New city centre for Kiruna

981 85 Kiruna | 0980-70 000 | www.kiruna.se/stadsomvandling

The proposals have been judged by a jury of seven people:

• Architect SAR/MSA Christer Larsson,

Director of City Planning in Malmö,

nominated by the Swedish Association

of Architects, Chair of the jury

• Architect SAR/MSA Thomas Nylund,

former town architect in Kiruna

Municipality

• Architect MSA Björn Adolfson, County

Architect, County Administrative Board

in Norrbotten County

• Anja Taube, Chief Administrator,

Recreation and Arts Department,

Kiruna Municipality

• Eva Ekelund, Chief Land and Expro-

priation Officer, Kiruna Municipality

(replaces Marianne Schröder-Maagaard)

• Sandra Viklund, planning architect,

Ramböll

• Architect MNAL Knut Eirik Dahl,

Professor of Architecture and Design,

Arkitekthøyskolen in Oslo/D&U

Arkitekter, nominated by the

Swedish Association of Architects

Lisa Diedrich, Professor of Landscape

Architecture at the Swedish University

of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp, and

Lisbeth Nilsson, project leader 2030,

Kiruna Municipality, were co-opted jury

members.

The secretary to the jury is architect SAR/

MSA Katarina O´Cofaigh, The Swedish

Association of Architects.

This is a summary of the jury’s report and describes the main conclusion that they reached. The report is available at Kiruna kommun and the Swedish Architects websites.

CoMpeTITIon resulTs, MarCh 2013

In June 2012 therefore, Kiruna invited ten teams of architects to take part in a competition to determine the vision, strategy and design of a new city centre for a new Kiruna. The competition was organised by Kiruna Municipality in cooperation with the Swedish Association of Architects.

The city transformation in Kiruna means restructuring the whole city. The city is to move northeast towards an area identified as a resource for the establishment of a new city centre. At the same time as the old is abandoned, the new is to be added. New relations and contexts will be created. Throughout the transforma-tion process, the city must function and be perceived as attractive. Everything is interconnected: from deformation and shut-downs to planning and the establishment of new urban neighbourhoods.

The biggest challenge in this phase of the city transformation process is to create clear strategies and principles for how the city transformation is to take place in time and space. It is crucial that the work should be based on the social, cultural, practical and perceptual aspects that are significant in creating security, enthu-siasm and faith in the future among the people of Kiruna and the participating actors.

jury work

The intention of the jury is, for the statement presented by the jury, to give support to the architects, the municipality and the other actors in the continuing urban development work. The jury wishes to pass on the insight and knowledge that has emerged together with the reference groups and experts during the jury’s work.

In judging it has been important to find a proposal that both de-scribes a credible strategy for the city transformation and suggests a

design for the city that can provide good conditions for day-to-day life in Kiruna with regard to the city’s geography and climate.

The jury has chosen a proposal that is clear in its structure while having the potential to incorporate new ideas and experiences, and to take new directions as the city evolves.

The jury has unanimously decided to declare the entry kiruna 4-ever the winner of the competition.

Entrant: White Arkitekter together with Ghilardi + Hellsten Arkitekter, SpacescapeAB, Vectura Consulting AB, Evidens BLW AB.

The new Kiruna will be a compact, varied and attractive city centre with close links to nature. The city will function and be perceived as a single entity through the entire transformation process.

There are good prospects that the very first setup phase can en-capsulate all the functions needed for a living community. From a clear starting point, the city can develop in stages over a long period, and there is considerable freedom from there to build out in different directions.

The strategy, the process and the physical vision of the new Kiruna are well described.

The proposal shows that urban development is not solely a physical process – it is equally a question of involving the people of Kiruna in the transformation.

The proposal is clear in its strategy to enable new ideas to be incorporated as the city grows. The structural units are schemati-

cally described and will be developed to be adaptable to the climate, gaining a more distinct local character.

Changes to the proposal are called for. This applies to the routing of the E10 and Road 870, and that public and listed heritage buildings should be grouped closer to Stage One. The properties of the proposal make it resilient enough to accommodate these changes.

With Malmvägen as the main street, the city is to be built out step by step in a clearly eastward direction, and important functions such as the station, the Sámi Par-liament and the City Hall are to be built around this thoroughfare.

The city is to be built using a traditional, well-proven and adaptable structure that means the city can be built out one block at a time in well-delimited phases. At the same time the west industrial area will be dense, mainly along Malmvägen south of the cemetery, which in the opinion of the jury has the best conditions for successful densification.

