LOCATION
Västerås, Sweden
DATE
2018
SIZE
85 ha
TYPE
Plan Development
STATUS
Ongoing assignment
CLIENT
Västerås Municipality
PROJECT TEAM
Patrick Verhoeven, Martin Arfalk,
Maria Gregorio, Mariada Stamouli,
Andrei Deacu, Pia Kante
COLLABORATORS
Tovatt Architects & Planners
Colourful Sätra, Masterplanning Phase
Bringing life to the Suburbs
Sätra is 85 hectares of forest and farmland, located four kilometres Northwest of the city centre of Västerås, Sweden. In its Comprehensive Plan 2026 Västerås detailed its ambition to create a development strategy that would transform Sätra into a sustainable neighbourhood containing 2500 homes. The vision for the neighbourhood is to become an exemplar of progressive urban planning - despite its lack of traditional ‘city making’ ingredients such as high density and commerce. Colourful Sätra is a proposal to overcome these challenges and create a new prototype for sustainable and vibrant suburban residential districts across the country.
Mandaworks and Tovatt Architects worked together to develop the masterplan, after being selected from an invited competition process. The collaborative proposal reimagines the planned development by combining and strengthening the site’s foundational resilient opportunities and qualities. Colourful Sätra amplifies the existing character of the peripheral elements to generate a rich spatial intensity that can give new energy to the suburban context.
The neighbourhood invites and mixes the valuable forest, water landscapes, farmlands, housing, and recreational areas. These functions are spread throughout the neighbourhood via a clear structure network that is supported by mobility hubs and other innovative solutions. The result is a sustainable residential district that provides residents with a diverse selection of housing typologies, cultural activities and recreational experiences. ‘Colourful Sätra’ introduces the urban to suburban living and Sätra becomes the test bed for a resilient showcase pilot project for all of Sweden.
Waterflows along the site
Urban agriculture
Entrances and connections
Green connections and landscape systems
A showcase for Sweden
The clear structure network is supported by innovative mobility solutions and flexible housing blocks that are adapted to the surrounding landscapes
A soft landing
By preserving the surrounding landscape and its natural waterflows, the neighbourhood becomes the place where the suburban character meets the best of the urban qualities.
Sätra’s flexible building blocks
A rich catalog that shows the possibility of transforming Sätra into a colourful, circular, earthy, recreational, experimental and at the same time urban development.
A place to meet
A gathering space in the centre node of the development that embraces the waterflows of the area.
Waterflows along the site
Network of urban spaces
Green connections
Building typologies connected to the landscape
Lush green street
A bright street where innovative building technology meets the stormwater landscape systems.
Putting the Urban in Suburban
A meeting place of ingredients- nature, water, farming, mobility, and different types of living. Together they shape the new colourful Sätra!
