Following a Trail and the Question of How We Populate a Place to the Extent That We Also Alter the Very Things That Draws Us to It

following a trail and the question of how we populate a place to the extent that we also alter the very things that draws us to it

anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020 tutors: alejandro haiek coll and carl-johan vesterlund umeå school of architecture . word count: 5800 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

table of content

3 ingress 4 introduction 7 thesis question and method 9 research 33 reply 35 bibliography anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

ingress

In october last year, the inhabitants of Hemavan were informed of a change in the current detail plan enabling yet another area of holiday cottages to be built by private actors and by that force a re-routing of the hiking trail Kungsleden. The change affects a central area in Hemavan on the mountain side just where the trail begins and where most excursions to the mountains set off from. Kungsleden is the enabler of access to the grand scenery and the vast and awe-inspiring landscape beyond. Thus the re-routing awoke many reactions from the community, and that it was “a rape of the landscape” was one of the instant reactions from a local resident. The questions that such an event raises are many and each consists of many layers. For the complexity of this situation to be understood and to make sense of it, it is important to understand the many different layers, but also the context in which it unravels. It is in this situation that we set our point of departure and we use this point in the story as an entry to discuss the situation that is current in Hemavan in this very moment.1

1 Appendix 1, Following a trail, part of introduction

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introduction

This thesis is concerning the huge and rapid exploitation in the community of Hemavan and the consequences that follows. We specifically look at Hemavan, but we talk about issues that are not specific for it but that are rather quite general in its setting. Our experience is that the village and the community has been suppressed by Hemavan the resort. Issues that we refer to are all more or less consequences of an industry of visitors, and we as authors of this report are both painfully aware that we are as much a part of this industry as any other visitor as we frequently visit the area for its beauty. But perhaps that is also the very reason why we now attempt to understand, and also why it feels important that we now start this discussion. A discussion about how Hemavan is built by, and for, its visitors. Naturally our connection to the place adds a layer of subjectivity which we are constantly aware of, and such the reader should be too.

This report is building on the preparatory report with the same name, Following a trail.1 Through the preparatory report we built the conversation on a community in a mountain landscape through the discussion of four main themes, Erosion(erosion), Bild(image), Turism(tourism) and Landskap(landscape). As the addressed context is of such complex nature we found it appropriate to separate important layers into chapters and allow the reader to, themselves, narrate and connect information and knowledge in order to build an understanding.

The first chapter introduced the rural communities of (north) Sweden and howthe communities in these parts of the country, just like the mountains, suffer from erosion. The second chapter acknowledges the inequality that exists between the country’s south and north half which has contributed to the image of the northern half as something that is not produced by its inhabitants, but by its visitors. A reproduction of a whole place that we argue is today prevailing in many peripheral areas, and as one amongst them, Hemavan. In the third chapter we connect the first ‘Erosion’ and the second ‘Bild’ with what could be argued is both a symptom and a cure of both; Turism. We introduced the generally accepted view that tourism is the saviour of- and for- rural communities, but that actually there is little to show where such has actually been the case. Instead we argue that tourism, rather than strengthening the community, actively works toward producing the community as a simple reproduction of itself, an image. The fourth chapter is dedicated to the landscape, where a great part of the identity of the North lies, and how it has become a tool to attract people and actualize the region. How the landscape is the attraction but also the very thing that we want to protect the most.

1 Appendix 1, Following a trail 4 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

pictures: model explorations

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Simultaneously with Following a trail, we addressed the situation in Hemavan in the synthesis project Reproducing landscape, in which the focus was on the physical landscape and specifically the mountains. A project that led us through a process of form-finding with the mountain as form-generator and towards a language without solutions, yet consisting of open answers. Adapting and applying a method related to the perception of- and the relation between things manifested in art. Becoming an experiment of how things can be represented without being imposed in a univocal order but as complements and with multiple possible interpretations. Such this method is applied also in this episode of the project.

“In this way, even those artistic processes that seem most removed from our immediate concerns may in fact provide us with the imaginative categories necessary to move more easily in this world.” 1

In this report, and within the framework of a thesis project, we mean to continue the discussion of form-finding and the motor that drives this generator of form. Coming from a discussion on form-generating with a DNA from the landscape we change the scale and ask what it is that generates the form of our communities. What is the fuel of this motor and what are its processes in shaping the places where we dwell? Through the process of this work we touch upon subjects like power relations, planning processes, landscape rights and architectural means. We further state that there is not necessarily any solution to the situation simply solved by an architectural intervention, and therefore we discuss the art and intention of architecture relating to perceptive methods and the means of an open project. This is a thesis that we need to discuss, and a thesis with open questions for the receiver to reflect on rather than one offering a solution.

