Hello, everybody!
Yes it’s been a while the blog did not came with good and happy news. But these days are over.
Let me introduce you “the ROUND 1”.
This first event opens a series of 3 battles, the two first ones will be held at KTH Arkitekturskolan in collaboration with Onsdagsbaren, at the great finale will take place on Lövholmen at the end of April.
The Round 1 is scheduled on March the 4th at 6pm at Nedre Ateljén.
To join it is quite easy, just gather a team with friends (2 to 3 people), bring a laptop and everything you want to produce a project and subscribe at architectural.battle@hotmail.com
The theme for the battle will be given Wednesday the 4th at 6pm, then you will have 1 hour to produce a project “live” and 3 minutes to present it to the audience. The audience will elect the favorite project and the winner will be awarded a wonderful price.
So come and join the fun!

Battle’s orientation.

The aim of the event is to develop micro projects activating the site during the period separating the current state of the site and the time when all the buildings will be built.
What does motivate the uses of the city beside expensive programs trying to set a city on the world map (Dream of the Bilbao effect, wish to have skyscrapers…).
The soul of a district is not only the result of its structure/architecture but also the way people uses the unplanned fragments and how they do appropriate a territory. Architects/artists/users may reveal potentials of a place by creating low-cost temporary installations. By revealing its potential the site is no longer seen as a finished product but as a ground were life and activity may grow.
In that perspective the architect/artist/user takes the role of a gardener planting seeds for the future.

Aerial view Lövholmen

The site of Lövholmen

Lövholmen is the last industrial remain situated in the inner city of Stockholm. During the second half of the 19th century the industrial revolution shaped the city that we today try to transform according to our new standards of living. Lövholmen used to be situated then on the outer border of Stockholm and close to the communication infrastructures of the time.
Since the end of the second half of the 20th century Lövholmen has become more and more part of the center of the city. The industries are slowly leaving the site and the only activity left are a cultural center, Färgfabriken, a cement factory, Cementa, a secondhand shop, Stadsmissionen, and a few artists’ studios.
By its situation Lövholmen represent a lucrative potential residential area. And as a matter of fact plan of building 850 apartments are already in the mind of Stockholm City.
The question is how a site can be handled in order to keep or develop its identity even if radical changes are operated on its structure. Can the uses of a place be led by architects, artists or more generally by its users?
The uses of a site are as important as its structure and both inform each others on different levels. But unlike the structure the uses are seldom planned but more a result that is depicted or just lived.