Manskapet
The Royal Danish Academy Architecture, Design & Conservation
Bygningskunst og Kultur Finder Sted / Taking Place
2021
Oliver Dino Frederik Hedely Jansen 190377 190313
Anne Romme
Jonathan Houser
INTENTION
INHERITED WOUNDS
DIVERGENCE & ORGANS OF TECHNICAL EXISTENCE
ADAPTING CLIMATE
ICE NUCLEATOR
‘MANSKAPET’
REFERENCE
MATERIALS
POSITION
intention
The intention of this programme is to build a new crew house and wellfare premises in the vicinity of the Kiirunavaara mine, facilitating the needs of the workforce in the industry and mining operations. Working in the borderland between an alienating industrial complex, a damaged land and extreme climates, workers of the mine are prone to physical and psychological impacts, beyond ordinary work inconveniences. An array of issues arise:
Repeated underexposure of sun (potentially for seasons at a time)
Time consuming distances between mine, surface and town is problematic with the sparse breaks available.
Commuting from nearby/distant towns makes domestic life an inevitable and integral factor of the workplace.
Heavy Impact on sanitation and hygiene of the crew poses a detrimental effect to their psychological relation with lunch/breaks as ‘sacred’ free time.
Physical health hazards related to critical levels of dust, gas and noise and the inevitable risk of working with big machinery poses a psychological toll on the individual.
From the onset of these issues it is our intention with the project to work with the senses and our situated knowledge to create a comfortable environment for the crew members before, during and after working-hours. How is space perceived in darkness? Can the issues of hygiene, distance and time be incorporated in the spatial and functional organisation of the building? Can materials and details create a relaxing and homily environment?
Before we can begin to understand and study these questions in the coming project, we must first explore and identify the characteristics of the site/context. To do this we will; Analyse the industrially scared landscape and propose how to reconfigure our understanding of this, in order to take it upon us as a site. Discuss how the autonomous industrial building complex poses an interesting dichotomy with the contextuality of the local site, history and people. Discuss how we can consider the extreme climatic factors as integral and equal parts of the architectural design process. And propose a strategy for tackeling the issue of mans existence between these extremities.
To further understand the inner workings of a crew house we will also analyse Orjan Lunings original LKAB ‘Personalhus’ in Kiruna from 1963, in addition giving a short account of material values from the context. To round off we will explain our position and give a qualified example of a programme with required functions for the new building.
inherited wounds
On the outskirts of town lies a chasm. A gaping hollow, stretching along the Kiirunavaara mountain, into the edge of town, swallowing all in its path. In the wake of LKAB mining operations, ground deformations cause the local city of Kiruna to slowly sink into the earth, and alter the surrounding landscape in the process. The deformation zone above the mine leaves the town relinquished in ruins - a Terrain vague, neither city nor land - as willy ørskov claims “a place where laws scarcely apply”1. Simultaneously feeding and eating the town, the mine excavates exorbitant amounts of waste product, accumulating into rock heaps and depots, creating a new nature; an anthropocentric sublime wasteland on the unseen backside of the mountain.
The entirety of Kiirunavaara mountain and an increasing area of Kiruna town, have now been claimed as ‘sacrificial zones’ - environments deliberately damaged for industrial purposes in order to generate economic profit elsewhere in a consumerist society. Metaphorically we can describe these post-industrially damaged landscapes as ‘scarred’. Self-inflicted wounds upon the lived land, forever acknowledging the irreplaceable2. The scar as a term denotes a direct physical infliction on the ground, but also resembles a metaphorical and mental connotation to the infliction upon the history, culture, and existence of the affected society. Furthermore the scar highlights a process of acceptance and reconciliation of the past, pointing to a state, where we must come to terms with a new reality - we must learn to live with the wounds we have inherited, rather than being alienated by them.
