RECLAIMING KIRUNA : Ecological reclamation of post-exhaustion Kiruna mine

Abstract: In brownfield regeneration models, extraction sites are often left out of the question because of degradation, severe contamination, or economic viability and are usually abandoned, after the minimal remediations. These exhaustions not only impact the environment and economy in spatial relations but also influence the growth of the communities cultured by them. With millions of abandoned sites around the globe, there is a demand for building a vision that develops - the ideas of emergence and diversification over time and space, as a base framework for similar towns and communities before they disappear. Underpinning the urgent need and evolving theme of ecologies, 'Reclaiming Kiruna' is an investigation of a vision for a post-exhaustion site of Kiruna mine, which is the world's largest underground mine, by developing landscape ecologies in the present framework that builds and adapts with time and space before the mine gets exhausted. The project reveals the concept of landscape as an amalgamation of production and recreation ecologies, synergizing with the existing potentials of nature, resources, and society. The work focuses on translating the knowns and unknowns of three time periods, synced with proposed plans of the New Kiruna settlement area, through programs of care and thinking that involve, engage, and encourage people (of Kiruna) in redefining the image of Kiruna beyond just a mine. The project unfolds new prospects offered by planned urban transformations, mining systems, and changing climate, which are integrated into building new economies and relations. The project is limited by the uncertainty of the future but attempts to initiate a dialogue in finding new positions as urban designers to contest with the present frameworks in building alternatives of change and novelty, for a sustainable future.