1 Eco, Umberto, The Open Work, p. 150 6 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

thesis question

What generates the form of the places we occupy, and do we share the power to generate their form?

method

We aim to disrupt the logic of a ‘solution-design’ in order to allow the receiver, as well as ourselves, to reflect and shape questions and possible solutions. By offering a looping narrative we recurrently visit the discussion on what is the purpose of an architectural project and what validates an architectural intervention. In all steps also questioning our role as architects. This narrative is intended as a method for collective and open research, and as we act in the mountain landscape of Hemavan, we will implement it to narrate through that specific place. We will put it in context with material that we collect in theoretical readings and on-site research. By engaging with the community through discussions with local inhabitants, as well as with members of the municipality, we support and contextualize our research.

As this thesis is a collaboration between us two authors, good cooperation and communication has been crucial for achieving a result that coincides with our ambitions. By constantly and critically discussing and reviewing each other’s inputs, a well supported method through cooperation has developed naturally through the work. The co-working has also made it possible to benefit from the full background of research of both authors and topics from previous studies became natural stepping stones into this area of research.

Stina comes from the topic of memory and identity which is directly transmittable to the project and area of Hemavan. Common questions as, who’s memories do we keep for the future? And who’s identity is represented in the future of a place? Anna has worked with topics concerned with the value of our environment and our natural resources, a question that is naturally present in the area of Hemavan which is surrounded by nature reserves. From it, questions emerge concerning to what extent it is reasonable to exploit the nature of a place? And whether anything at all is sacred and untouchable when great economic powers are present? Such the division of research and work through this thesis has in a large extent been according to previous projects.

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Picture removed due to copyright issues. Picture depicting an exploited landscape, used to sell properties in Hemavan.

pictures: site

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research

The narrative of this report follow the structure of the synthesis project as well as how we treat the whole nature of this thesis. As we do not attempt to reach, or argue for, a single solution, we instead aim towards offering a reading that is active and constantly reflecting. We provide clues as how to read and understand to enable reflection, supporting the reader with methods to interpret and build opinions themselves. Because, perhaps that is where a solution displays.

Umberto Eco speaks of a method when describing the work of Brecht, how ambiguity and points of tension are used as devises for reflection in the act of drama, and for that matter in the art of writing. Eco himself applies the concept of “openness”, meaning that the artist makes conscious choices to leave the arrangement of some constituents of a work to the public, or to chance. In his own words, “Here the work is “open” in the same sense that a debate is “open”. A solution is seen as desirable and is actually anticipated, but it must come from the collective enterprise of the audience.”1 We adapt this theory and seek to manifest it in this thesis as a tool in our understanding of solution-/non-solution design. In the context where we act, we wish to raise awareness and by that change the forces of intervention without the imminent risk of doing more harm than good.

Beyond an aesthetic complexity, design is generally seen as a process of how to efficiently solve problems and thus a single solution is often anticipated. This relation is discussed in The design of scarcity where we can read that the designer uses the pursuit of efficiency and the solving of problems to legitimize their professional role and the ability to overcome scarcity is both applied and defended.2 Design here is used in the essense of the verb and such it also applies to us as architects.

In The design of scarcity the writers say of the designer, that they define themselves as producers of new and that they build their definition of self on their creativity and creation of new, of freshness and of innovation. That the designer’s value ultimately lies in the object and what’s visible. It is implied that the designer is wrapped up in a monograph of the visible and that therefore the process of our practice should probably be exercised differently.3 This can be read as a critique not necessarily of the objects and the new itself but of the fictional need they provoke and the overall stealth of solution- design. The problem with solution-design is perhaps that it implies that the problem can be solved through it. It seems as though that all issues do not find their solution by designing them away. A problem is not always, and not in itself, a symptom of that something is missing and by succumbing to a solution-oriented process of practice we risk to only add to the unbalance already in place. We can question if the solution- design is opposite of the intention from which it arose, simply contributing to the problem it were to solve.