We must reconfigure our relation to an earth in spiralling ecological devastation. As Donna Harraway explains - We must learn to stay with the trouble of living and dying together on a damaged earth. In fact she goes as far as to eschew the ‘anthropocentric’ term, in favour of what she calls the ‘cthulucene’, an epoch where humans and the ‘new’ damaged nature are inextricably linked3
How do we reconfigure our understanding of this ‘new nature’ and in extension hereof its potential values as an architectural context? First we must identify its contents as typologies in their own right. Large parts of the evolving landscape in Kiruna consists of rational constructions of waste and dirt depots, slack heaps and massive earth embankments the size of mountains. In contrast to this ‘constructed’ land are pit holes, de1 2 3 Willy Ørskov - Terrain Vague (Borgen, 1992)
Anna Storm - Post-industrial landscape scars (Palgrave, 2014)
Donna Harraway - Staying with the trouble; Making Kin in the Cthulucene (Duke, 2016)
formations and fall offs in the ground. All these typologies stand out as by-products of the excessive mining industry and thus stand in relation to the ‘completed’ iron production. The by-products however take on a character of their own with new forms and functions. These new forms must be seen and accepted as parts of the new nature and landscape. We can identify this new nature as a ’contemporary landscape’, characterised by aesthetic anonymity and lack of motive, in opposition to natures complexity as we know it. We must acquire this new contemporary landscape through articulation and aesthetic reflection, make it ours - the new nature of our time4.
As Christian Norberg Schulz explains; man dwells when he can identify and orient himself in an environment. Dwelling thus implies more than shelter - it implies a ‘place’ of character and meaning. But to encapsulate the spirit or ‘genius loci’ of a place, one must take into account the priority of the location and surrounding landscape5.
Through topographic mapping, we have examined these new land formations previously unaccounted for as parts of the landscape, and thus gained a broader understanding of the site in question. In an artistic approach, each prominent deformation and accumulation of the contemporary landscape has been assigned a name, hereby inscribing their importance as equals of the land. While this is the start of accepting the contemporary landscape as a context, we must go a step further. To fully grasp the context we must position ourselves on site, examining its potentials through photographic and written studies, to encapsulate its character, when visiting Kiruna.
A 670
A 667
Vastus colis
Vastus Trianguli
A 648 Scalare
A 642
A 604
Tentorium Hortis
Campestri
A 596
A 594
A 574
A 466
Eskhara
Vastus mons
Geminnae Aggeres
Catena Krasis
A 384 Khasma
4 5
divergence & organs of technical existence
On the cusp of Kiirunavaara, a network of autonomous structures begin to emerge. Protruding from the deformed and barren lands, plain industrial masses, cold and hard, line the periphery of the mountain. These entities stand like anonymous sculptures defining their environment and have become like a second form of nature - organs of technical existence6. There is an almost militaristic origin to the logistics of this industry. It treats space as a ground to be covered by movements and stasis7. One brings to mind Jules Vernes description of ‘stahlstadt’, as if he had gazed upon LKAB’s industrial sector while putting pen to paper8:
A dark mass, huge and strange, an agglomeration of regular buildings, pierced with symmetrical windows and surrounded by a forest of cylindrical chimneys, which continually vomit forth clouds of dense smoke. Through the black curtain, which veils the sky … a distant roaring is heard, resembling that of thunder. This erection is ‘Stahlstadt’ - Steeltown!
- Jules Verne (The Begums fortune)
Changes in our relation to nature can be interpreted by the built environment. Traditional industrial buildings were typically integrated in the landscape and in extension hereof had a local connection and functionality. At present, industrial buildings and complexes often attach themselves to infrastructural and logistical structures not necessarily related to the specific location. In this way they appear autonomous - separated from the land. This evolution in industrial structures has generated an engineered and logistical architecture, abstract and cleansed of any connotations of cooperative movements and histories past9. Characterised by globalised boxes and neutral vessels, exuding rationality and order they represent an architecture suspended to its absolute minimum, where workers are managed like machines, and often, by machines10. But make no mistake, hundreds of people work in the LKAB mining industry of Kiruna, leaving the question of their welfare and existence in a vast network of machines and logistics.
