Future North Svalbard Future North Svalbard FUTURE NORTH — SVALBARD ON THE PAMPHLET SERIES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Publication details Future North — Kola The Research Council of Norway INTRODUCTION 10. PROJECT: 19. SVALBARD AS A Future North — Svalbard (RCN) and Vardø Restored. Janike Kampevold Larsen & AN (EXTRA)ORDINARY FLUID TERRITORY Edited by: Future North — Vardø Peter Hemmersam STREET Janike Kampevold Larsen & Peter Hemmersam Janike Kampevold Larsen This is one of three pamphlets that → 7 Alberto Ballesteros Barea and Eimear Tynan Andrew Morrison are outcomes of the Future North Nadine Schmauser → 95 project at AHO. They are designed 1. INVENTING AND → 64 Editorial assistance by: to complement more formal Vlad Lyakhov research outputs as well as present REINVENTING PLACE 20. ORDERING DISORDERED Eimear Tynan material from the territories and ter- IDENTITY IN 11. PROJECT: MEMORIES — SVALBARD AS rains the project team and adjunct LONGYEARBYEN: TOWARDS 78°13'13"N, 15°28'1"E A RUIN LANDSCAPE Cover photos by: members travelled and from where Eimear Tynan we were based. The pamphlets offer A POST-MINING CITY? — CENTRAL GROUND, Jérôme Codère Brona Keenan a mix of materialities and media, Aileen A. Espíritu LONGYEARBYEN → 100 Minh Tin Phan and Kari Tønseth showing experimental writing, → 9 Ka Yeung Chi Hans Eriksson student projects and reflections on research. → 68 21. VULNERABLE SVALBARD Pamphlet series design: THE ART OF SVALBARD, MAY 23– Hans Eriksson NODE Berlin Oslo On NODE Berlin Oslo: JUNE 1, 2015 12. PROJECT: → 102 NODE is a Berlin- and Oslo-based ISBN 978-82-547-0327-4 design studio founded in 2003 by Bill Fox BEYOND THE RIVER Anders Hofgaard and Serge Rompza. → 14 Berenice Rigal 22. RETRACING FAILURE Published by OCULS at AHO: The studio works collaboratively → 70 Brona Keenan www.oculs.no across various media for a diverse www.aho.no range of clients from individuals to 2. A FLUID LANDSCAPE → 104 institutions, focusing on print, Kathleen John-Alder 13. PROJECT: An outcome of Future North: identity, exhibition and interactive → 19 RIVERSCAPE BOULEVARD 23. SVALBARD SHORELINES www.futurenorth.no work. Besides studio projects, NODE gives lectures and holds workshops Alexandra Niedermayr and Charlie Laverty 2019 © Future North at art and design academies. NARRATA Martin Danais → 106 → 22 → 72 24. EVOLUTIONARY 3. PLACE-SPECIFIC ARCTIC 14. PROJECT: ACCUMULATION URBANISM THE CITY CENTRE AS Rasmus Pedersen Peter Hemmersam & MEMORY → 108 Lisbet Harboe Minh Tin Phan and Kari → 29 Tønseth 25. FROM PHYSICAL → 76 LANDSCAPES TO DIGITAL 4. SVALBARD TERRITORY — A FLUID TERRITORY 14. MAPPING: Matt Poot Janike Kampevold Larsen PROGRAMS AND → 110 → 36 FUNCTIONS Minh Tin Phan and 26. INVISIBLE BOUNDARIES: 5. ACTIVE LAYERS Eakapob Huangthanapan STAKING A CLAIM TO THE Eimear Tynan → 78 NORTH POLE → 47 Audrey Touchette 15. PROJECT: → 112 6. URBAN DESIGN — COASTAL EXPERIENCE ARCTIC CITY: Robert Blödorn and CONTRIBUTORS LONGYEARBYEN Veronica Gallina → 114 Peter Hemmersam & → 80 Lisbet Harboe → 54 16. MAPPING: TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE 7. MAPPING: Robert Blödorn and URBAN DEVELOPMENT Alberto Ballesteros Barea HISTORY → 84 Raphaël Fournier & Berenice Rigal 17. PROJECT: → 58 LONGYEARBYEN TOURISM RESTAGED 8. MAPPING: Wai Fung Chu and INFORMAL MATERIAL Eakapob Huangthanapan CULTURE → 86 Simon Heidenreich and Benjamin Astrup Velure 18. PROJECT: → 60 ARCTIC NEIGHBORHOOD Raphaël Fournier and 9. PROJECT: Benjamin Astrup Velure A DENSER WAY → 90 Simon Heidenreich → 62 Introduction Introduction Janike Kampevold Larsen & Peter Hemmersam The Future North research project is study- changes that Svalbard and Longyearbyen is ing the relationship between social develop- facing. Working with students it has also ment and landscape change in the Arctic. mapped the forces at play in the territory, as Main regions for research are the Kola Pen- well as suggesting strategies for urban insula, The Norwegian Arctic town of Vardø, renewal and development in Longyearbyen. and Svalbard. This publication reflects two research The project is funded under Research trips to Svalbard in 2015. One was per- Council Norway’s SAMKUL program, one formed with a core group of researchers: that is particularly concerned with the pro- Peter Hemmersam (AHO), Andrew Morrison spective social impact of academic research. (AHO), William L. Fox (Center for Art + Envi- The project is placed at the Oslo School of ronment, Reno, Nevada), Kathleen John- Architecture and Design (AHO). Alder (Rutgers University), and Janike Central to the Future North project is to Kampevold Larsen (AHO). The second trip study places that are transforming as the was undertaken with two groups of students, Arctic region is under pressure from several one from AHO and one from Tromsø Acad- transformative forces, amongst them cli- emy of Landscape and Territorial Studies, a mate change with subsequent intensified joint master program between AHO and UiT, interest from the extraction and transporta- The Arctic University in Norway. Teachers tion industry as the significant drivers. As included Lisbet Harboe (AHO), Kathleen