ARCTIC CONTRUCTION LAB : Design methodologies in Arctic Sápmi

Sammanfattning

This project investigates the practice of architecture in Arctic Sápmi through the lens of tourism. Beginning with the foundation of Kungsleden—the trail established by the Swedish Tourist Association at the turn of the 19th century—the project approaches Arctic tourism considering its colonial history and subsequent production of reductive images of Arctic Sápmi and its inhabitants. Against this background and in the context of the ongoing ’green’ transition, pushing for more resource extraction in Northern Sweden, the project asks: how can we learn from Arctic Sápmi to build for Arctic Sweden and beyond? Using a research by design approach, the project is structured in four phases of production: a critical mapping of the territory of Northern Kungsleden and its seasonal cycles; a series of structural experiments testing architectural details in relation to material, climatic, and social conditions along a proposed alternative trail; an architectural proposal at Lake Torneträsk developing these findings at the scale of the site and dwelling; and a reflection on the domestic, territorial and methodological consequences of the project. Using a theoretical framework based on theories of tourism, resource internalisation, post-Arctic ecology, and decolonial practice, the project seeks to propose an architecture refusing the colonial history shaping the region today, and instead works relationally with its landscapes, seasons, actors, and material cycles.