ARCTIC CONSTRUCTION LAB: Design Methodologies in Arctic Sápmi

Analysing Arctic Sápmi through the lens of tourism reveals a national project of development and extraction in the Swedish North. Starting from 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 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 and development in Northern Sweden, the project asks: how can we learn from Arctic Sápmi to build for Arctic Sweden and beyond?

The project is structured in four phases of production: the 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 resulting architecture. 

Using a framework based on theories of tourism, resource internalisation, post-Arctic ecology, and decolonial practice, together with architectural methods of iterative model-making and drawing, the project aims to propose an alternative design methodology toward an architecture responding to the colonial history and the continued extraction and exploitation of Northern Sweden, working relationally with the region’s landscapes, actors, materials, and seasonal cycles.