the polar ice cap is melting, and the summer John- Alder, Eimear Tynan (Tromsø), Mats sea ice extension diminishes, new areas for Kemppe (Tromsø), and Riccardo Pravettoni oil exploration and new sea routes are being (cartographer), as well as Peter Hemmesam planned. Some of the changes underway and Janike Kampevold Larsen. would have happened independently of cli- The two courses worked in parallel. The mate change. As an example, tourism to the AHO course was called Arctic Urban Design: Norwegian Arctic region, such as the city of Longyearbyen and the Tromsø course was Tromsø, the county of Finnmark, and Sval- called Arctic Territories: Svalbard as a Fluid bard are just as connected to the Aurora Territory. Work from the two studio courses Borealis as to receding glaciers, and not all is presented in this booklet, along with an prospecting of minerals and carboniferous introductory text to each course and essays fuels can be ties to climate change. from senior researchers on the project. Yet, Svalbard is one such place, in the European Arctic, that is experiencing a set www.futurenorth.no of changes, and as a result everything appears to be in flux. None of the discrete material component of the territory seems to be unaffected by climate change: ice, snow, animal populations, salinity of the oceans, vegetation, and weather patterns and intensities. At the same time, one sees an increase in the number of tourists, and not least, the researchers such as ourselves. In Longyearbyen, the prospects of a larger permanent population, new harbor termi- nals, melting permafrost, and changing wind and weather conditions pose particular ← planning challenges for a small community. Photo still from drone video by Riccardo The Future North project seeks to Pravettoni, 2015 address the complex web of forces and 6 7 Janike Kampevold Larsen & Peter Hemmersam 1. Inventing and Reinventing Place Identity in Longyearbyen: Towards a Post-Mining City? Aileen A. Espíritu In 2014, while visiting the research town of tries in 1925 was ratified, giving sovereignty Ny Ålesund on Svalbard, Christiana Figueres, of the archipelago to Norway within limits Executive Secretary of the United Nations prescribed by the Treaty. Of the stipulated Framework Convention on Climate Change regulations, what has given Norway most (UNFCCC), urged Norway to quit all coal power over Svalbard has been the strict mining on the Svalbard archipelago. She environmental regulations placed on any argued that there was a fundamental para- development activities on Svalbard with the dox between the climate change research exception of coal mining, which again points being conducted in Arctic Norway and the to the inherent contradictions between envi- mining of, arguably, the dirtiest of energy ronmental concerns and the global sale and sources on the planet, coal.1 It would not be the local use of coal. Figueres’ admonition that would lead to the Coal mining would form the backbone of decline and the temporary2 closing of Nor- industrialization on Svalbard, leading to the wegian3 coal mining on Svalbard, however, establishment of permanent mining settle- but rather world market forces. Decreased ments — two of which still exists today, the demand from China, and thus the low coal Norwegian town of Longyearbyen and the market prices, would lead to loss of jobs and Russian town of Barentsburg. Both of these Mining as public art an uncertain future for Longyearbyen. In the towns were built by revenues from and face of incontrovertible global forces and of employment in the coal mining industry. It is climate change, what are the strategies that this history and this deep-rooted mining local governments in the Arctic employ to identity of Longyearbyen, indeed of Sval- create sustainable communities able to bard, that has determined its path-depend- manage both boom and bust economies? ence on coal mining. And it would be this This short essay explores the possible identity that makes it difficult for the city futures of Longyearbyen as it redefines its and its mostly mining workforce from think- identity from a mining town to post-mining ing and planning beyond the pursuit of coal, urban place that foregrounds tourism and or another big resource industry. Hedging research as main drivers of its economy. its bets then that when coal prices rise in a few years, the mining operations would start HISTORY IN BRIEF again means that there is no planning for a post-mining future in Longyearbyen. Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago that 1 Elvind Molde, “FNs lies in the Arctic Ocean, just below the INVENTING AND REINVENTING PLACE klimasjef: — Steng North Pole, has captured the imagination of IDENTITY IN SECOND MODERNITY: A kullgruvene på Sval- self-professed explorers, scientists, adven- POST-MINING FUTURE? bard,” NRK 5 May 2014, accessed 26 Jan- turers, tourists, and the curious since the uary 2016, http://www. mid-sixteenth century. Economic activities Karl Benediktsson avers that the meaning of nrk.no/klima/_-steng- began with whaling in 1611 dominated by the “place” in the midst of transformation to kullgruvene-pa-sval- bard-1.11744050.