White Arkitekter completed the Hasle Harbour Baths in Denmark in 2014 WHITE ARKITEKTER


Neighbourhoods will extend from the square and the central axis of Malmvägen – one of Kiruna’s main streets – to form ‘urban fingers’ reaching into the Arctic landscape, ensuring no house is more than three blocks from nature. This was something the residents were


very clear about, says von Schmalensee. “Having nature so close to the town makes it very different from other places in the world, and its spectacular climate creates a very special mood. People told us they wanted to still be close to nature. We had the idea that the town should be very dense at the centre, but also at the same time very close to the surrounding landscape.”


TOURISM Kiruna is a good place to see the northern lights and is just 15 minutes from the popu- lar Ice Hotel. However, visitors tend to pass through it, staying a night before moving on to better known destinations. “This is a real


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When White Arkitekter was founded by Swedish architect Sid White in Gothenburg in 1951, the focus was on raising the quality of everyday life for Swedish families through the design of the home. Early projects included a housing experiment called Baronbackarna, which saw the traditional house redesigned to help with the problem of overcrowding in Swedish housing, and the Miljonprogrammet, a housing programme introduced by the Swedish government in 1965 to help improve the


Sid White


poor housing conditions in the country at the time, with the goal of building one million homes over 10 years. Today, White Arkitekter works across a range of sectors, with a particular focus on environmental design and sustainable masterplanning. The practice employs 750 people, in offices in Sweden,


Denmark, Norway and the UK. White Arkitekter has worked on a wide range of leisure projects, including Oslo Harbour Promenade, Oslo (ongoing); the Yasuragi Spa Hotel near Stockholm (2014); Väven, a cultural arena in Umeå, Sweden (2014); Southend Pier, UK (2012); Hasle Harbour Baths, Denmark (2014) and; the Stockholm Waterfront multifunctional building, which features a congress hall, banqueting hall and four star hotel and office space (2010). Monica von Schmalensee has been chief executive of the practice since 2010. l More: www.white.se


opportunity to create interesting places for tourists, to encourage them to stay one, two or three extra days,” says von Schmalensee. International interest in the project should help, as should building cultural and leisure attractions and hotels. Cultural events will also be an important part of the mix, and White Arkitekter has proposed the develop- ment of a city-wide cultural Biennial festival to attract international visitors to Kiruna and facilitate a dialogue with other global cities undergoing urban growth. Visitors to Kiruna can currently enjoy a tour of the iron ore mine, which houses a small


visitor centre, and there are long-term plans to turn the entire mine into a large scale visi- tor attraction once the ore has been extracted. With a project of this size and scale, plans


are sure to change, but one thing is certain – the rest of the world will be watching care- fully to see how it pans out. Moving a town may seem a one off, but as White Arkitekter’s Mikael Stenqvist has pointed out, rising sea levels and increasingly extreme weather may force other towns to consider it as an option. “It’s a fascinating project, and what could


be really interesting is the fact that we can export this model,” says von Schmalensee.l


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PHOTO: SIGNE FIND LARSEN


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