
LOCATION
Uppsala, Sweden
DATE
2020
SIZE
70 ha
TYPE
Invited Competition
STATUS
1st Prize, Ongoing
CLIENT
Klövern AB
PROJECT TEAM
Patrick Verhoeven, Martin Arfalk, Danny Bridson, Francesca Savio, Andrei Deacu, Mariada Stamouli
Mandaworks received first prize in an invited competition to masterplan one of Uppsala’s key life science clusters. The masterplan will form an important part of Uppsala's southern expansion adding new laboratories, offices, industrial facilities, schools, shopping, and long-stay research housing.
Uppsala Business Park
Uppsala Business Park (UBP) is located on Uppsala’s urban and agricultural fringe. To this point, the site has been defined by its two modern roles. The first, as a piece of Uppsala’s agricultural landscape - anchored by Fyrislunds Gård and its radiating fields. Secondly as the headquarters of Pharmacia, an award-winning, futuristic complex designed to facilitate excellence in life science research and development. Fyris Urban Campus is a proposal to reinvent UBP, by learning from its history, and building on new qualities and identities to bring about its third phase of life, where it’s a vital part of the growing Southern City of Uppsala.
The Innovation Spine
The innovation spine is the central organising axis of the plan. Picking up the important east-west orientation of the original structure, the axis is the urban life line, creating a high quality public space network that ‘plugs’ into the context. A series of informal and formal meeting spaces create a dynamic platform for interaction.
Placed strategically along the axis, food courts, plazas, pavilions, parks, co-working spaces, conference halls, schools, shops, cafes, sports and training facilities, encourage people to mix and mingle. The public spaces, programmed edges, and flexible pavilions come together to create a spatial framework that facilitates the development and growth of new ideas.
The Green Loop
Parallel to the innovation spine is the bisecting green loop. The loop is composed of two different scales of landscape intervention in the urban structure. The first and largest of the two is the stormwater park. Located in the plans Western side, the stormwater park forms a public connection from north to south, and strengthens a regional landscape structure.
Historically, the site’s landscape has been used for growing food (productive) or for aesthetic purposes (decorative). Moving forward the landscape will be enhanced to maximise its potential as a performative infrastructure and facilitator of biodiversity.
A Synergistic District
In its third phase of life, UBP’s existing life-science cluster will be complemented with urban blocks to the west and an industrial extension to the east. The result is a structural plan with three diverging identities that find a way to work together to form a cohesive and thriving whole.



The Green Loop
The business park is opened up through the introduction of a performative green loop that connects north to south.



From satellite to urban district
A clear framework of public space and developments areas make the most of the district’s empty space and reconnect the area to its context.

Logistics meet landscape
The street network and spatial division is organised to encourage both industrial and plant life to thrive.

Purposeful public space
In the past the landscape on site was either productive or decorative. Landscape can do more. The green strategy for the new park is developed around the principles of maximising biodiversity, and the passive handling of stormwater.



Spaces that move water
Public and green spaces stack together to form a resilient network of stormwater infrastructure. Sitting in a low lying landscape, the parks, streets and rooftops have an important role to play in protecting the buildings from floods.

The Innovation Spine
The innovation spine is the central organising axis of the plan. Picking up the important east-west orientation of the original structure, the axis is the urban life line, creating a high quality public space network
