This article explores how sustainability is made present and visible in the life of residents in a new neighbourhood. Glass is enacted by design professionals and a Swedish municipality to create spaces for residents that fulfil sustainability objectives and put daily life on display. However, some practises developed by residents resist the intended uses of these spaces. Through a detailed case study of the proclaimed new role model neighbourhood of Vallastaden in Linkoping, Sweden, we critically investigate the ontological politics of the residents everyday life, including their social life with neighbours, low-energy living, interactions with local small businesses, recycling habits and mobility habits. By attending to glass, we show how humans, non-humans, materials and technologies become part of everyday practises and help uncover the ontological politics of mundane life.

The new mixed-use neighbourhood and showcase Vallastaden in Sweden has been designed for social and environmental sustainability, with specific focus on active citizens’ involvement in the early phases of the planning process and the built environment structured to encourage social interaction between the residents. Part of the Vallastaden concept is low energy buildings and passive house designs. All 77 buildings are designed to be 25 % more energy efficient than the requirements in the Swedish building code and 12 residential buildings are designed as passive houses. This research project focus both on the planning, construction and management processes, and the passive house residents’ everyday life. The paper reports from the initial research conducted with a qualitative approach with interviews and diaries with residents and stakeholders. Relational materialism is our theoretical approach to analyse empirical material and guide an understanding of the socio-material as intertwined in assemblages and how different elements and entities are enacted in everyday life for low energy thermal comfort in the passive houses. Conclusions are that building designs and energy system design varies between the different buildings. A passive house in Vallastaden is multiple and comes in different shapes and with many relations between the social and the material. Work is included for both residents and professional groups to reach the desired thermal comfort and this work includes what seems to be endless tinkering with the different parts of the energy system and buildings. Eventually, different practices become established for mundane handling of the thermal comfort. 

Sweden’s new showcase mixed-use neighbourhood of Vallastaden has been designed for social and environmental sustainability, with a specific focus on citizens’ active involvement in the early phases of the planning process, and the built environment has been designed to encourage social interaction between residents. One aspect of the Vallastaden concept is low energy buildings and passive house designs. All buildings are designed to be 25% more energy efficient than the requirements of the Swedish Building Code, and 12 residential buildings have been designed as passive houses. This research project focuses on the planning, construction and management processes, and on the everyday lives of the passive houses’ residents. The paper reports on the initial research conducted with a qualitative approach, including interviews with residents and stakeholders and diaries maintained by residents. Relational materialism is our theoretical approach for analysing empirical material and guiding our understanding of the sociomaterial as being intertwined in assemblages and how different elements and entities are enacted in everyday life for low energy thermal comfort in passive houses. Our conclusion is that building design and energy system design varies between the different buildings. There are many different passive houses in Vallastaden, which come in different shapes and with multiple relationships between the social and the material. Both residents and professional groups need to work to achieve the desired levels of thermal comfort, and this work includes what seems to be endless tinkering with the different parts of the energy system and buildings. Eventually, different practices become established for mundane management of thermal comfort.

This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents an approach to integrate three critical elements in Computer Science education.The call to imbue computer science graduates with strategic skills needed to address our pressing global sustainability challenges is extremely important, and a great challenge to degree programmes in computer science and software engineering. Doing this successfully requires great care, and possibly several iterations across an entire curriculum. In this regard, learning for sustainability faces similar challenges as understanding scientific results and ethics. Improving skills in searching for, reading, and producing academic texts are often neglected, as are skills in understanding ethics; what norms and values that guide our choices of methods for solving problems. To handle the fact that these subjects (academic writing, ethics and sustainability) are treated separately, and thereby lowering student engagement with the topics, we have successfully integrated them into one coherent subject of Professionalism in Computer Science. By integrating the three subjects, we do three things: a) describe a multi-faceted but integrated engineering role; b) integrate the three aspects of the role we focus on in education and steer away from the view that these are add-ons; and c) increase the motivation of students to take on these aspects of the engineering role.Our approach uses a flipped-classroom style with students playing educational games, participating in discussion seminars and conducting critical analyses of other students’ choices in IT system design. Much emphasis is on the students academic writing abilities, including critical information search and a student peer-review procedure. Also, we do this using an integrated assessment format where teachers from different disciplinary backgrounds jointly assess material from students, which stimulates discussions among ourselves about what and how to assess, and provides a practical way to integrate assessments. We present results from attitude surveys, course evaluations and the contents of the students’ analyses in their final essays. In conclusion, our approach demonstrates a clear shift in how students perceive sustainability, showing that it is possible to achieve changes in attitude towards the subjects as such and their importance for computer scientists.

In 2017, the new city district Vallastaden hosted an urban planning and housing exhibition to show the innovative and sustainable results of “the Vallastaden model”, a cross-sectoral governance concept and energy system designed at local level in Sweden.The concept cut across sectors such as energy, housing, transport and local businesses. One of the core features of the concept was quality criteria-based land sale. These quality criteria included alternative energy systems such as the design of passive and plus-energy housing, design diversity and renewable construction material, e.g. timber frames.

This research analyses energy relevant European Union Directives as implemented at local level: the alternative urban governance concept “the Vallastaden model” and resulting diversity and alternative energy designs. Research questions are: how was alternative urban governance possible and how was the “Vallastaden” concept implemented?

The research is a detailed case study, based on an analysis of public documents from the local council, interviews with stakeholders and field observations. The results show how for several years the concept was part of the political processes at local level, publicly debated and in focus during post-election periods, but survived and was eventually embraced by several political parties along the left-right scale.

The implementation followed one of the core ideas of the concept: Diversity in architectural design and design of energy systems as well as housing tenure. In contrast to the visible diversity “above ground”, the underground energy system has one single designer: the local publicly owned energy company, which implemented an innovative infrastructure culvert for all basic energy services.

The conclusion is that, under the pressure of joint challenges such as housing shortages, local economic constraints and low-emission carbon goals, alternative urban governance concepts can emerge which provide long-term commitments and joint efforts across sectors and political party agendas.