Odla torg

How can creative collaboration help revive the historic role of the town square in cities and villages? Odla torg was one of five projects funded through ArkDes’ Open Call 2021, where the theme was “Shared Spaces and Interspaces.”

Odla torg (Cultivate Squares) was based on the idea that new forms of collaboration are crucial to achieving the goals of Agenda 2030 and the policy for Designed Living Environments. By cultivating and nurturing local resources, the project aimed to strengthen participation, democracy, and local entrepreneurship, with a focus on biodiversity, local food production, and human health.

Every community needs a place where people can meet naturally. On Sollerön in Siljan, a vibrant community exists, but the need for meeting places is critical to securing the village’s long-term vitality. The area between Coop and the church became a key site in the effort to revive the historic role of the square as a social and economic hub.

The team consisted of the architecture office Gaia arkitektur ↗, climate designer and landscape architect Lisa Maria Enzenhofer, and the local actor Återbruket Klippen ↗, which sells second-hand goods to fund local initiatives. Återbruket Klippen was responsible for local coordination, practical implementation, and community anchoring. The architects led the process management, design, and documentation, while the climate designer contributed experience from similar projects. Municipal officials, the Church of Sweden, local businesses, associations, and the village’s residents also participated.

The first phase of the project spanned five months, during which a series of events and activations temporarily transformed the space next to the church. The parking lot gave way to furniture made from recycled pallets and cultivation of local heritage crops, such as the Sollerö pea and the Sollerö root. A summer festival brought villagers together for street ping pong and cultural activities, while another event focused on cycling. Finally, a harvest festival celebrated locally produced food and reconnected with the island’s agricultural traditions. The work from the first five months was compiled into a project report with reflections from the process.

Strong support for establishing a square at the site emerged through the many conversations held during the activities and the hundreds of interviews conducted. With extended funding from ArkDes, design sketches for a more permanent transformation could be developed. Additional work was also carried out to place the project in a broader context, including a summary of research and examples from other site activations. The aim was to create a model for how public spaces can be developed in rural communities.

During the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth’s Rural Development Week in May 2023, Gaia arkitektur launched the manual To Cultivate a Hometown Square together with ArkDes and
Region Dalarna ↗. As a complement, the report To Cultivate a Square in Every Hometown was also published. The purpose of the manual and report was to spark discussion and present methods for reinvesting in social infrastructure across the country through square projects. The documents target local community actors, municipal officials, and policymakers.