In his lecture on ‘Architecture without qualities’, Pier Vittorio Aureli explains abstraction in architecture as a reflection of a fundamental issue of modernity, which is the unprecedented problem of administrating the lives of the masses. Aureli establishes abstraction as a condition of modern phenomena rather than a style in itself11. In many ways the industrial complex in Kiruna takes on qualities in shape and form derived from a
Karl Ruhberg, Bernd & Hilla Becher - Anonyme Skulpturen (Art-Press Verlag, 1970)
Tadeas Riha, Steel Cities: The architecture of logistics in central and eastern Europe (Park Books, 2019)
Jules Verne - The Begum’s Fortune (ACE books, 1958)
Christina Capetillo - Det sammensatte (PhD Thesis, 2011)
Tadeas Riha, Steel Cities: The architecture of logistics in central and eastern Europe (Park Books, 2019)
Pier Vittorio Aureli - Design without qualities: Architecture and the rise of Abstraction (AA, 2013)
long lineage of post-modernist thinkers like Hilbersheimer and Le Corbusier. By extension the industry represents the modernist condition as explained by Aureli but in the scope of administrating the working class. Today, architectural design is oriented towards a capitalist world view, making industry an integral part of the design process. The alternative is a world view that existed long before industry, based on local, social and climatic conditions of a place. In fact, Norberg-Schulz’s argument, regarding the importance of topographic and contextual site specific implications on building culture, can be interpreted as a direct critique of the modernist condition and the vision of a ‘universal‘ architecture - thus also a critique of the industry we are met by in Kiruna.
An interesting dichotomy arises; What happens when the divergence of the contextually founded built environment and its industrial manufacturing intertwine? A new type of inhabited space must evolve both accommodating and functional, site-specific yet logistically autonomous. A synthesis of the ‘existential foothold’ as Norberg-Schulz calls it, and the modernist condition as Aureli explains. In fact, examples of this intertwinement, are fragmentarily present in LKAB’s earlier Industrial buildings in Kiruna. We see it in Hakon Ahlbergs central plant in Kiruna from 1960, an aluminium clad industrial block, exhibiting a watch tower boasting with Sami cultural interior decorations12. And again in 1963 in Orjan Lünings personnel building, where welfare of the crew was reflected through the interior organisation and warm comfortable pinewood walls, in contrast to the aluminium clad industrial exterior of the building13. When reading the work of dutch architect Hans Van Der Laan in the light of these examples, the dichotomy perhaps doesn’t seem so devoid of coherence. The warm habitable environment on the inside, and the autonomous fortified existence on the outside14
The inside of a House is for man a piece of habitable environment - while the outside where it confronts Nature, it stands for a fortified Human existence
- Dom H. Van Der Laan - Architectonic space (s2)
Having unfolded and defined some of the characteristics at play in the matter of architecture and industry, the question remains: how do we propose an architecture at once rooted in logistics and the modernist condition yet also contextually founded and for the people?
N/A - Arkitektur Nr. 7, Personallbyggnad för LKAB i Kiruna (1965) s. 226-228
12 13 14 Anna Björkman - LKAB:s Sovringsverk, Kiruna (Norbottens Museum, 2003)
Dom H. Van Der Laan - Architectonic Space (Brill, 1983) s. 2
adapting climate
In a land of infinite dark and blistering light, of winds devastatingly soaring and boreal cold a distant roar is heard in the night. The concern of climatic impacts on building culture, is an exceedingly relevant issue in the sub-arctic climate of the Kiruna municipality. In fact, life here extraordinarily depends on climatic considerations. The most critical period of this region stretches from October to March. During this time temperatures dip below sub-zero to -15°C. Sunlight is sparse, and limited between 7 to 0 hours during midwinter - Likewise midnight sun is current during summer. Winds reach extreme speeds of up to 30m/s, combined with snowfall this can cause critical ice and snow accumulations against built structures. Not strictly speaking climatic, industrial processes exude excessive clouds of dust covering the industry and nearby environment in a grey blanket.
Of the many considerations Norberg-Schulz contributed to our understanding of building culture, perhaps a widely overlooked datum in his equation, was the climatic factors at play in a given environment. If climate is not considered from the start it will not inform the early steps of the design phase16. For decades climatic factors have been considered a thing to expel in building construction. We propose a different approach considering climatic factors as elements in their own right. Rather than evading their eminence, can we embrace them? To make openings for light, to reflect or block it out. To lead or evade the wind. To keep water out or let it through. In essence to direct climatic material flow. Adapting the natural environment to the built structure. Not in means of ‘natural aesthetics’ or biomimetic technologies, but rather as equally integral parts of the architectural design17.