1 Eco, Umberto, The Open Work, p. 11 2 Goodbun, Klein, Rumpfhuber and Till, The design of scarcity, chapter Design 3 Goodbun, Klein, Rumpfhuber and Till, The design of scarcity, chapter Redesign 9 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

Discussion / This library of somewhat fully resolved architectural interventions along Kungsleden is a way to underline how the passivity in such projects is an antithesis to what we want to achieve. However, we present it without further adieu, letting the viewer build their own opinion and perception.

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Hemavan is a village in the north half of Sweden, in the mountain landscape close to the Norwegian border. It functions within Storuman municipality and so it is in the city of Storuman where all local government is working from, 146 km apart. The small community of Hemavan is today probably most known because it has become a tourist node for activities such as skiing and hiking, and as already mentioned it inhabits just under 300 people, but many thousands of people gather here during the peak seasons. Just as with most mountain landscapes it is in the valley that the settlements have grown and Hemavan sits in the valley connecting Norra Storfjället and Jofjället. It is a village, but to most people it is known as a resort. 1

picture: map of västerbotten

The community of Hemavan is built of generations that many still have presence in the area. Land has been passed on along family lines and the place has taken form of it. Early depictions of Hemavan talk of a unique landscape where the meeting of cultivated land and the vast and untouched mountain landscape, together exhibits a scenery that lack an equivalent. Today the area has become a node for tourism and the landscape that was common value is successively being exploited and privatized. We would even argue that Hemavan community has been suppressed by Hemavan the resort, and that powers of profit and exclusive tourism have taken over as the primary form-generator in the area. It is now a community within a resort, not the other way around.

1 Appendix no 1, p. 4 11 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

“The previous generation had a holistic view. And that this soil.. They called it mountain soil.. She’s both moist and muddy. She should be moved around as little as possible. Because, She’s alive. She moves.” 1

1 Quote, resident of Hemavan, interview, 2020-02-23, 10.10 AM 12 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

picture: personal photo of hemavan, 1960. used with consent from owner.

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There is an impending risk of simplifying a problem when efficiency of- and in itself solution is the preset. In this research it is so clear to us that there is nothing physically missing in Hemavan and therefore that our project can never be about an architectural intervention. This is why we discuss a non-solution oriented project as a method for lifting important questions and surfacing a much needed discussion rather than adding to this community which already suffers a ruptured balance. As the problem in many aspects lies with the act of adding, we cannot attempt to solve it by the same. A different approach needs to be tested. Perhaps it is as what Marcus Westbury argues, that a spatial problem must not be addressed by working with the hardware, but we might instead need to rewrite or hack the software, in order “to change not what the city is but how it behaves.” 1 Meaning that we first need to identify the software; the motor of form, to address.

“...landscape tells - or rather is - a story”2 Tim Ingold writes, and refers to a reading of the landscape as a compilation of the lives and times of all the predecessors who together have generated its form. The landscape is such an enduring record and a collective memory of all life that has dwelt within it and hence also left a part of themselves. This way the landscape is to some extent also an extension of its inhabitants. Ingold speaks of the archaeologist and the native dweller as groups that learn to read the landscape through an education of attention with a specific attentiveness to its system of clues. Ingold means that the archaeologists report of the place might seem authoritative against the story of the dweller but that we should resist this supposedly truer truth. Because we as beings from experiences, have no part in the report but we do in the story. The telling of a story is to conduct the attention of the reader, inviting them into it. It is to provide the tools and to enable someone to follow the tellers path and themselves to read the clues.

The strong identity of Hemavan is largely built of its grand landscape and it is also that which draws us to it. Yet, as argued in the preparatory report, the landscape is often sacrificed when capitalist interests and promise of growth applies, and even though there are regulations meant to protect it, most of them seem insufficient in acting3. Regulations can be problematic as they do not address specific parts of the landscape as beings, and such not as parts that of any reason need to prosper for its own sake. How it is and exists is always seen in relation to people which is perhaps most or only palpable when brought to court. Because landscape has no rights of its own, people have to prove that a violation of nature is also a violation of their own human rights.4 At least if we adapt the view of landscape as an extension of its inhabitants, the amount of exploitation in process at this moment in Hemavan, is but a violation of the place and such also of its inhabitants.

1 Goodbun, Klein, Rumpfhuber and Till, The design of scarcity, Chapter Context. 2 Ingold, Tim, Temporality of landscape, p. 152 3 Appendix 1, chapter Landscape 4 Earth Law Center, www.earthlawcenter.org/what-is-earth-law 14 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

picture: new kungsleden. private photo.

