Yiran Wang

In Northern Sweden, Svappavaara once represented the pride of Sweden’s mining industry since 1960s. Ralph Erskine proposed a comprehensive utopian vision plan for this mining town, apart from a large apartment building Ormen Långe and a few terrace houses that were realized, this vision remained a radical fantasy of an Arctic reality. Svappavaara’s residents feel the town is merely an appendage to the mining industry.

The scale of mining activities has significantly impacted the town’s population and land area, Svappavaara and the two mine pits have been on ‘shifting scales’ since the 1960s. In the near future with the end of the mines’ lifespan (by 2035), the cessation of mining will break the town’s dependence on its former industry, and the scale of Svappavaara may further shrink or expand. After 2035, with the decline of industry, both the town and the mine are no longer facing the production, the land is back to nature, and the town is back to people. Svappavaara provides a near-perfect experimental setting for studying the transformation of small towns dependent on a single industry.

Led by Svappavaara’s historical research and on site field trip, this thesis views the shrinking industry and shifting scales spaces as potential rather than failure. This thesis proposes to reorganize the landscape along from the town to the mine, reuse the landscape and materials to develop the land into a unique place that carries Svappavaara’s unique history. A series of small, experiential spaces centered around the surrounding landscape are embedded along the 2km’s route, ultimately guiding people to a landmark within the mine. The building in the mine pit is a mining museum and archive to response the mining history and further potential, which provides both Svappavaara residents and tourists opportunities to experience and deeply read the mine pit.