Living in a lost modern utopia: The global village of Svappavaara

As part of the ArkDes Fellowship 2020, three fellows were invited to carry out interdisciplinary research during a six-month period on the theme Our Living Environment.

The call attracted 75 applicants from a range of fields including research, practice, art, and communication. An international jury selected Katja Rosenlind, Andrea Luciani, and Camilla Schlyter, who each spent six months at ArkDes exploring current challenges and opportunities in our urban environments and developing new knowledge to support the designed living environments of the future.

Andrea Luciani is an architect and associate professor at Luleå University of Technology. He holds a PhD in architectural heritage preservation from Politecnico di Milano and has, since moving to Luleå in 2017, developed a strong interest in the transformations taking place in many of Sweden’s historically important mining communities.

His ArkDes Fellowship resulted in the report Living in a Lost Modern Utopia: The Global Village of Svappavaara, in which he investigated architect Ralph Erskine’s social and architectural legacy in the town of Svappavaara. During his time in the area, Luciani studied, discussed, and reactivated the building Ormen Långe in collaboration with local residents to explore the site’s potential in the present and future.