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The first declaration of nature’s rights equal to a juridical person was implemented in New Zealand, and the objective was the Whanganui River.1 The declaration exhibits an example of how a different type of relationship to nature and its components can be reestablished. The event is the answer to a centuries long conflict between two different approaches of relating to the landscape, the anthropocentric and the equal. Similarly to the description by Ingold, this landscape was accepted as a living being, and as something that can not be owned, therefore it should also have its own rights. In practise this means that someone will be assigned to speak for the river in legal questions.

“Unless the Maori right in the river is settled, properly acknowledged, and provided for, the people will be always on the back foot, responding, without sufficient resources, to complex planning proposals by which others assume control.” 2

When the decision was made that the exploitation would intervene with Kungsleden and that it was to be rerouted, not many objections against it was heard according to the Storuman municipality.3 It was not until october last year when the consequences of their intervening was really brought to the surface that it actually became a subject of discussion in the community, unfortunately much too late to stop the change. Here it is clear that the planning process follows a pattern in which nature has no given spokesperson. When it is not a natural part of the process nor an opportunity of economic growth, it relies on the people affected to take it on themselves to defend the values of the landscape that they are part of. Thus, the complex planning processes might be a software that we need to rewrite or hack. We should question if that is part of our role and if it lies in our power through architectural means to influence.

1 Kennedy Warne, A voice for nature, National Geographic, 2019/04 2 The Whanganui River, Wikipedia Environmental Policy and Law, 2012 IOS Press 3 Interview with plan administrator, Storuman municipality building, 2020-02-20, 4:10 PM. 16 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

AA DECLARATION ofof thethe rights rights of of KUNGSLEDENKUNGSLEDEN asas a a juridic juridic person person

We, authors of the thesis work Following a trail, hereby and with this document state that Kungsleden is an irreplaceable part of the landscape and an important link between human and nature.

We are convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not enough to recognize only the rights of human beings without causing an imbalance, and that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to also recognize and defend the rights of other beings in our culturally condensed community.

We recognize that the capitalist system and all forms of exploitation and abuse have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of the inherent environmental-, social- and cultural values of Kungsleden.

We state that there is today an impending risk that the values of this trail will suffer irreversible damage due to aggressive actions allowed by current legislation and the insufficient meassures of protection. Current legislation is insufficient and does not protect the trail nor the human right of a healthy and culturally significant environment.

We argue that Kungsleden is in need of stronger meassures of protection through ascribing it legal rights as a juridic person.

With this declaration we recongnize Kungsledens irreversible right to exist, to flourish and to evolve naturally in correlation with the Universal Declaration of Mother Earth’s Right’s. (Cochabamba, 2010)

Article 1. Defining Kungsleden 1. Kungsleden is a trail of living things. It is an enabler of access for the many to an awe- inspiring landscape of mountains and such it is also a collection of memories and stories of all that has passed it’s route.

Article 2. The rights of Kungsleden Kungsleden owns the right to... 1. naturally exist, enable and evolve 2. restauration, recuperation and protection 3. collect and safeguard memories from it’s being

Article 3. Obligations of human beings toward Kungsleden 1. Every person is responsible to respect and act respectfully in all relations with Kungsleden. 2. Damages caused by human violations of the rights declared in this document will be accounted for and the society will be responsible to restore the integrity of Kungsleden as well as the values lost.

document: a declaration of the rights of kungsleden as a juridic person

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Sverker Sörlin describes the process in Sweden when societies changed from rural to industrial from the perspective of the history of ideas, and that it evolved from having been about a discourse of moderation to becoming a discourse of opportunities. Quite frankly meaning that enough would never be enough again, and that the new community would fully rely on ideas of growth and prosperity. Sörlin refers to the liberal economist and advocate of economic welfare Adam Smith who deems that “the only person who finds true happiness is the one who also finds prosperity”.1 An ideology which Sörlin also means have become over-idealised in the western world and used to legitimize the conquest of capitalism.

When growth becomes both the cornerstone and the objective of all our social systems, what is quantitative and measurable becomes the important points of value. Sörlin speaks of how our relationship to the nature changes, speaking of opportunities, and how we came to view that relationship as a dualism in which the parts were not dependent of the other. Nature instead almost exclusively becomes an opportunity for growth, all in tandem with a growing anthropocentrism.2 In this discourse on which growth has a grip, Ingold’s view of the same relationship, where nature is an extension of its inhabitants, seem all too distant.

