Manual: To Cultivate a Hometown Square

A square is the heart of every community—a place where people gather and create shared traditions. But what happens when the square becomes a parking lot? How can a village reclaim its square?

In 2021, the project ‘Cultivating a Square’ was selected as one of five initiatives to receive funding through ArkDes Think Tank’s Open Call. Collaborating with residents and stakeholders in the village of Sollerön, nestled in the heart of Siljan, the project team—Gaia Architecture, Lisa Maria Eizenhofer, and Återbruket Klippen—tested and developed methods to create architectural strategies for building squares in rural areas. The project yielded valuable insights and inspired a follow-up initiative to further explore rural meeting places, resulting in a report and a handbook.

The manual, ‘To Cultivate a Hometown Square’, developed by Gaia Architecture, summarizes years of exploration into local meeting places. It aims to share experiences and inspire local stakeholders, municipalities, and others working on rural development to reverse the trend and create more gathering spaces in their communities, thereby strengthening Sweden’s many local societies.