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2025
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Report: Visions in the North step 2 – Skellefteå

Collage: Team Örviksgruppen. 2024.

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 Örviksgruppen to explore how the old mill environment in Örviken, Skellefteå can be developed and meet the need for new sustainable and inclusive housing and meeting places while preserving the cultural environment.

Team Örviksgruppen proposes plant restoration for the transformation of Örviken’s industrial area into a cultural-historical activity and industrial park. Skellefteå municipality’s housing and community development is under great pressure and with it comes the need for quick decisions. The team’s proposal can be seen as an attempt to counteract this by proposing a type of community building that can change if the times require it, with strong roots in the local community, history and in collaboration with the municipality’s various administrations. A number of measures to revitalise the area are proposed in parallel with the plant restoration. 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 ↗.