We are living in a society where experts, researchers and innovative architects are striving to fi nd new methods and designs for sustainable cities. New forms and design patterns will develop to handle our sustai-nability objectives and it is likely to believe that this not necessarily will follow current theories for urban design. The location of renewable energy production and distribution is one of the fundamentals in this evo-lutionary development that has to be reconsidered.

One of the more important objectives for a resilient sustainable development is the objective of change in behaviour. Such change must take place in all parts of society and on all levels where individuals, orga-nisations and institutions need to take an active role. With the ambitions of a changing behaviour comes that people must get a greater insight and understan-ding in how society and its fundamentals work. An important road to success for this objective is to let en-ergy facilities become representatives for sustainable development and a reminder of the need for a behavi-oural change. In many ways the relationship between subject and object is also working in the opposite way: our ways of interpreting these objects gives the basis for the implementation and understanding of future environments and forms of society. A great part of these interpretations and ex-periences is given through our perception of public

space. Those objects and social compositions that surround us create the foundation on which we expe-rience, interact and develops our identity, moral values and personal perspectives. By using the spatial context as a mirror refl ection for interpretation and reference, those objects that are of particular importance for our modern society is thereby extra meaningful as medi-ators of cultural expression. The possibilities to reach a systematic change of the energy system through changed behaviour are hence to great extent a matter of information and perception. It therefore takes two different perspectives on energy in sustainable cities. The fi rst is that architectural and place-specifi c de-sign which is novel and has a large portion of artistic integrity can create a spatial purpose and meaning that gives the facility a different mediating signifi cance, more focused to benefi t sustainable development through public space. The other is that a more quali-tative architecture in a long term can come to change people’s consciousness and perception of the identity of energy, and their own identity within a sustainable development described through energy.

The reason to why the energy system often lacks urban qualities doesn’t lies in the possibilities, but in the view on energy and technology as a strict rational function that creates meaning in a - from an objectifi ed point of view - separated geographical space. But an

ENERGY, ARCHITECTURE and SUSTAINABLE CITIESBjörn EkelundLulea university of technology / Sweco ArchitectsSweden, 2011-03-07

energy facility has the possibility to function, meaning and power both in a meta-geographical perspective, in a separate space, and in a distinct spatial context. To see and rethink these place specifi c characteristics will change the basic conditions for the role of energy facilities in urban environments. From an urban design perspective this means that electrical substations could be landmarks, power lines could become an aesthetic creator of spaces and directions, combustion plants could work as pedagogical parks in urban environme-nts, wind power plants could create patterns of activi-ties along highways for increased traffi c safety, small scaled water power dams could be urban recreational water or storm water basins, and so on. The list on possible aesthetic and urban design solutions can be long, but presupposes an admittance and ambition to identify the performative and representative characte-ristics of energy as an asset for sustainable cities. The absence of careful and well informed design that is place sensitive – or worse, the attempt to create invisible objects – can be understood as a threat to sustainable development, as we move towards ever-increasing connection of humans and systems in the built environment. By addressing the architectural aspects of energy, new public awareness and acceptan-ce of this crucial component of society could improve this democratic process.

post-industrial society

IDENTITY

public perception

legitimacy

SUSTAINABILITY

implementation

BIAS

behavioural change

phenomenon

legality

Space syntax and visibility analysis of the energy system in public space.Architect: Björn Ekelund

RESILIENCE

evolution

130 kV power line in night, Luleå, Sweden.Architect: Ekelund, Mandre, Åkerberg - SWECO Architects

130 kV power line in daytime, Luleå, Sweden. Architect: Ekelund, Mandre, Åkerberg - SWECO Architects

Solar cell plant, Barcelona, Spain. Architect: Martinez Lapena - Torres Arquitectos

legacy

EXPOSURE

innovative construction

urban functionadaptation

MEDIATOR

public meaning

spatial quality novel materiality

PUBLIC SPACEintegrity

Water power plant, Avesta, Sweden. Architect Torben Grut

Power line proposal, all of Iceland. Architect: Ekelund, Mandre, Nordh, Åkerberg

Heat transfer station, Utrecht, Netherlands. Architect: NL Architects

autonomity

Water tower, Kuwait. Architect Sune Lindström - VBB (a part of present SWECO)

Heat power plant, Zurich, SwitzerlandArchitect: unknowm

ENERGY, ARCHITECTURE and SUSTAINABLE CITIES

Björn Ekelundbjorn.ekelund@sweco.se+46-8-522 952 15

Lulea university of technologyDiv of architecture and infrastructure971 87 Luleå Sweden

Sweco ArchitectsBox 17920118 95 StockholmSweden