In the last decades our unsustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns has led to the climate crisis we are now facing. To try to change the patterns we need to be more aware of the amounts of things, furniture and clothes we buy and then throw away, but also what the solutions to these problems could be. The importance of reusing has been the driving force for this project and my proposal is a physical space to manifest and change the way we consume. Spaces for collecting, storing, creating and redistributing things are placed out to make visitors and things move through the building to make a theatrical impression. The shelving system on the inside is exposing the things, furniture and clothes to the street and the surroundings.  The Reusing centre is a proposal that aims to add a public platform for reusing in Umeå that gives opportunity for a more sustainable lifestyle for the citizens. The project is intervening in the local company Balticgruppen’s planned development for Östra Station which is a connecting point between important centres in Umeå but also in Norrland. The central location makes the Reusing centre raise awarenessaccessible, visible and able to gather people and things.   Architecture from now on needs to be sustainable in many ways, for example in building techniques and design. But it is also important what programs we offer to the people. This proposal is giving space, knowledge and tools for reusing, exchanging, repairing and upcycling to the citizens of Umeå, as these possibilities and functions should be a right for all. The Reusing centre is an urban facility that in our daily lives could help us all to contribute to sustainability and change consumerism by increasing the value of our belongings.

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- How do we create a public space that can be used all year round? The square is an important part of the urban fabric, it is where communities are formed, and people meet, a non-commercial resource benefiting the inhabitants. They encourage chance encounters, diversity, a sense of communality, and democracy and are therefore key to a living city. These qualities are essential and must function year-round. An issue with the public spaces in Umeå is that they only function when the weather allows it. On rainy days and during the long winter season, people seem to retreat from the city’s squares into shelters, leaving them abandoned and acting only symbolic as public spaces. A common solution seems to be for people to reside in malls, cinemas, restaurants, or gyms. While this course might initially seem like a decent workaround, a majority of them come with restrictions requiring you to pay or limit the duration of your stay, turning public spaces into an exclusive commodity. I wanted to create a public square that functions all year round by encapsulating part of Renmarkstorget, an existing square in Umeå, thus adapting it to the Nordic climate. This enclosed and heated square contains seating areas, a bus terminal, public restrooms, and a light therapy room to meet passing people’s needs. The sheltered square is designed in an adaptable way to host events, food festivals, markets, and other cultural activities, which encourages longer stays in the square, promoting a shared sense of ownership of the square. The proposed enclosed square allows movement and has visual connections both through the building and vertically with large open courtyards between the levels encouraging people to take a break, explore the other floors, the building’s qualities, and the activities they offer. The square offers a space for life between buildings regardless of the weather.

The state of the world is changing. By 2050, The earth’s population will increase by 3 billion and building sector is asked to construct 3 billion new housing units inside urban centres. Since one of the fundamental needs is food, agriculture sector also needs to adjust itself to this growing number of people. Nevertheless, in 2019, Agriculture used 50 per cent of all earth’s habitable land and experts estimate that we need 109 hectares more land to cultivate however this amount of habitable land is approximately the land which is represented by the country of Brazil and 20 per cent more. Moreover, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations states that water use grew twice as much as population increase and agriculture already is using approximately 70 per cent of the global freshwater. At this point, experts like Professor Dickinson Despommier suggests that the only way humanity can tackle its future food safety issues is to find ways to introduce vertical farming inside Urban centres. The High Garden project is resulted by the world state today and is trying to find an architectural solution to the mentioned issues. It starts firstly by studying the issues more thoroughly and then tries to form a framework which includes and transcends them. It studies how the construction sector is acting now and how it can reorient itself to the situation whilst limiting its negative environmental impact. Then the thesis tries to understand the basics of vertical farming methods compared to the conventional geoponics farming as it is practised today and how it can integrate the better cultivation solution inside city centres. The last step of the theoretical studies of the project is to look at the history of integrated farming and EcoArchitecture. After understanding the theories of the issue, then the thesis starts to form itself as an architectural intervention using the architectural tools and methods and combining the studied disciplines. The result of the thesis is a modular configuration which can accommodate various activities such as aeroponic farming, local markets, zen areas, and drone subscription deliveries etc. Because of the modular construction of the project, it can adapt and adjust itself to different situations and it uses an algorithmic tool to analyse and study existing cities to find proper intervention points. Then it is attached to the existing buildings as a sustainable green extension solving some issues and revitalizing the dead city edges. Keywords: State of the World, rapid urbanization, population growth, geoponic agriculture, Co2 emission, greenhouse gas emission, aeroponic farming, modular architecture, sustainable architecture, EcoArchitecture