The recognition of oneself in Hemavan seem to change relative to the speed of exploitation. Visitors seem to relate more to the image of an exclusive mountain resort than to the community that the resort rests and relies on. The outwards posed image tends towards the image formed by- and for the visitors, thus omitting the residents. An image that in itself becomes valid for the place. This is a question of eroding an identity, and how it fades when the inhabitants possibility to situate themselves in a meaningful context which they can influence, is lost. This was discussed in more depth in last semesters report, but is important to emphasize, a view that we share with the inhabitants addressed.3 4 It might be that as a place grows in size and number of inhabitants (even though most are seasonal) we lose successively more of our influence on form. Foucault even argues that we have never had that power and that form has always been driven by influences on human relations rather than individuals needs, saying that; “you do not search for new techniques unless it was already in play and in that direction.”5 Thus, if form is shaped by influences, we all share the responsibility to be aware. It must be about reflection and by engaging in order to not fall in the trap of making trend-affected choices. We need to make conscious choices based on value systems, and such the opportunity to evaluate and actually make a conscious choice must be given.

1 Sörlin, Sverker, Naturkontraktet, p.94 2 Sörlin, Sverker, Naturkontraktet, p.89 3 Appendix 1, chapter Image 4 Interview with residents of Hemavan, on site, 2020-02-21, 10.10 AM and 2020-02-23 10.00 AM. “Our house was 440.000kr when i built it in the 80’s. Year after year the assess value is calculated on the whole area. So today it has an assess value of 1.8 million, which i then have to pay a property fee for.” 5 Foucault, Michel, Power, p. 362 18 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

Discussion / Placing the thesis somewhere in between art and our profession comes from the intention to reach a level of a meta-project addressing the irreversible situation that we find in Hemavan. To do so we wish to provide this document that is not solely an architectural drawing but that reaches to a wider audience.

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pictures: model explorations

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“Well, you can’t stop the development now, but you could at least regulate it. It can’t be let to happen without conditions. It is the way that it is being done that we are against.1

The sense of scarcity is relational, and it is only when the context alters the conditions that new wants are triggered. As underlined in an example by Karl Marx, a modest house will fulfill social demands and remain satisfying as long as it is one of many. Yet if someone builds a grand house neighbouring it, the level of satisfaction will diminish and the occupant “will feel more and more uncomfortable, dissatisfied and cramped within its four walls.” 2 This is directly relatable to Hemavan, where concrete examples easily can be found. It is the population of visitors that to a greater extent constitutes the form-generating machinery and thus form the built environment by adding. The village has been a modest place within a grand landscape highly esteemed by the residents; their livelihood and pride. But the footprint of visitors today live up to another image of the landscape, the exclusive resort, far from the image of a modest village. Also meaning, in a very direct consequence, that the newly exploited estates, and because the assess values are calculated based on all real-estate throughout all of Hemavan, will increase the assess value and thus also the property fee for all property owners in the region. The resident in a modest house in a modest location will therefore pay a price also economically for the exploitation.3 4

The environment that we live in and relate to as human beings is discussed by David Harvey from the perspective of economics, power and capitalism. He argues that we have abolished our civic right to shape and fulfill ourselves by giving up the power of shaping our surroundings in favour of private investors and big developers.5 By putting this in context, the definition of an identity of a community, in which this case the landscape is a big part of, is now regulated and shaped by speculative acts due to capitalistic means. Thus, the citizens as agents to nurture and preserve its own identity is diminishing.

1 Quote, Interview with residents of Hemavan, on site, 2020-02-23 10.00 AM 2 Goodbun, Klein, Rumpfhuber and Till, The design of scarcity, chapter Context 3 Quote, Interview with residents of Hemavan, on site, 2020-02-23 10.00 AM 4 The Swedish Tax Agency, https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/fastigheterochbostad/ fastighetstaxering/taxeringsvarde.4.515a6be615c637b9aa4153a6.html 5 Harvey, David, Den globala kapitalismens rum - På väg mot en teori om ojämn geografisk utveckling, p. 88. 21 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

Discussion / As an attempt of representation, we want to present a vision for the landscape, possibly a new way of looking at it. By doing so, we wish to nurture the identity of the community, strongly connected to the landscape and its resources in this context. It is to provide a portrait telling its story, manifesting it. It is not a proposed solution, but rather a way to disrupt the order of what is anticipated by us in this thesis and to then, in the best of worlds, change people’s perception and thereby influence reality.

