing on theories underpinned by symbolic interactionist and phenomenological philosophies, three overarching dimensions of the young people’s experiences were identified as important to their substance use and wider lives. First, the young people engaged in ‘place-making’ actions (including substance use) to personalise spaces within the tightly controlled environment of the hostel. Secondly, substance use was interwoven with the relationships that the young people held with their families, friends and the staff. The ‘pro-drug’ voices of their friends and relatives were arguably stronger than the ‘anti-drug’ voices of the staff. Thirdly, the categories of ‘youth’ and ‘substance user’ were recognised by the participants as pertaining to them, whereas the ‘homeless’ label was relatively meaningless. The thesis concludes that to understand people’s substance use experiences, it is important to consider the socio-spatial contexts within which they are located, particularly when these are temporary.

published_or_final_version / Urban Studies / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Disaster survivors, facing many aspects of mental distress, sometimes are forced to stay in temporary housing for years. Their psychosocial needs have changed after the traumatic event, but existing temporary housing designs do not respond to their real needs, nor acknowledge the capacity within the community as a whole.  This thesis aims to answer the question of how post-disaster temporary housing contributes to psychosocial aspects of community resilience building.  Based on the literature review of existing studies on post-disaster temporary housing, discussions on key factors of community psychosocial resilience and the psychosocial impact of temporary housing were conducted in this thesis. These discussions were followed by a comparative case study on the implementation and follow-up actions of two post-disaster temporary housing projects in China and Japan.  The analysis of these two topics and the case study reveal gaps between humanitarians and architects, when they work together to develop temporary housing, as well as aspects that can be improved for temporary housing to better meet the needs of its inhabitants and empower them for improved recovery.  The results indicate that temporary housing has a psychosocial impact on its inhabitants. By designing the built environment of temporary housing that strengthens shared community identity and promotes mutual help from community members, community resilience can be better fostered. Achieving this will require better coordination between humanitarians and architects, as well as the involvement of other interdisciplinary professionals.

In the aftermath of natural disasters, providing temporary housing to displaced people is essential to alleviate human suffering. However, in some cases, the chosen post-disaster temporary housing strategy may not be suitable for the local conditions, which can worsen the negative impacts, particularly when decision-makers need to change their original plan due to the uncertainty of post-disaster conditions. As most temporary housing design strategies have their weaknesses, the best approach is the one that matches the specific circumstances of each scenario. This thesis proposes design strategies, including prefabricated and modular units, foldable units, upgradable units, grid and linear expansion, and passive energy units, to determine the most appropriate policy to minimize conflicts between local requirements and temporary housing characteristics while maximizing the comfort and sustainability of temporary housing design. The strategies were analyzed based on their strength and weaknesses by following the previous research, and their implementation possibilities on recently occurred natural disasters, e.g., Turkey's earthquake in 2023, were also evaluated. It was found that all strategies except for grid and linear expansion might be suitable for the studied natural disaster.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

A 1980’s office block is threatened with demolition, leaving space for high-end housing in a local suburban area to Stockholm. Through presenting decision-makers with a choice and demanding action, I suggest a new future for this unwanted architecture.  The 32.000 sq m building is turned into 300 temporary rental apartments, following a strong structural logic to keep investment low. The found structure is used as a tool for contrasting the mainstream housing development of today, caring for urban diversity, ecology and coexistence.  The thesis project investigates if and how the repurposing of structures not meant for residential use into apartments can be a tool to challenge accelerating segregation. I present a design proposal for the 300 flats and additional functions, and discuss if the qualities of the spaces achieved can have any effect on diversity in the area and the norms of conventional building and the idea of the home. Tentatively, I suggest that the use of existing buildings conceived to be out of date and on the bottom of their market value development, can be a method to make the city more diverse. The role and resources of the architect student make this option possible. / Ett kontorskomplex från 1980-talet är rivningshotat för att lämna plats åt exklusiva bostadsrätter i en närförort till Stockholm. Genom att föreslå en ny framtid för den arkitektur som nu är ouppskattad, erbjuda beslutsfattarna ett reellt alternativ och kräva politisk handling. De 32 000 kvadratmetrarna kontorshus byggs om till 300 tillfälliga hyreslägenheter. Genom att följa byggnadens starka strukturella logik hålls kostnaderna låga. Den befintliga strukturen används som för att skapa lägenheter som kontrasterar mot den förhärskande konformiteten i bostadsbyggandet, och för att värna om urban mångfald, miljö och samlevnad. Examensarbetet undersöker om och hur omnyttjande av byggnader som inte är avsedda för boende till lägenheter kan vara ett verktyg mot den ökande segregationen. Mitt gestaltningsförslag för de 300 lägenheterna med omgivande funktioner utgör bakgrund till en diskussion om vilken effekt det byggda kan ha på diversitet i området och på normerna om konventionellt bostadsbyggande och idén om det goda hemmet. En försiktig slutsats är att byggnader med ett upplevt och marknadsmässigt lågt värde kan vara kärnan i en metod för att göra staden mindre segregerad, även inom dagens ekonomisk-politiska system. Den roll och de resurser en arkitektstudent har är ett sätt att möjliggöra sådana alternativa förslag.