VERKET

How can seemingly outdated industrial architecture be reimagined? VERKET is a practice-based research project, a collaboration between ArkDes and Ulricehamn Municipality, that explores how innovative design and management can transform technical facilities and industrial sites for future needs.

Many municipalities in Sweden face major challenges when it comes to technical infrastructure and systems. Underdimensioned and outdated structures are further strained by the growing risk of cloudbursts and flooding. New facilities, such as water and sewage plants, require significant municipal investments, while existing structures must be maintained and given new roles in urban and community development. These sites are often closed to the public but, once decommissioned, could become part of public space and everyday environments.

The project focuses on the Fiskebacken area and, more specifically, the Ulricehamn wastewater treatment plant, built in 1955. While the facility has been upgraded over time, population growth and rising purification demands make it unsustainable to continue operating it. A new plant is planned to be completed at another site in 2030, creating opportunities to repurpose the current facility and its surroundings in new ways.

Through an open call, team VERK-SAM was selected to carry out practice-based research in the form of a site inventory, analysis, and a management plan with strategies, methods, and design proposals. The aim is to demonstrate how the treatment plant and its surrounding area can be cared for and managed as a resource when the site transitions from a closed industrial facility to a public place.

VERKET also seeks to provide Ulricehamn—as well as other municipalities facing increased capacity needs for wastewater treatment and other technical infrastructure—with tools and knowledge for the long-term sustainable planning and management of existing resources.

In the summer of 2025, ArkDes and Ulricehamn Municipality extended team VERK-SAM’s project to take the next step: from vision to test.

In Step 1, VERK-SAM identified prototypes—temporary, full-scale tests on site—as a catalyst for the gradual transformation of the area. These prototypes make it possible to experiment with new pathways, meeting places, and ways of caring for nature, while giving residents the chance to experience and evaluate ideas in real life. The prototypes function both as a tool for generating new knowledge and as a means to spark dialogue about the site’s future through tangible examples.

During Autumn 2025, a section of the site will be open to the public, offering an opportunity to experience the area in a completely new way. This temporary test builds on three ideas:

1) Opening up and connecting – creating new paths and links that improve access to and from the site.

2) Highlighting what already exists – bringing the area to life by making its existing qualities more visible.

3) Putting nature at the centre – letting the green environment inspire and guide future development.