Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost city, situated 90 miles into the Arctic Circle, shot into fame a few years back when news about it being relocated spread across the world. It also happens to be home to one of the largest iron ore deposits in the world. While this gave the town its reason to exist, it has also turned around to be its cause of demise. Kiruna came into existence when the Swedish government-owned Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) mining company started operating its mines there during the early 1900s. However, the expansion of LKAB’s mining activity led to ground subsidence that caused buildings to crack and collapse. Given the possibility of the city being swallowed by the underground mine, the entire town and its 18,000 inhabitants are being moved two miles east by the mining company and the Swedish government. The relocation process has been going on now for a couple of years within a master plan designed by Swedish firm White Arkitekter. Over 20 significant buildings from the old town of Kiruna are being moved to the new location, including its church, which was voted Sweden's most beautiful building. Each is being completely dismantled and reconstructed. Several new buildings, including a town hall designed by Scandinavian firm Henning Larsen, and a golden, egg-shaped sauna designed by Bigert & Bergström, have already come up in the new location of Kiruna. While physically moving the entire town is a complex, expensive, and unique challenge, what is proving to be more difficult for the designers and architects is to relocate the community. “The challenge for the city is not only about moving an entire city, but also moving the minds of citizens and creating a new home and identity,” said the Henning Larsen team. For the architects and planners of the new Kiruna, physically moving structures is appearing logistically simpler now than understanding what makes a town a place where people feel at home. “The physical things are easy, in a way. Building a town hall is easy… But then how can we also handle history and identity? That’s the tricky part,” explained Goran Cars, urban planner for the Kiruna municipality. Architects and designers involved in the relocation process discovered that small, seemingly insignificant elements made a big difference to the sense of place. Predicting these was almost impossible. But by listening to residents, they were able to assess what things had the biggest impression on locals, and extended the scope of what needed to be moved. “Small artifacts can be very important in terms of something that is both identity and has history,” said Cars. Architects working on the project believe that Kiruna — the first real-world instance of a town of its size to be relocated — can serve as a blueprint to be followed by urban planners in future. Drawing on their experience, they suggest that the key to success will be the seriousness with which the urban planners attempt to continue the town’s legacy, while also providing high-quality new facilities appropriate for its current and future generations. Communication with the residents is another significant key to deal with the challenges involved in relocating a town and its community, history, and identity. Architects of new Kiruna constantly made the residents aware of their ideas and plans, and invited the people to share their views on what the future town should be like. “What we have done correctly, is that we started with a dialog,” said Cars. “No drawings, no sketches, not a single bit of real detailed planning. Just listening.” https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin
↧