Arenorna En studie om planeringen av Göteborgs nya evenemangsområde och arenornas ställning inom kulturvården

Abstract

During the course of study at the program in Integrated Conservation of Built Environments, thoughts have been raised in various contexts about how we within the field of integrated conservation can justify for what we preserve, for whom and why? It is a complicated and somewhat diffused topic.These thoughts have led me to concretize the questions by choosing a type of buildings that is rather unprocessed in the field of integrated conservation, namely stadiums and major sport facilities.During the 2000s, so many arenas and major sports facilities have been built in Sweden that it is unparalleled in the country's history. In these arena initiatives, older arenas oftenhave tomake room bybeingdemolished,to be able to build a new and more modern arena.As stadiums and major sport facilities make up a large number of individual buildings in Sweden, I see it as extremely relevant to investigate how the field of integrated conservation manage and deals with this type of building.This is mainly due to the fact that thefield of integrated conservation,generally has an unclear and on the verge of non-existent approach to this type of environments. But as the fieldhave recently begun to approach and treat more modern buildings, I want to investigate how the field of integrated conservationattributes values for these types of buildings, and whether they are taken into account in the planning processes for these arena initiatives.The ongoing project for the development of Gothenburg’s new event area is used as a main example. The facilities within this area, Nya Ullevi, Scandinavium and Valhallabadet are all threated under demolition because of the project. The city of Gothenburg wants to modernise the area so the city can maintain the status of the leading event city in Scandinavia.This study shows that during the process of Gothenburgs new event area, the sport facilities cultural and historical value of Nya Ullevi, Scandinaviumand Valhallabadet have not been taken into account. The study also proves that sport facilities are underrepresented in Sweden’s built heritage and almost none of these symbolic, and for many people important environments,are legally protected.