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2025
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Report: Visions in the North step 2 – Gällivare

Photo: Kent Wingsund/Gällivare kommun. 2024. Vassara river, Gällivare.

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 När horisonter möts to explore how the design of places and landscapes can create conditions for strengthening the development of qualitative and sustainable living environments based on the Vassara River, Gällivare.

Team När horisonter möts proposal is based on the landscape as a whole, with all its historical, cultural and ecological layers. To strengthen the existing natural and cultural values of the river space, they propose a place-making process where the people of Gällivare are invited to develop the river space. The team’s long-term vision is that Älvrummet will be developed into an area where local cultural history, stories, nature and creativity are highlighted and spread to other parts of Gällivare and Norrbotten. The team’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 ↗.