VERKET nominated for Architects Sweden’s Planning Award

The practice-based research project VERKET has been nominated for Architects Sweden’s Planning Award 2025 ↗. The nomination recognises a project that explores how existing infrastructure can be transformed to meet new demands.

VERKET was carried out within the framework of ArkDes’ practice-based research, where new methods are developed in close collaboration with municipalities, interdisciplinary teams and local stakeholders. Based on the wastewater treatment plant in Ulricehamn, team VERK-SAM, commissioned by ArkDes and Ulricehamn Municipality ↗, explored how seemingly outdated technical facilities can be developed and managed in response to changing societal needs.

Through design-led work, the project formulates strategies for how existing structures can be preserved and transformed to strengthen biodiversity and contribute to the local community. At the same time, it raises questions about how we value and manage the late industrial building stock.

From the jury statement:

“VERKET inspires a more exploratory, investigative and knowledge-building working process. […] Municipal planning can be redirected towards managing, developing and building upon existing structures, rather than, as is often the case today, seeking available land, exploiting it and building new. This may sound self-evident, but it carries political weight within the project-driven planning doctrine that prevails in many municipalities.”

Thank you to all contributors and collaborating partners!

“ArkDes has been crucial in enabling what was most important in this project: the research grant and the freedom given to the team. ArkDes’ role was to open up new questions that would not have been possible within a traditional client–consultant relationship. The collaboration made it possible to adopt an exploratory approach that can be difficult to realise within a municipal organisation,” says Rebecka Engvall, City Architect, Ulricehamn Municipality.