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The role of the municipality is to create a vision for the community and to guide it in that direction. As tools to do so they have plan monopoly and develop guiding comprehensive plans and detailed development plans to regulate the direction of the community and built environment.1 Since many years, Hemavan has received great interest from major investors who wants to be part of the expansive period and development that this village is currently experiencing. Hemavan, as previously introduced, is located within the municipality of Storuman and within the county of Västerbotten. The municipality is large geographically yet rather small in function and in number of inhabitants, thus its resources are not relational to its area.

We have dedicated much of the early discussions to the fragile relationship between the community and the municipality and we state that there are greatly unequal conditions between the central power and the periphery. A plan administrator within Storuman admits that they have a great challenge in tackling the speed of expansion in Hemavan and that “This is where everything wants to happen”2, simultaneously as the city of Storuman struggle with a continuously decreasing number of inhabitants. The municipality also state that what was planned for Hemavan is over exploited since long, meaning that there is currently no active holistic plan for the area and such further exploitation is executed ‘on the spot’.

“The detailed development plan does not add anything to Hemavan as a destination, rather it diminishes the experience of untouched mountain landscape.”3

1 PBL, Boverket,Översikts- och detaljplanering https://www.boverket.se/sv/PBL kunskapsbanken/ 2 “det är här allt vill hända” 3 Submitted comments on the detailed development plan for Björkfors 1:448, 1:5 m.fl. i Hemavan, Kungsplatån och Forsfallet i Hemavan (2018 0370-315), from alderman of Hemavan to Storuman Municipality. 23 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

picture: model exploration

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Hemavan is, as said, located in the Northern mountain landscape within the municipality of Storuman. And in the same way that Hemavan is geographically distanced from the municipality power in Storuman city (146 km)1, the investors that drive the majority of development in Hemavan today are too. We make an example of the developer Hemavan Fjällkedjan AB because it is them that are exploiting Kungsleden, this does not mean that equally is not happening also with other actors in the area. Fjällkedjan AB is a subsidiary to the Norwegian corporation HHO Holding AS, with directors from both Stockholm and Mo i Rana, Norway.2 The distance between the power and those affected is experienced clearly contributing to the lacking connection between the developer and the actual community3(even though the name implies otherwise). Inhabitants speak of an exploitation in which profit and growth are the sole driving forces, and that in the trace of the development is a community left with broken promises and a lacerated nature.4 Hemavan Fjällkedjan AB clearly has a strong vision to generate profit for their shareholders, but it deems obvious that they lack one at a community level.

It was made clear by a plan administrator at Storuman Kommun that “the detailed development plan is not aiming to regulate and restrict, but to enable to build.”5 The plan enables through legal direction and it makes little if any attempt at demands and/ or specific requirements. Stating the obvious that, the municipality by that waives the right to influence form and instead trusts the developer or the individual property owner to make a conscious choice in building. Adding an additional layer to this is the regulating document that the developer establishes between them and the individual buyer, note, not between the municipality and the developer. Contract appendices that regulate the actual design and form of the future built environment6, and in practicality meaning that the profit driven corporation in question are here the major influence of form and such also the result of the built environment.

In a situation like this, the importance of trust and kept promises is of high importance; this applies to all actors at play. Thus, when putting trust in the developer to such great extent, it is a big deal to the community who already lack of trust towards them, as well as to the municipality, due to earlier experiences. This was made clear by the alderman of Hemavan who expressed it as “trust is the glue on which society rests..”7 concerning the fact that the new detailed development plan entailed the news of further expansions of private holiday homes, instead of something strengthening the community. It awoke a feeling of being fooled of possibilities that earlier had been promised, and the mistrust towards the municipality and the developer grew bigger.

1 Appendix 1, Following a trail, p. 4 2 https://www.merinfo.se/foretag/Hemavan-Fj%C3%A4llkedjan-AB-5567190300/2k2k7j0- imqq/styrelse-koncern, group structure of HHO Holding in relation to Hemavan Fjällkedjan AB, 2020-03-24. 3 Interview with residents of Hemavan, on site, 2020-02-22, 10.10 AM 4 Submitted comments on the detailed development plan for Björkfors 1:448, 1:5 m.fl. i Hemavan, Kungsplatån och Forsfallet i Hemavan (2018 0370-315), from alderman of Hemavan to Storuman Municipality. 5 Interview with plan administrator, Storuman municipality building, 2020-02-20, 4:10 PM. 6 Storuman kommun, Detaljplan för Björkfors, 1:448, 1,5 m.fl i Hemavan, 2019-05-24, p. 10. 7 Submitted comments on the detailed development plan for Björkfors 1:448, 1:5 m.fl. i Hemavan, Kungsplatån och Forsfallet i Hemavan (2018 0370-315), from alderman of Hemavan to Storuman Municipality. 25 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

Discussion / With a perception following that of art, we can understand situations and things without imposing a univocal reading, as if it were more legitimate, and instead promote several elaborations and models of equally valuable projects. Thus adapting the poetics of an open project.

