Stella Suwe (graphics) // Samvaro på Ön, Architecture for Everyday Care and Togetherness, BA-Project, 2025, Studio 2
Closing loops. Circular Architecture
Environmental crises, rising commodity prices, disrupted supply chains for building materials, pandemics, global conflicts, and weather uncertainties require a rethink of architecture and life. Construction costs are expected to continue to rise in the coming years, while building materials on the market are limited by available resources and climate change. How can we develop new living typologies while protecting the ecosystems around us? Closing loops: We want to take a more critical look at circular processes to find new methods of reusing regional and wasted materials in the Västerbotten and Norrbotten region of northern Sweden. By activating existing structures for autonomous concepts, we see ourselves as reinventors, decoders and discoverers of low-tech design for holistic living concepts. To bring back knowledge about material cycles and energy-saving design, we design for new ways of acting, thinking and simply living for all living beings in coexistence.
Context of Investigation
The regional heritage of northern Sweden offers timeless lessons in adaptation - to climate, topography, resources, and community needs - from a time before globalization. This project focuses on Boden, a city in transition. Shaped by the green transformation of the steel industry, and home to one of the largest fortresses and military bases in northern Sweden, Boden plays a key role in surveillance, protection, and civil-military cooperation. Historically, Boden’s identity grew from its iron industry and its late 19th-century railway junction, linking the Baltic Sea to Narvik, Norway. Today, it remains a vital hub for Norrbotten. In collaboration with the Department of applied Physics and Electronics, we explore sustainable energy solutions and autonomous architecture through participatory processes involving municipalities, residents, and self-organized initiatives. This autumn semester, we will investigate multi-functional living typologies - designs that combine resilience, self-sufficiency, and community life for a future in the subarctic north.
Studio agenda and methodology
This year, Studio 2 is dedicated to intentionally built circular processes - tracing local architecture to develop visionary, low-tech design. Through a waste materials workshop, we continue exploring new materials and their applications in façade panels, both for interior and exterior use. Our goal: to shift the role of buildings and their occupants from consumers to producers.
In the spring semester, our focus turns to mapping methods, creative reuse, and building prototypes for Umeå - a city powered entirely by 100% renewable energy. By contextualizing design, we aim to enhance its performance on site, especially through an integrated water-energy-food nexus. In collaboration with the Department of Building Physics, we apply life cycle assessment standards to evaluate and adapt designs to Umeå’s local conditions - ensuring sustainable, resilient architecture for the future.
Teaching team: Constanze Hirt (responsible studio), Toms Kokins, Nina Larsson + guests
Latest update: 2025-09-02