Transformative Dynamics in Detailed Planning: Sustainable Solutions through Strategic Navigation rather than Impositions?

Many of the ambitious sustainable strategies on how to integrate sustainable solutions expressed in urban development projects do not become materialized in the urban design. This paper aims to uncover the transformative dynamics involved in this translation process of materializing the formulated sustainable strategies into the project design. Through an action-­‐research inspired methodology, this paper provides deep insights into the struggle of the urban planners to integrate sustainable solutions into a new urban development project in the city of Malmö in Sweden. The analysis shows that the translation process relies heavily on integration of impositions in the detailed plan, although this has clear limitations, since some sustainable strategies are more difficult to impose than others. It also shows how strategic navigation may represent an alternative translation strategy to promote more difficult sustainable strategies that address the project design more directly. In conclusion, the paper argues that strategic navigation represents a stronger mediator of change compared to the detailed plan, but that especially timing issues in the coordination between formal planning and design processes makes it difficult to apply such a translation strategy.