Viva has been selected to represent Sweden at an international conference on sustainable built environment

“It is wonderful for us here at Riksbyggen that the housing association Viva has been selected to represent Sweden at an international arena of this kind. Already at the planning stage, we set the bar high to build Sweden’s most innovative residential area. Our partners, such as Johanneberg Science Park, Chalmers and the City of Gothenburg, also have a big part in the success”, says Mikael Ahlén, Marketing Area Manager at Riksbyggen in Gothenburg.

Viva with 132 apartments will be built at Guldheden in Gothenburg, close to the Chalmers campus. Since the ambition from the start was to build the most innovative and sustainable housing project in Sweden, Viva established connections with a number of researchers at Chalmers, the University of Gothenburg and SP (later RISE), as well as with innovators from Göteborg Energi, Bengt Dahlgren, Cementa and a number of others.

The construction is currently under way. At the housing association Viva, a new type of concrete recipe with up to 30 percent lower climate impact than ordinary concrete is being tested, for example. At the housing association Viva, Riksbyggen is also testing the storage of energy from the solar cells on the roof in second-life bus batteries.

“It is very gratifying that Riksbyggen’s housing association Viva and the successful collaboration on research and development within the platform Positive Footprint Housing is yielding results and will now also receive international attention. What is especially pleasing is the recognition of the model and the approach we use within Positive Footprint Housing. The Viva housing association would never have been as good without a practical construction project as a driving force, Riksbyggen’s genuine societal engagement and the collaboration with our other skilled partners”, says Peter Selberg, research strategist at Johanneberg Science Park and responsible for Positive Footprint Housing.

Viva is much more than a test of new, individual technical solutions. The underlying idea is to create a holistic approach for a more sustainable urban development, from an environmental, social and financial point of view.

“We urgently have to find new solutions that lie within the limits of the planet. What is unique about the Viva housing association is that we test all new solutions at full scale with normal people as home buyers – all solutions must work in practice and must be applicable on housing projects throughout the country as well as in other countries. That is when we can talk about a development effort that really creates social change”, says Charlotta Szczepanowski, Head of the Sustainable Development unit at Riksbyggen.

Positive Footprint Housing is a multidisciplinary research project for holistic thinking about innovative sustainable residential and urban development.

The project will result in increased environmental, social and economic sustainability, where gained insights and lessons will get their first practical application in the housing association Viva, with 132 apartments at Guldheden, next to the Chalmers area of Gothenburg.

The project was initiated by Riksbyggen in collaboration with, among others, Johanneberg Science Park, Chalmers, Gothenburg University, Gothenburg Energy, City of Gothenburg and RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden).

For more information:
Charlotta Szczepanowski, Head of the Sustainable Development unit at Riksbyggen, tel. +46 (0)8 698 41 42.
Mikael Ahlén, Market Area Manager, Business area housing, Gothenburg, tel. +46 (0)70 587 24 04.
Peter Selberg, Research Strategist at Johanneberg Science Park, tel. +46 (0)73 057 26 25.

WSBE17 Hong Kong 
Earlier conferences

In 2020, the conference in Göteborg is organized by Chalmers in collaboration with Johanneberg Science Park and RISE. Read more