In principle, there is room for the entire new city centre between the cemetery and the City Hall, with the station together with buildings north of the cemetery and

densification along Malmvägen. The strat-egy according to the proposal is to utilise the proximity between an undeveloped area and a built-up area that is already being further developed. The jury sees the project as urban fields that can engage and involve both the undeveloped landscape and the existing industrial area based on a strategically located starting point.

Once the city centre has been built, the jury sees possibilities for the city to develop both northwards and southwards, as illus-trated in the picture in a hundred-year per-spective, or eastwards towards Tuolluvaara. In order to create this freedom of choice, a greater proportion of the public build-ings, and the Hjalmar Lundbohmsgården, should be located further west than the proposal indicates.

The City Hall is well placed on a small centrally located height near the station, which is good and realistic. The station can be placed in different locations within the grid depending on which option is chosen for the station.

According to the proposal, the E10 high-way will be routed through the city and will be of a more urban character. The jury considers that this approach is neither nec-

essary nor desirable. The proposal needs to be developed in such a way that the E10 is mainly routed outside the core urban area.

The jury considers that the proposal can be developed on this point.

The structure accommodates considerable variation in building types and functions and creates a sustainable, accessible and pleasant urban environment. There is a wish to achieve a dense and varied city with many different types of function in close proximity. Different kinds of public spaces are located on ground floors.

The jury sees the structure as a good princi-ple for development – it is a traditional ur-ban design which can be adapted to many different functions. Over time, the plan will acquire considerably greater variation and adaptation to climate and location than shown in the proposal.

The proposal has a vital property that many people in Kiruna demand: closeness to nature. The compact character of the proposal and the clear boundary between the built-up area and nature, with green or white wedges gives quick access to nature, at the same time as the compact city has a small footprint.

The proposal also shows how the city can evolve if the deformation, and therefore urban build-out, will continue in a similar structure in a hundred-year perspective. Even though it was not a requirement for the competition, the picture is very clear. It describes a scenario where the west part of the city is in principle completely abandoned and the new city has merged with Tuolluvaara. The picture indicates the permanent uncertainty that will always be a precondition for planning in Kiruna.

There is an interesting ongoing discussion of the proposal and whether it is possi-ble to repair the deformed landscape in longterm work. It is an aspect worth con-sidering in an extended perspective. It is an important duty to repair spoiled landscape to make it a resource and asset for Kiruna, rather than a scar that will eternally remind the people of Kiruna of what they have lost. The deformation area can become an asset and provide added quality for Kiruna.

The process and strategy for urban devel-opment have been well described in the proposal. The proposal clearly shows that urban development is not merely about a physical process – it is just as much a question of involving people to participate in the process. There is a strategy for the development of the whole city in stages.

The old city constantly maintains a good relation to the new. There is an emphasis on the dialogue between those who live and work in Kiruna throughout the trans-formation process. In order for people to be able to take part in the urban develop-ment process, it is crucial that there are instruments to show the vision of the new Kiruna, and that strategies are developed for how people can participate in and contribute to the process.

The Kiruna Portal, which is a virtual and physical place where knowledge is collected, is judged to have the potential of being an extremely important instrument. During 2013 it will already be possible to establish the small Kiruna Portal outside Folkets Hus community centre, later to be moved to the west industrial area. At the Kiruna Portal in the industrial area it will be possible to recycle building material from demolitions and prepare house con-struction at the same time as knowledge is developed. The discussion touches upon a

highly important aspect of urban devel-opment. If reusing buildings and material – and the landscape itself – is successful, then Kiruna can become an example to follow. The re-use of buildings and the knowledge that can be developed around this can be developed into an industry – a productive sector unique to Kiruna. The Kiruna Biennial is to create international focus surrounding the urban development issues in Kiruna. This can contribute to in-creased pride in the creative achievements in Kiruna.

A clear road network permits car traffic in the entire city centre. The gondola cable car is designed to increase use of public transport and provide quick passenger transport between different key points in Kiruna.

The proposal is cost-effective. It uses exist-ing structures and is compact in character. It is also a reasonable judgment that a compact structure reduces the footprint of the new city centre, provides conditions for good public transport system, and thereby generates climate-smart urban develop-ment. Part of the built-up area is located to an area featuring sandbanks, where it is comparatively more expensive to build.

Kiruna is a unique city. There has

been enormous development since

the first iron ore deposits began to

be extracted a hundred years ago.

Right from the time the city was established there have

been ambitious plans to provide a good environment for

those who live and work here. Now the city is facing

a physical change of unparalleled proportions. In the

change process, the municipal authorities want the city to

be able to meet new challenges and develop into a place offering the best

possible conditions for continued development.

Kiruna Dialogue

Kiruna Portal

Kiruna Biennal