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picture: map new development

27 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

The power relation between Storuman municipality and the developers is also not seamless and thus worth a bit of attention. As with any profit driven enterprise, the role of the developer is towards its own shareholders, and is to create profit by following the outlined business concept. As the framework of the planning process allows a developer to put forward a fully resolved detailed development plan1, and if it mostly goes in line with the more general comprehensive plan made by Storuman municipality in 20112, the municipality find themselves in a precarious situation and in position to potentially escape huge expenses, they will undoubtedly be inclined to accept.

Hemavan Fjällkedjan AB has developed complete detail plans for the area of exploitation, all expenses around infrastructure, land leasehold etc. are paid for, and it is for the municipality to either accept or not. The fact that the municipality thus can avoid enormous costs can easily be seen as a win-win situation, but the sacrifice is the possibility of forming the environment within a democratic process of making conscious choices grounded in value systems that aim to benefit all the community. The citizens would indirectly be in a position to influence and shape the outcome.

The reality entails a story in which the developer have put forward detailed development plans and the municipality have accepted. As mentioned in last year’s report, the local government in some places have little actual power in favor of major corporate investors. It can thus be difficult for local politicians in a rather small municipality to intervene in the plans put forward. A power-balance that raises an issue of centralized decision- making and/or democratic procedures.3 The distance between the power in central Storuman and the peripheral Hemavan, in combination with a detailed development plan catered to the wants of a developer, displays how the power has practically shifted from the municipality to the developer.

“We have repealed our right to create ourselves, and given the money the right to create us, by passively accepting or thoughtlessly adopting reconstructions of our everyday lives as results of projects that lies in capitalist interests.” 4

1 Storuman kommun, Detaljplan för Björkfors, 1:448, 1,5 m.fl i Hemavan, 2019-05-24. 2 Storuman kommun, Comprehensive plan for Hemavan, 2011. 3 Appendix 1, Following a trail, p. 16 4 Harvey, David, Den globala kapitalismens rum - På väg mot en teori om ojämn geografisk utveckling, p. 88. 28 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

“Town and country planning has today become an unquestioned shibboleth. Yet very few of its procedures or value judgements have any sound basis, except delay.” 1

1 Banham,R, Barker, P, Hall, P, Price, C. Non-Plan: An experiment in freedom 29 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

pictures: model explorations

30 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

The power to form our environment have perhaps never in any greater extent been ours, either as an indivisible in a greater flux of influences or as an imperceptible of a corporates march to profit. It seems impossible to reach a state of generating noticeable form as an individual or perhaps common, but Non-plan, an experiment in freedom is really an idea of just that, stating the difficulty for anyone to decide what is best for anyone but themselves. The writers challenge planning processes which they mean really just is an attempt for the few to make choices for the many. It shows a desire to involve people in shaping their own environments.1 The somewhat utopian idea fully depends on the absence of forces of influence and/or capital, yet it intrigues as it speaks to individual sense of responsibility and value systems. The non-plan is really a system hacked, an anti-plan, and it deems that the planning process is not a single solution.

That the municipality sells off huge areas of land to private actors and such cutting off more and more land from the common landscape, is in itself problematic. Concretized in the limitation of the unique right of public access2, which already has decreased dramatically in the area due to previous exploitation. Additional to that is that we also find Kungsleden in one of these developed areas. The rerouted part of which, will now pass through a new area of holiday homes and infrastructure tunnels, instead of the previous route, with characteristics of a natural trail formed by all those who have walk the path. It is an extension of its inhabitants. The detailed development plan further state of public areas, roads, pedestrian roads, parks etc, that the responsibility for them lies upon the property owners.3 Thus meaning that the new route of Kungsleden falls under ownership, and the maintenance and care for the entrance to the mountain landscape now relies on a private effort of future holiday home owners to care of it.

