Public Sektor PhD-Project

The City Center Room

The context of this case is the City Center of Arendal, and the area chosen for the national pilot project «Sparkling Spaces» (Levende lokaler) in part of the historic city center, Torvkvartalene, where many buildings and shops were empty in 2015. The ongoing plan for this city-center is at an early stage, mapping stakeholder- and interest-groups, and looking for new approaches and methods for a broader involvement of, and co-creation with, the inhabitants.

Empty shops and buildings charachterized the historic city center in 2015, as a result of both development and planning decisions, the market situation, and a car based development over the years. Shopping centers have been established outside the city center, leaving the hisitoric city center with empty shops and buildings. A complexity in the owner structures, a difficult labour marked and a lack of investment force have made the market situation for new establishments difficult in general in the city center of Arendal. Over the last two to three years there has been a great change towards a positive development, especially in the context of the national pilot project, « Sparkling Spaces».

In order to increase the level of knowledge about co-creation projects under the Planning and Building Act, the municipality of Arendal in 2015 applied to become one out of three pilot municipalities in the national project “Levende lokaler”/ “ Sparkling Spaces”, initiated by the Norwegian Center of Achitecture and Design, DOGA. The purpose of the project has been to fill empty shops and buildings in the center of the cities, thus fighting and preventing the “death” of downtown areas. The project has been a collaboration between the three pilot municipalities Arendal, Lærdal and Tromsø, and a reference group consisting of relevant advisors, professionals and organizations, follow-up researchers, art- institutions, the umbrella organisation of Volunteers in Norway, Frivillighet Norge, and DOGA. I have been leading this project in Arendal in the implementation phase, and contributed to the proposal and approaches suggested there.

The partner-group and other involved actors have collaborated in order to develop strategies and tools that Norwegian municipalities can use to handle empty buildings and spaces, and vitalize the center of the cities. The “Sparkling Spaces” project was running from 2016 until the fall of 2018. The project intended to provide a research basis for how medium-sized municipalities could be able to fasilitate innovation and initiatives based on collaboration between public, private and voluntary sector. The pilot project in Arendal has been a collaboration between ”With a Heart For Arendal”, Arendal Cultural Forum, The Arendal City Center Corporation and the municipality of Arendal. This project is forming the basis for the municipality’s work with the area plan for the City Center-Arendal 2023.

This case-study as part of my Public Sector PhD is connected to the action research of “Sparkling Spaces” and the ongoing City Center plan. I will investigate the results of the national pilot project and the mobilization and communication approaches connected to it, and how various actors have been involved in the processes and solutions. I will also address initiatives connected to the wish for re-establishment of the canals in Arendal, the cultural city-night event: “ByNatt”, initiatives connected to re-vitalisation of public places and new methods tested out in order to involve and co-create with the inhabitants. As part of the ongoing planning process of the center, a group from Arendal consisting of the head of the planning process, the senior adviser in the business department and me as a PhD researcher, are part of the network “Placemaking in the Nordics”. Together with other Nordic actors we will bring forth examples and methods for good placemaking and development of public places in the Nordic region through the period from May 2019 through February 2020.

In order to answer my main research questions I use a flexible research design: conduct interviews, document analysis, close readings of research reports, action research and reflections on other methods and tools used. I will highlight the results connected to sustainability of the processes and outcomes, and perspectives on place quality experienced and evaluated by participants in these processes.

The case study will be based on analytical perspectives like placemaking, place-shaping, place leadership, place management, place communication and place-innovation. Social capital, cultural- and other resource- approaches, and the degrees of participation and co-creation for various actors will also be analysed.