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2025
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Report: Visions in the North step 2 – Boden

Photo: Team Boden. 2024. The gas station, "Macken", Gunnarsbyn, Boden.

How can we create sustainable housing in a short time while utilising existing resources and creating good quality living environments in the long term? This is the main question in the innovation project Visions in the North step 2.

In Norrbotten and Västerbotten, some of the largest investments ever in green transition, technology and infrastructure are currently underway. The investment places great demands on more housing, attractive living environments and long-term sustainability.

Through a call for proposals in the spring of 2024, the Council for Sustainable Cities selected Team Boden to explore the role that the built environment can play in the communities of the future, based on 550 derelict houses in the river valley, Boden.

Team Boden has developed a model to give new life to derelict houses. It is about meeting the municipality’s housing needs – without building new. Team Boden‘s proposal is a recipe that can make a real difference in other places across Sweden. It is about moving from idea to action and developing places based on existing buildings, the history of the place, people and relationships. Team Boden‘s inventory, analysis and proposals are summarised in a report consisting of a management and development plan.

Visions in the North step 2

Visions in the North step 2 is initiated by the Council for Sustainable Cities ↗, the government’s initiative for sustainable urban development. ArkDes, Boverket ↗, Energimyndigheten ↗, Vinnova ↗ and Formas ↗ are behind the initiative, together with the municipalities of Kiruna ↗, Gällivare ↗, Boden ↗, Luleå ↗, Skellefteå ↗ and Umeå ↗.