Sustainability design in Europe has focused most of its efforts on densely urbanised areas, the “cities” (which account for 3 percent of the earth's surface), neglecting the intermediate regions, which are however the most common condition of European territories. Designing sustainable intermediate cities remains a specific and urgent contemporary challenge that some countries have nevertheless attempted. This is the case in Sweden, a country deeply characterised by the intermediate condition that has developed strong and radical sustainability policies in recent decades. Moving from this big picture, the thesis deals with the city of Växjö in Sweden. Its relevance depends on the radical contradictions of sustainability policies the city embeds.