Kiruna is undergoing a massive transformation because its mine, the staple of Kiruna’s economy, has started to undermine the city. Since the mine is eating away the foundation that Kiruna stands on the city’s being relocated. In just 15 years, old Kiruna will have disappeared completely while a new city center has sprung up three kilometers to the east. Now the question on people’s mind is if the city will be recognizable once it has been moved piece by piece into another location. This project aims to find balance between old familiar Kiruna and the architectural language of the new city center.   Through research and urban planning, two blocks in the new city center have been chosen and reconstructed to simulate the atmosphere of old Kiruna. The courtyards within these blocks are each made to represent one of the two most fundamental aspects of the old city’s identity; Kiruna’s closeness to nature and the city’s rich culture. Fusing the two courtyards and identity aspects together is the catalyst itself, a glass building that will act host to exhibitions and events chosen by Kiruna’s own people. The building is meant to arrive with an audacity that inspires further bold ways for Kiruna to express itself inside the courtyards. Taking inspiration from aurora borealis, a natural phenomenon iconic for the region and making it an inhabitable structure lets the people experience northern lights in a whole new way. The building embodies an integral, yet untouched part of Kiruna’s identity and lets the people interact with it on ground level. In the same sense as the building materializes one aspect of Kiruna’s identity, the people of Kiruna are encouraged to share their thoughts on what else makes Kiruna unique for them.  With time and involvement of Kiruna’s own people, their ideas too can take shape inside the courtyards and create an even more unique atmosphere within Kiruna.

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We live in fast pace. Faster than our human bodies have ever done during our entire existence. Slowness is a quality that is hard to come by in our modern urbanized world which is dominated by speed and fast consumption.    We are extremely busy. We no longer follow processes. Our patience does not extend to ‘slow’ and ‘difficult’.  Things must be easy and complete. This sort of behavior can be translated into how we consume, how we treat relationships and how we practice our work. We have become impatient, and we demand that everything should always be within reach. And yet, even when things are presented to us in this way, we are not satisfied.     The privilege of choice has not made us more free but rather more paralyzed – not happier but increased our dissatisfaction. In translation, this means that a lot of qualities of everyday life is lost due to our fast pace. That slowing down could make us discover this, question the way we value things and thereby change how we consume.     This is a manifestation of slow stimuli addressing our senses. The projects explores if the inclusion of a consumer in producing a product could be important in the perceived value of a product and how that could affect consumer patterns. This will be stated through a proposal hosting analogue machines, demanding the user to invest time as they themselves produce a cup of coffee whist enjoying the sensual qualities the process provides. It uses coffee as a vechicle for doing so, and the use of coffee should therefore be taken metaphorically.   (Slowness is luxury. This proposal encourages you to take your time and experience processes. Enjoy the attention and care. And through this, celebrate everyday experiences and enjoy your coffee.)

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On a national scale, statistics relating to moving patterns shows that youths and young adults are the ones who tend to move the most. The case in Västerbotten is similar as in the rest of Sweden and many municipalities are experiencing a population decline. This thesis aims to look into the motives behind moving from the perspective of youths and young adults and through that propose a strategy to strengthen the place attachment youths and young adults feel to their home municipality. The research is centered around Lycksele in Västerbotten. The research questions that the thesis aims to seek answers for are; What could an architectural strategy that aims to support youths in their leisure time and also strengthen their connection to the area look like? and What programmatic aspects are important to consider in such a strategy? The thesis investigates spatial needs from the perspective of youths and young adults which have been investigated through literature studies and action based research focused on interviews and a workshop. Four themes were common in both interviews and the workshop, these were; closeness to nature, possibility of work, valuable leisure time and a sense of home. To understand how an urban strategy can respond to the themes, strategies applied in other municipalities have been analysed. A finding was that in order for strategies to attract more inhabitants, they need to have a holistic approach and offer a complete lifestyle. Creativity is a theme which came up during interviews and literature studies as a possible platform around which an area can become considered as more attractive. The proposal is an urban strategy which aims to respond to the common themes from interviews and the workshop by enhancing and encouraging activities taking place and activating social space. This proposal suggests a strategy which aims to strengthen the notion of sense of place to enhance place attachment and through that possibly invite more young adults to move back in the future.