COMING HOME TO A TOPIC…..
Revitalization and Adaptive Reuse of Post-Industrial Complexes for Vibrant, Contemporary Use: Heritage, Community, Space, Culture, Commerce
I had to go digging in my archives this past week for a paper on a project I conceptualized and for a Sustainable Cities course I took in 2001 as part of the International Masters in Spatial Planning Program at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
At the beginning of the program, one of the professors in his welcome to the students, proposed that one of the goals of the program was to train the students to be ”Managers of Change”.
The paper I had gone digging for was called ‘The Revitalization of Kvarnholmen’ a study of the historic industrial complex & area on a peninsula in Nacka Municipality, south-east of Stockholm, Sweden. The Qvarnen Tre Kronor mill is a heavyweight of industrial architectural heritage. I was always taken with its gorgeous classic red brick facade.
I worked on the paper (image above of the 1st page of the 34-page document in comments) with 3 fellow students- 2 Swedish land surveyors and 1 Bulgarian architect. Our approach looked at the history of the area and the heritage of the built environment and then was largely focused on different scenarios & partnerships that could ensue – the entire area was clearly on the brink of change & coming transformation.
Key authorities from Nacka municipality were present for our presentation & I recall it being a thrillingly practical moment to convey the results of our study on potential stakeholder opportunities, potentials for conflict, challenge & strategy.
I was not living in Sweden any longer when the transformation began to happen on Kvarnholmen in 2007, but when I returned in 2017 to live there again it was fascinating to revisit the ‘renewed’ area.
Adaptive reuse of such spaces is complex and dynamic, not uncommonly bringing up themes of gentrification and renewal, as well as the potential to preserve and educate on industrial heritage.
Pictured below is part of the complex on Kvarnholmen that I revisited so many years after those fresh-eyed moments as a student falling in love with the spaces and potential of historic industrial red brick complexes.
Excited to bring this very passion to lay the foundation for a comparative study of such complexes here in Poland.
-Annika
