*Photo: Kiruna kommun. 2024.* Svappavaara, Kiruna.

Visions in the North step 2

Kiruna: Svappavaara

Relational methods for co-creating learning spaces and nature education in Svappavaara.

Conditions: 45 kilometres south of Kiruna lies Svappavaara, a village with many roots. Dating back to the 17th century, the realisation of Ralph Erskine’s ideas for housing in an arctic climate in the 1970s and extensive cold-setting of housing in the 1990s, today 390 people live in a rural mining environment. Svappavaara is close to a large workplace, has a supermarket, school, sports hall, youth centre and nature, and is within commuting distance of Kiruna. Kiruna is Sweden’s largest municipality and many people dream of life outside the city centre. At the same time, several houses are deserted here.

Challenge: Is Svappavaara a potential resource for Kiruna municipality to grow beyond the city centre? A monument to untapped opportunities? The team will focus on the question: how can we in early stages, through the processes and power of design, strengthen living and housing environments in rural areas? This is to strengthen Svappavaara as an attractive living environment based on existing local needs and challenges, as well as future plans and ambitions.

Team Berätta mig vidare’s starting point has been to meet Svappavaara through presence, dialogue and stories. By exploring storytelling as a relational method, the team has developed a proposal for a design process for learning spaces in Skolskogen, close to Svappavaara school.

The team’s methods have been based on meetings and presence; on being informal, listening, leading conversations, eliciting stories, building relationships and experiencing everyday life. It has been about acting and developing ways of working to seek information and understanding of a place, information and understanding that is often missed through facts, maps and meeting situations in conference rooms. They have followed stories to the places described to them, linked stories to experiences and retold stories to gain further angles and perspectives. In this way, they have built relationships with the community as a whole.

The proposed process with Svappavaara school is based on the power of storytelling, involves collaboration with the school’s teachers and students and will result in spatialities for nature education, activities and imagination in the School Forest.

Designed Living Environment

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Report: Visions in the North step 2 – Kiruna

Click here to read the report. In Swedish.

*Fredrik Eklöf, photo: Fredrik Eklöf. Erika Henriksson, photo: Erika Henriksson. Mattias Fransson, photo Matilda Rahm*

Team Berätta Mig Vidare

Erika Henriksson, Architect, Artist and Educator

Fredrik Eklöf, Architect and Set Designer

Mattias Fransson, Scriptwriter, Actor and Director