Secondhand Use of Rural Buildings.

Further Use of Abandoned Buildings in the Rural-

Urban Continuum
Author(s): Nils Lewan
Source: Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 54, No. 1 (1972), pp. 79-84
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography
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 SECONDHAND USE OF RURAL BUILDINGS

Further Use of Abandoned Buildings in the Rural-urban Continuum

BY NILS LEWAN

Department of Geography, University of Lund

Introduction ch. VII). Adjecent problems have been in-

The urbanization of urban hinterlands is a vestigated by Askgaard (1970).
Such transformation of rural settlement
continuous process, and thereby the rural-
can be studied from different points of view
urban fringe moves outwards. Outside the al-
and with different methods. Thus an analysis
ready built-up areas there is a zone of transi-
tion, where several forms of hidden urbaniza- of local communities or a systematic study
tion take place. Changes in farming, in owner- of certain types of buildings in an area may
be done. Besides it is possible to investigate
ship of the land etc. have been studied by
either how industrial enterprises satisfy their
Wehrle (1962) and Best (1968) among others.
need for premises or how abandoned build-
The functional change of dwelling-houses in
ings are used.
the rural-urban zone has been described by
Lewan (1967 and 1969).
Methods and results
Today many rural settlements are only ap-
parently rural, as shown in a study by Koblet In this paper two kinds of buildings with rural
(1970). The reorganisation of rural economy functions are studied in the province of Skine,
with fewer but larger holdings etc. contributes the southernmost part of Sweden. (Cf fig. 1).
to functional change. So does urban renewal, The idea is
since in many cases small industries lose their that there is a certain probability for further
former buildings. Looking for new premises in use of abandoned buildings,
the vicinity of their city, enterprises make that their further usefulness is related to their
use of farm-buildings etc. (Cf Lewan 1967 construction, site and situation,

...c. ~? ?r i
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:..~ j .:?
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Z.~,??ici"`" L ~,'~'1-?;
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Fig. 1. Investigated areas:

0 50 fOO 200 300 400km Dairies (hatched) and farm-
r _1 1
buildings (black).

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER 54 B (1972) . i 79

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 NILS LEWAN

Table 1. Status in 1969 of dairies abandoned since They should have been abandoned during a
1940.
limited period.
In Sweden-with dispersed rural settlement-
Burnt or pulled down 10
All empty 13 there are just a few objects fulfilling the above-
Empty but for lodgings 16 mentioned requirements. One could look either
Other new functions 89 for industries with agrarian ties or for the
Total 128 stables and other buildings belonging to aban-
doned farms. Both methods have been used,
and an attempt has been made to answer the
following questions:
Table 2. New functions in old dairies, character To what extent do the abandoned premises
and origin.
acquire new functions?
Function in 1969 Origin Total Per
What function do they obtain?
cent What are the origins of these functions?
Mal- Other Local What reasons and causes could be found for
mi town to-day's functions?
What do the new functions mean for employ-
Chemical or ment opportunities?
foodprocessing
industry 7 8 9 24 27 %
Engineering Abandoned dairies. In Skine out of about
industry 7 5 7 19 20 150 dairies in operation in 1940 no less than
Other industry 4 1 7 12 14 128 were abandoned up to 1969, when their
Garage 1 2 9 12 14 status was as shown in table 1.
Stores, office etc. 1 3 18 22 25
Out of 89 new functions 60 per cent were
Total 20 19 50 89 100 %
industries of different kinds, the rest mostly
garages and stores (cf. table 2). Almost half
of them had their roots in the provincial
Table 3. Most frequent reasons of establishment capital or a town at least 10 kilometres away
(dairies). from the buildings used.
In figure 2 difference has been made be-
Size 21 answers tween functions which have moved from a
Standard of premises 11
Situation 8 town or city and functions entirely new but
Price 8 initiated in such a place. The importance of
Good lodgings 8 Malmi in both respects is easily seen.
The abandoned dairies have met local de-
mand of premises or demand from a city,
Table 4. Status i 1969 of the farms of 1938. where supply is limited and old premises are
even pulled down. Answers to the question
Existing as farms 808 73 % 'why' were incomplete but covered a broad
Market-gardens 48 4 spectrum. The most frequent ones are tabled
No areal function 258 23 in table 3, which however doesn't offer an
Total 1 114 100% exhausting answer.
From the employment point of view it
has been established that today's functions
employ as many as did the diaries. But the
that mostly small enterprises are interested in geographical distribution is quite another, be-
these premises with given forms. cause just a few persons worked in every
Prerequisites for such a systematic approach dairy. In 1969 half the employment was con-
in a regional setting are: centrated in 7 places, and there is an evident
There should be a certain number of subjects concentration to formerly urban enterprises
of the same kind, and to the urban zone. It must, however, be
They should be scattered all over the area, added that in 1969 many employees lived
They ought to be of possible industrial use, far from their places of work.

80 GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER . 54 B (1972) . 1

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 SECONDHAND USE OF RURAL BUILDINGS

/, l

S i

A
\ /

H 3

\ //

\l / -

$
"" )r \ S
Y/ \\

MV
\

.hT C4
0 30km

Fig. 2. Abandoned diaries with functions of urban origin in 1969.

Function moved from town or city, -------initated there. S = Stockholm.