Polanyi elaborates on an assumption previously made by Marx, that the capitalistic unregulated free market only would be able to survive if it were to demolish its own source of prosperity, namely the nature (land) and the people (worker). Thus, he states that if we set the market free to control the people and where and how we live would lead to a destruction of society. By ruling the labouring human, the market would then possess the physical, psychological and moral entity that builds us, and the nature in turn would be reduced, as well as its resources provided.4 Thus the argument discusses the consequences of a capitalistic system treating the elements of the fundamental fabric of life, such as landscape, culture, and labour, as products cultivating growth even though they might never have been intended to function as such.

1 Banham,R, Barker, P, Hall, P, Price, C. Non-Plan: An experiment in freedom 2 Allemansrätten: “Sweden’s Right of Public Access is a unique institution. It gives us the freedom to roam just about anywhere in the countryside as long as we do not disturb or destroy. We owe to this right many of the opportunities for outdoor recreation that we enjoy in Sweden.” Swedish environmental protection agency. 3 Storuman kommun, Detaljplan för Björkfors, 1:448, 1,5 m.fl i Hemavan, 2019-05-24, p. 14. 4 Polanyi, Karl, Den stora omdaningen: marknadsekonomins uppgång och fall, p. 87-88 31 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

Picture removed due to copyright issues. Picture depicting historical portraiture.

Discussion / The purpose of advocating a strengthened legal voice to the landscape and its capacity is to provide it a proper dignity. In the same way, we intend to use portraiture to dignify it. As portrait represents identity, whilst being a strong and enriched method within the profession of representative art, we wish it to act as a validation to this fundamental element. By building the story with this kind of instrument and in such way, we which to disseminate the situation to a wider audience than those reachable through architectural drawings, those outside the profession. Such, this combined with the universal language of a sort of storytelling is used to improve the understanding of the situation, still giving the viewer the possibility to choose where to position themself by connecting the dots, and perhaps also present his/her own solution.

32 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

The discourse of architecture has shifted and the whole value-system in which we place it has changed. When the value is defined by the market it lies on the promise of economic wealth, and such it attempts to achieve effectivity and profit by cutting down costs and as a direct response to that also eliminating other values. Well-being, longevity and appropriateness are all such values.1 This statement is, and will continue to be, relevant to us as architects. What, how and when architecture can affect the world we live in has become a revisited discussion during this work, and the plain conclusion can be drawn that we can not advise how to live in the built environment, but in the best of worlds we can affect the systems through the processes or our profession. That way architecture can have positive effects on reality at least when the intention of it coincides with the collective and the practice of the people.

This document is a critique towards a handling of landscapes and communities when planning- and altering them, not only in Hemavan, but in many places where similarly is happening. Generators of form, that we might or might not have an influence over, set acts in motion that are irreversible, and thus can make violations that are too. We can not see or even sense most of the influences that shape, but as we become aware of them we have a shared responsibility to act on them. If this thesis is an attempt of agitation to make aware certain means of constant processes, then our intention is to finds new ways of interpreting them. If we can see a system of structures and understand their consequences, then we can perhaps consciously act differently ourselves, in order to change those systems bit by bit. Although we try to answer the questions that we raise and we are aware that even though a solution might be anticipated, we can not offer just that.

“Nothing is fundamental. That is what is interesting in the analysis of society.” 2

The intention of this thesis was to create a 1:1 installation on site, to install without necessarily intervening. Placemaking within the framework of an artwork, but in an architectural gesture. This as an action to operate a discussion together with the community and concerned actors and to influence on site. The situation since has changed in the world and we intend to instead collect the work produced into another type of compiled document with which we can augment the relationship between the place and whomever else it concerns. With the connection to the site already established since long, and with additional personal connections developed through this work, we do not see an end but a continuation of this work to follow when possible. Following the same agenda as before, but through a different media.

The intention is then for this document to serve as a collection of fragments, memories and interpretations of the site that all enhance the narrative and allow for reflection.

1 Goodbun, Klein, Rumpfhuber and Till, The design of scarcity, chapter Economics 2 Foucault, Michel, Power, p. 356 33 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

intended thesis diagram

34 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

“The roads reached this place, the communities and them who lived here. The inhabitants washed away along them, village after village was drained and emptied, like a river in spring washing away all that is loose and able to move…” 1

1 “Vägarna byggdes hit, in till byarna och dem som levde här. Befolkningen rann bort efter dem, by efter by dränerades och tömdes, det var som en vårflod som drog med sig allt löst och flyttbart…”, quote freely translated, Elisabeth Rynell, Hohaj 35 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020

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