A place in between places

Abstract: Skellefteå is calibrating its position in multiple overlapping maps, sometimes located in the centre and sometimes in the periphery (if those are even relevant). It is a place in between places. A geographical periphery of Europe that becomes one of the centres of production of one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The favourable policies to facilitate multimillionaire investments in green energies have not had corresponding effects on the people who are needed for these enterprises to realise. The “green revolution” is bringing hundreds of people from all over the world for jobs in the new sector, changing the landscape and culture. Migration policies, urban development, social and educational plans are not catching up to the challenge, leaving the protagonists of this revolution in insecure living and working conditions. New institutions and spaces are needed to accompany these industrial reforms. On the other hand, the people interviewed in this project express a lot of hope and enthusiasm for the future. After years of economic stagnation and isolation, a new landscape is forming. The project has focused on designing a bridge that is a generous and open superstructure, ready to be appropriated by its occupants in various levels of commitment. Designed to be part of the process of transformation of the city instead of an imposition. The proposal is therefore other bridge, which is neither bridge nor building. A public space that is in continuous negotiation of its own rules.