
LOCATION
Malmö, Sweden
DATE
2021
SIZE
46 ha
TYPE
Invited Competition
STATUS
Under Jury Evaluation
CLIENT
SMT Malmö Exploatering AB
PROJECT TEAM
Martin Arfalk, Patrick Verhoeven, Danny Bridson, Emilia Puotinen, Kinga Zemła, Olga Rolff, Cyril Pavlu, Pia Kante
A vision for ‘the balanced city’ on Malmö’s urban periphery.
Jägersro, Malmö
In 2023 the Jägersro Racetrack will complete its move to a new facility on a site adjacent to the existing premises. By doing so, approximately 46 hectares of land currently occupied by the existing facility opens up and has emerged as a significant opportunity to densify and reorganise a chunk of Malmö’s urban periphery.
The new urban district will be housing-focused, providing 4000- 5000 new homes and supporting a range of retail, office, service and cultural program to create a connected, mixed-use neighbourhood with a distinct character and identity. In early 2021, Mandaworks, in collaboration with Trivector and Starkstad, was one of three teams commissioned to propose a development strategy for the site searching for cutting edges ideas around sustainability, mobility and social organisation.
Framework for a Balanced City
Given Jägerso’s peripheral position in the city, the goal of creating a new mixed-use neighbourhood that elevates its context is essential. This development will both grow from, and create its context. The site will be developed over several decades and therefore requires a clear, but flexible strategy to guide the process and execution of the masterplan. Our masterplan outlines a clear framework established around spatial connections that are deeply rooted in the existing context, yet flexible enough to adapt to the dynamic needs and challenges of the development process. The masterplan establishes a bold underlying framework that highlights and celebrates the essential fundamentals of good urban life, a mixed and walkable urban fabric, compelling landmarks and vistas, generous social and ecological parks and corridors, surprising and integrated combination of urban program, a variety of housing typologies, sensible and strategic density and soft streetscapes prioritised for pedestrians, cyclists and buses.
Hidden gems in local sequences
When developing a new vision for the district’s future a clear starting point was to discover the existing assets and opportunities that surround the site. Fortunately, the surrounding area offers an interesting variety of parks, cultural destinations, neighbourhoods, and anchor points in which the new development can find inspiration in relationship to, and can introduce new synergies by linking them together or creating new counterpoints. The result is a number of destinations and everyday sequences that are organised to maximise the opportunity for social encounters, contact with parks and landscapes, and community-based economic and cultural development. The sequences, spaces, and points strengthen what is there today while introducing new characters and identities to Jägersro. A central urban square linked to the existing shopping centre, a cultural axis balancing the new racetrack entrance or a historical garden sequence meeting a local mosque are examples of how the new and old in the district are brought together to complement and complete each other.

1. Identify Values
Assets and opportunities around Jägersro are important cornerstones to the area's growth, what can we find in what exists today?

2. Cultivate qualities
Anchor, connect and imagine a network of qualities that weave together existing places, destinations and landmarks with future potentials.

3. Find the Hidden Gems
Develop destinations and create inspiring everyday sequences that introduce new experiences, character and identity to the district!

Framework for a Balanced City
A clear urban structure is developed through the careful consideration of the site’s connections, assets, qualities, microclimates, densities, and potentials.

Local Sequences
The structure for the division and connection of the masterplan is rooted in the eclectic mix of existing qualities surrounding the site.

Five Strategies for Sustainability
Prosperous Neighbourhood, Performative Buildings, Ecological Infrastructure, Mobility 3.0, and Social Capital focus the plan’s qualities and innovations in the key areas for the future.

Sustainable Jägersro!
General ambitions and strategies are translated into specific spatial interventions to maximise the impact and success of the district’s targets.
Five Strategies for the Future
Five strategies for sustainable development guide the approach for the design and form of the public space, landscape and architecture. Prosperous Neighbourhood, Performative Buildings, Ecological Infrastructure, Mobility 3.0, and Social Capital focus the plan’s qualities and innovations in the key areas to maximise the success of the neighbourhoods sustainability profile and contribution to Malmö's sustainability targets. High ambitions relating to low-carbon development and mobility, biodiversity cultivation, social inclusion, and economic resilience have been translated into specific spatial solutions that can be developed and improved throughout the development and construction process.

The Knowledge Axis
A Community garden centre provides the ideal location for residents to exchange materials, resources, ideas and inspiration around gardening and urban cultivation.

Jägersro Park
The large urban park at the heart of the masterplan serves as the district’s green lung, providing function both as a recreational landscape and stormwater infrastructure.

Shared Greenhouse
Shared communal spaces with the block structure offer residents space to meet, host events, or stimulate local entrepreneurship.

Microclimate: Block
The careful placement of massing opens up sunny pockets in the urban block structure. Roofscapes and greenhouses serve as communal assets in summer and winter.

Microclimate: Street
Buildings are organised to protect streetscapes from winter prevailing winds, and pocket plazas expand the public realm to allow the sun in.

Microclimate: Space
District-scale public spaces and parks have been located and oriented to maximise sun access and wind protection.
Mastering Microclimate
Essential in the Swedish urban context, the urban structure is optimised for local sun and wind conditions. Both public spaces and building blocks have been carefully considered in their orientation, massing and form to provide a good starting point for the evolution of the architecture and landscape throughout the process. The streetscapes are defined by multifunctional surfaces that allow for the infiltration of stormwater without sacrificing infrastructural performance. Street trees regulate the temperature, reducing the heat island effects and improving air quality. The volumes surrounding public spaces have been organised to protect spaces against prevailing winds and to open up edges to sunlight throughout the year. The location and placement of massing and density have been carefully considered to create a vibrant urban life, and pleasant urban courtyards and roofscapes for residents to enjoy.
Jägersro Loops
By approaching the design of the neighbourhood comprehensively we can celebrate synergies between the architecture, public space and landscape to the benefit of social, environmental, and economic goals.


Jägersro Square
The central urban square provides a social heart for the new neighbourhood. The community library building injects the space with creativity, learning and experimentation.

Humane Streets
The streets are green, cycle-friendly, and urban. Retail and commercial spaces are placed strategically to elevate and activate the public realm.
