ArkDes Think Tank
ArkDes Think Tank is a creative hub for research, collaboration and strategic analysis within architecture and design.
ArkDes Think Tank engages in collaborations, experience sharing and knowledge development as well as monitors and supports Sweden’s official policies in the areas of architecture and design.
Society consists of architecture, form and design – the styled living environment. A conscious quality-driven design, from chairs to cities, will contribute to a more sustainable, democratic, healthy and accessible society for everyone.
ArkDes Think Tank creates new knowledge related to styled living environments through themes and investigative practice-based projects and explores ways to implement these and contribute to fulfilling the goals get forth in the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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Projects
ArkDes Think Tank works with investigative practice-based projects, often in collaboration with others. As always, the focus is on the Swedish government’s “Policy for Designed Living Environment” – which asks the question, how can we build sustainable and equal societies with high quality architecture? Here you can read about our ongoing and completed projects.
Open call
In the spring of 2019, ArkDes Think Tank announced an open call for projects and funding totalling 1 million SEK with the aim of promoting practice-based research within architecture and design. The open call was directed at architects, designers, researchers, interior architects, artists, planning architects and landscape architects with an idea they wanted to develop.
Värm med spill, vattna med sol (“Heat with waste, water with the sun”)
(Blick Arkitektur, Esam AB, Svensk Aquaponik)
How can the city’s untapped resources be used to create more sustainable living environments? A biologist, a sustainability consultant and three architects work together in the project Värm med spill, vattna med sol to explore how roofs can be designed in the future. How can roofs combine new technology for solar cells, cultivation, stormwater management and waste heat with high architectural quality and cultural heritage values? The project will result in design concepts for three buildings in different districts of Stockholm: Östermalm, the Slakthus area and Högdalen.
Barns behov formar skolan – inkludering för framtidens lärmiljöer (“Children’s Needs Shape the School – Inclusion for Future Learning Environments”)
(Codesign Research Studio and Save The Children)
In January 2020, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) will become part of Swedish legislature, as will the article of the Convention that states that children must be involved in all decisions that concern them. This project, which will be conducted by Codesign Research Studio and Save the Children, aims to develop methods for including children in the planning and design of school environments. Special focus will be placed on children with experience of stress and social vulnerability. The project will be conducted at Ekhammarskolan in Upplands-Bro and will result in tools and methods that will have lasting use after the project is completed.
(Anders Berensson Architects, Tibro Kommun and FolkLab)
The old train track area in Tibro was once the town’s natural hub. Now the site is empty and waiting for a new function. The municipality, architects, citizens and the business community all work together in this project to explore the possibilities and experiment with this empty space in the middle of town. Using local materials and residual products from the furniture industry, Tibro will get a completely new public space created for and with its citizens. The project will be able to be followed via a project diary and social media.
(Utopia Arkitekter and Doberman)
Augmented Reality (AR) offers completely new opportunities for visualisation and feedback in urban development processes. By combining AR technology with structures for feedback, ideas and proposals from citizens, new forms of interaction and participation can emerge. Augmented Dialogue combines expertise within architecture, communication and technology. The aim is to use a creative design process to develop an app that can promote inspiring possibilities for co-creation and dialogue with citizens.
Mälarens lås – en associativ antologi om Stockholms potential (Mälaren’s Lock – An Associative Anthology on the Potential of Stockholm)
(Jägnefält Milton Arkitekter and Marie Birde)
Without the meeting of Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea, the city of Stockholm would not exist. Nevertheless, the city’s relationship with water has become increasingly distanced. This project aims to investigate how Lake Mälaren once again can become a genuine and vivid part of the urban environment. The history of Stockholm and the water that surrounds it will be reconstructed using a collection of historical material – everything from poems to comic strips and rumours – as well as the personal perspectives of the writers and artists who will be invited to contribute. A number of possible projects will be produced based on this research. All material will be collected in an anthology that spans past, present and a possible future.
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Sustainordic
ArkDes is part of Sustainordic, a Nordic network for the development of sustainable production and consumption.
The purpose of the Sustainordic network is to gather and distribute good examples of sustainable production and consumption in the Nordic countries and abroad.
Sustainordic has also produced a common Nordic manifesto based on target number 12 in Agenda 2030, to “ensure sustainable consumption and production trends” and has compiled twelve underlying sub-targets that can be linked to ongoing Nordic architecture and design projects where the expressed objective involves sustainability.
The network was established in 2015 when a number of Nordic organisations within architecture and design joined forces to reinforce their cross-border collaboration via a formalised partnership, with jointly defined visions and goals for collaboration.
Network partners include ArkDes and Form/Design Center in Sweden, in addition to Aalto University in Finland, DogA in Norway, Dansk Design Center and Iceland Design Centre.
ArkDes and Form/Design Center in Malmö took the initiative for and are project owners for Sustainordic. ArkDes is the administrative body for the project.
Sustainordic has been financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The conference Nordic Report: Architecture and Design – the Nordic Way in spring 2018
