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
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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 3 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020 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 how the 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 5 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020 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. 7 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020 Picture removed due to copyright issues. Picture depicting an exploited landscape, used to sell properties in Hemavan. Picture removed due to copyright issues. Picture depicting an exploited landscape, used to sell properties in Hemavan. pictures: site 8 anna hellsing . stina nordström . uma5 . thesis 2020 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.