Arctic Design Center puts people at the center of community planning

Since the 1970s, Norrbotten has had little need to build new. Now we suddenly need to both build new, develop our communities and take care of what we have. But how do we ensure that people and their needs are put at the center? – We need to bring human values ​​into community planning, says Carolina Lundmark Weinz, project manager for the Arctic Design Center.

Decades of stagnant population growth have left their mark on Norrbotten. Instead of new housing, we have abandoned houses and demolitions. Now the old stock needs to be renovated, we need lots of new housing - but also workplaces, services, public spaces, cultural centers and meeting places.

The municipalities have a planning monopoly and with it the important task of creating the conditions for sustainable, healthy and pleasant living environments. But there are several major problems: there is a rush, there is a lack of resources and there is a lack of competence. Because now that we have barely built for 50 years, the development of competence has come to a standstill. This is where the three-year Arctic Design Center project comes into play.

The House of Knowledge in Gällivare was a finalist in the architectural competition Träpriset 2024. "A modern cultural landscape that is rooted in the present and the past, created in broad collaboration," the justification states, among other things. Photo: Carolina Weinz

– The project is about how architecture, form and design can contribute to a sustainable society where people enjoy living and working. We need to develop our living environments in order to attract new residents and retain our young people. Arctic Design Center will contribute to raising skills and supporting the development of issues surrounding designed living environments, says Carolina Weinz.

The concept of designed living environment concerns both all buildings created by humans, and for a policy that was established in 2018 and concerns architecture, art, design and the cultural environment.

– When we build a door, we have shaped it, when we draw a road, it is a shaped living environment. It is everything that is touched by us humans, from the big to the small, explains Carolina.

Untouched nature can be an attractive living environment, but it is not a designed living environment. A road, on the other hand, is designed and it is possible to create an experience from it. 

The policy area aims to ensure that the living environment we design has a good function, provides a good experience and is robust. The latter may involve choosing materials that last over time.

– The policy is based on an approach. How should we design the environment so that it is created for humans? Since industrialization, we have gone from designing the beautiful to going very far towards functionality. Then we have abandoned the experience that an environment can give a person. It affects how we feel when we are in it. There has been a long work on a counter-movement, a renaissance for careful design.

Living countryside

But for Norrbotten, this is anything but simple, even if the will is there.

– We need to work both with existing buildings and with building new ones. With larger municipalities with an urban feel and with sparsely populated rural municipalities. If the focus is only on the growth municipalities, it will be uneven, then it will not increase the attractiveness or growth in our smaller municipalities. They also need to be prioritized on this journey so that we get the vibrant countryside that we all want, says Carolina.

The village of Kangos in Pajala municipality. The countryside also needs to develop its living environments and is covered by the project, just like the establishment municipalities.

For most municipalities, it is too much to carry out development work within the designed living environment themselves. The Arctic Design Center has been created to gather the professional expertise that exists and support the work in various ways. This can involve spreading knowledge from research, strengthening collaboration and helping municipalities to initiate development work. Perhaps a steering document at a regional level could be of help to municipalities that cannot develop an architectural policy themselves?

– We can contribute with a start-up process. Where to start, what surveys do you need to do and how do you get started? We can assist with an action plan and be a pillar along the way, says Carolina Weinz.

Collaboration with the university

The project is run in collaboration between Region Norrbotten, Region Västerbotten, Skellefteå Municipality and the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation. It started last autumn and Carolina is project manager for the work in Norrbotten.

A lot has happened since the start. The existing expertise has been mapped. A regional council, the Arctic Design Council, has been formed. The council will highlight the needs of upper Norrland nationally, provide long-term strategic support and work for permanent national support. A collaboration with Luleå University of Technology has been established. A conference is planned for later this spring. And you will be able to follow the project with exhibitions at the newly opened Slöjd- och formcenter in Shopping in Luleå.

This parking garage in Piteå is designed so that the terrace becomes a sledding hill in winter. Photo: Carolina Weinz.

Carolina Lundmark Weinz travels a lot around the county and meets with the municipalities. She also takes the opportunity to look around with the eyes of a living environment.

“How do people move?”

– It's a must to walk around town and look at the buildings. How do people move around, do they seem to be happy, what important social functions are there, is there cultural life, is there a community life, is everyone doing well?

Despite the challenges, she has some favorites in Norrbotten, good examples of a designed living environment.

The House of Science in Luleå was a post office until social developments made it unnecessary. Now it is a place for, for example, business breakfasts, lectures, seminars and conferences. Photo: Martijn Heemstra.

– The House of Science in Luleå! They have taken advantage of a building that served as a post office for many years and has been a natural meeting place for many Luleå residents. They have carefully renovated it to have a new important social function and become a new meeting place for the residents of Luleå. There are so few buildings that have been respectfully converted into a new place. And it is a fantastically beautifully designed building, says Carolina Lundmark Weinz.

Another example is the church and church village in Gammelstad.

– It's like a whole cultural village where the buildings have been preserved and developed. It still has a function, but it also carries a cultural heritage. It is shared with visitors from all corners of the world and it gives us locals a sense of pride and a sense of belonging to our cultural heritage.

The church village in Gammelstad is a place that attracts both locals and long-distance visitors. Photo: Sara Stylbäck Vesa

A third example is the Pensionatet in Piteå, which encompasses several buildings and houses a café, bakery, co-working office, yoga, restaurant, conference, hotel rooms, ceramics workshop and a shop.

– They have managed to recreate a function there. The whole street used to be a row of entrepreneurs, there were people who ran their own businesses, perhaps as painters or carpenters. They have managed to recreate the feeling of meetings that were on the street a very long time ago.

Fascination with the history of buildings

It is precisely this interest in old buildings that brought Carolina to her profession and the Arctic Design Center.

– When I was little I wanted to be Indiana Jones, the best I knew were things that had history and a soul and that other people had a relationship with. When I got older and started traveling more, I felt the same fascination for buildings and their history, how they came to be and who had lived there, what has happened in these houses and how they have developed into what they are today.

Her interest led her to study for a Master of Science in Architecture at Luleå University of Technology. Her thesis was on social sustainability in the construction sector. She also completed two years of doctoral studies in sustainable construction, focusing on renovation strategies for apartment buildings.

– I have always been driven by social issues and human needs. This position felt like an excellent opportunity to pick up where I left off with my degree project.

Art consultant Rickard Sandberg (second from left) and Carolina (third from left) visited Älvsbyn in February for a dialogue about the municipality's living environments.

FACTS: Policy for a designed living environment 

"Architecture, form and design should contribute to a sustainable, equal and less segregated society with carefully designed living environments, where everyone is given good opportunities to influence the development of the common environment." (from bill 2017/2018:110)

The goal shall be achieved by:

• Sustainability and quality are not subordinated to short-term economic considerations.
• Knowledge about architecture, form and design is developed and disseminated.
• The public sector is acting in an exemplary manner.
• Aesthetic, artistic and cultural-historical values ​​are preserved and developed.
• Environments are designed to be accessible to everyone.
• Collaboration and collaboration

Arctic Design Center

Text: Sara Stylbäck Vesa