A comparison with abandoned dairies in
another Swedish area, the province of Skara-
borg, a predominantly rural area far from
expanding cities, shows both similarities and
differences.
More dairies are empty or used only for
dwelling purposes. More activities have local
background, the percentage with stores only
is higher, and far less people are employed.
As to the question 'why' price seems more
important than in Skine.
There are of course differences also inside
Skine, and taken as whole the urban zone of
western Skine diverges from Skaraborg as it
does from the more rural northeastern part
of Skine. The study of Skaraborg underlines
the importance of distance to expansive areas
in this context.
Abandoned farm buildings. The above re-
capitulation indicates that there is little interest
in abandoned buildings for industrial use
outside a certain distance from expansive
cities. Thus a second study was made. This
time abandoned farm buildings up to a dis-
tance of 20 kilometres from the city were in-
vestigated in the urban region of Malmi,
the provincial capital with 1/4 milj. inhab-
itants (cf. fig. 1). A map of 1938 containing
every farm having at least 3 hectars arable
land was the starting-point. By then all-round
farming dominated, and every farm had
stables, barns etc. The medium size was
around 10 hectars and the farms were equally
distributed all over the area.
Since then the number of farms in the
area has decreased because of amalgamation,

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER . 54 B (1972) . 1 81

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 NILS LEWAN

/ 0

* *

2-------

0 1 2 4 -k

40 " " i \ * *

0e ?t
00*
\

0 1 2 3 4 5km 0
I L* u

? 0

0?

? C -- --.,

Mai '\l
0? 0
**

0 I\ ___/

??1
- - /

I(. _ _ 1 _ ..

Fig. 3. Farms of 1938 in the Malm6 region with non-agrarian functions in 1969
(= 4).
ing 1 = coastline,
farms 2 over
scattered all = limit
the of investigated area and 3 - built-up areas. Exist-
area.

reorganisation and specialization (table 4).
And the abandoned farms have undergone
various changes (table 5).
The importance of the distance from Malmit
is varying (cf. fig. 3). The frequency of de-
molished farms is of course high close to
the city. Most of the market gardens are
found in the same zone. Outside this inner
zone demolished and empty farms are scat-
tered all over the area. The frequency of new
functions decreases considerably outwards (fig.
4). The new functions are of many kinds, and
in some cases there are more than one in a
farm (table 6).

82 GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER . 54 B (1972) . 1

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 SECONDHAND USE OF RURAL BUILDINGS

Zon 1 2 3 4

Fig. 4. Status in 1969 of the farms of 1938 in the

Dist.fr.
Malm6 region according to distance from the center
Malmo km 7 11 15 20
of Malmo. 1 = still existing farms, 2 = non-agrarian N - 102 357 449 206
functions, 3 = empty and 4 = pulled down farms.
N = number of farms in 1938.
iM 2 1 3 E~ 4 E

Table 5. Functions in 1969 of farms abandoned was of course often given. It may, however,
since 1938.
be deduced that situation, price and size
New activities 112 43
were looked upon as most important (cf.
Pulled down 71 28 table 7). On the other hand almost nobody
Empty 64 25 mentioned labour or the quality of the build-
Housing purposes 11 4 ings. These facts fit together with answers
Total 258 100 % summed up in table 6.
Employment was far less than in the former
dairies with 340 persons occupied in 132
Table 6. Character of new function in old farm
activities compared with more than 900 in less
buildings. than one hundred dairies. When tables 2

Stores 72
and 6 are compared this seems quite natural,
Manufacturing 26 since dairies are used mainly by industries;
Service activities 22 farm buildings for stores.
Social functions 8
Other functions 4
Discussion
Total 132
Even if the constructions of the studied
buildings vary a great deal, there are common
Table 7. Most frequent reasons of establishment features in the findings. In the Swedish case
(farm buildings)
there is a good chance for abandoned build-
Situation 34 answers ings to get new functions provided they are
Size 22 situated not too far from an expansive centre.
Price 20 A reasonable price and sufficient size also
Removal from former
seem to be important. If the building is of
Spremises 9 good standard, built of bricks etc., it may
Closer to customers 7
become the new home of an industrial enter-
prise, in most cases a small one and often a
Almost all functions were established in young one. Such premises are usually rebuilt
the sixties, but in every third case the pre- and in many cases enlarged. More unpreten-
ceding one was not farming either. tious buildings, like stables or barns, may
As in the case of the dairies the question become stores of different kinds. They are
'why' was answered in almost as many ways as only rarely rebuilt. The employment in the
the number of cases. More than one reason buildings is far from negligible, but while it

GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER. 54 B (1972) . 183

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 NILS LEWAN
must be supposed that most farmers, farm-
hands and workers in the diaries lived in the
neighbourhood, many of today's employees
live far from their places of work. This means
that the new activities do not necessarily fur-
ther local employment.
One of the most interesting problems which
remain to be solved is the importance of old
buildings compared with new ones in the same
area. It is of course also important to know
more about the character of the new activities
and this in combination with further knowl-
edge of the causal factors. It is not yet pos-
sible to state exactly the relative number of
totally new enterprises or of branch stores.
It has been observed that in some cases two
or even more activities have followed each
other in the premises studied, as they do in
urban and industrial buildings as a whole.
The full meaning of this cannot yet be stated.
Finally it ought to be emphasised that such
"hidden urbanization", like that of dwellings,
contributes to change the real structure of
settlement in the field of influence of urban
centres. Planning authorities control more or
less the rise of new residential and industrial
areas. Their knowledge of "hidden urbaniza-
84 GEOGRAFISKA ANNALER . 54 B (1972) .
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tion" is far from good and so are their possi-
bilities of following up what is really happen-
ing.
References
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vikling fra 1920 til 1970 (K~benhavn).
Best, R. H. (1968). Extent of Urban Growth and
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ban Studies.
Carlsson, H. et al. (1970). Funktionsf6rindringar av
jordbrukets ekonomibyggnader. (Mimeographed,
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Delshammar, M. et al. (1970). Jordbrukets funktions-
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