Upon further examination examples of these considerations exist in the very fabric of early industrial building culture of LKAB in Kiruna. Upon erection in 1960, the tower in Hakon Ahlbergs central plant stood shining in aluminium cladding, reflecting the midnight sun, when it was not visible from the ground - in a sense functioning as a beacon18. Another example is Orjan Lünings ore refinery in Svapavaara from the 60’s. Attached upon the refinery was a 26metre high iron wind organ. Through its pipes, the strong winds would make surroundings reverberate with nature’s own music19
The question remains: How can we consider climatic factors as integral an equal elements in the architectural design process?
Törncrantz Tintin - Tremors (The Stockholm Review, 2020)
Christian Hönger - climate as a design factor (Quart publishing, 2013)
Hiroshi Sambuichi - Sambuichi and the Inland sea (Toru Kato, 2016)
Anna Björkman - LKAB:s Sovringsverk, Kiruna (Norbottens Museum, 2003)
Daniel Golling, Multiple Authors - Kiruna Forever (ArkDes, 2020)
ice nucleator
To engage the issue of climate as integral factors elements, we propose a hypothetical instrument for our further field studies on-site. Prevalent in Kiruna are the elements of wind and sub-zero temperatures. Furthermore functional requirements of the programmatic considerations, reveal a steam by-product from boiler room and bathing facilities, which inevitably must be directed out of the building. Coalescing these three factors we propose an ‘ice nucleator’ compass. In theory the instrument will ‘harvest’ ice, in a metallic mesh cylinder, hereby determining ice growth in accordance to wind, temperature and material surface.
The principle is simple: A humidifier (steam). A mesh/material (membrane for catching the steam). Wind (Affecting the steams direction). Sub-zero temperatures (Freezing the steam on the mesh)
‘manskapet’
Upon this wretched land lives a resilient and hardy folk. Troubled and unseen they work in the dark of the deep. In LKAB’s mining sector in Kiruna hundreds of people commit to working in the mine everyday. A job not free of risks. In 2019 alone workers in the mine suffered 54 (classified) injuries throughout the year20. The critical issue of mining has caused a troubled and unreasonable history for the people and families involved. In 1969 a mining strike commenced that lasted for 57 days. ‘Gruvstrejken’ as it was called confronted the income, welfare and differences between blue collar and white collar workers. Much has changed, yet the welfare issues related to working in the mine are still at large. Though human workforce has diminished in recent years in light of automation, human attendance in the mine is still largely inevitable in the long foreseeable future. Machines grow larger, and the need for better working environments increase. In his documentary ‘Die Nordkalotte’ Peter Nestler recites a poem by the miner Henning Panzere of the exhaustive hardships handed down through generations of mining21:
We and our fathers have drilled and blasted and loaded. Until the might has left us. We drill, blast, load again and again. The drill bit is sharp, the power of the loading shovel good, and the explosive fusillades roar under the mountain. Regardless, even though injured, the mountain still stands.
- H. Panzere (miner) - Die Norkalotte, Peter Nestler
Having established an understanding of, respectively, the climate, industrial environment and the contemporary landscape, one begins to wonder: How does man place himself between these extremes? In a scarred wasteland, a logistically sublime built environment and the extremities of climate, the fragilities of our existence becomes evident. Rather than engaging abstract and philosophical concepts, perhaps the sufficient requirements for tackling this issue lie in the very basic needs of ‘existing’ as a human being. To understand this we must use our own senses, memories, and past experiences to identify what it means to exist in space as individuals with social, cultural and general needs required for a comfortable existence. A key to this study lies in the term ‘situated knowledge’ coined by Donna Harraway22. The concept that each
20 21 22 LKAB Bladet Nr 6 (LKAB, 2020)
Peter Nestler - Die Nordkalotte (1991)
Donna Harraway - Situeret Viden (Mindspace, 2018)
of us contain embedded knowledge, affected by concrete historical, cultural and social values experienced throughout our lived years. This approach benefits from the aspects of general human observations as an offset for appropriate proposals. Yet it also carries potential implication that social, cultural and historic factors past will constrain and limit the construction of knowledge itself. A balance must be sought.
Based upon the considered strategy of working with our situated knowledge and exempting the issues stated in our intention, we will refrain from assuming the needs and requirements of the workers until further on-site understandings have been established, in risk of a prejudiced outcome. Because of this we will only state the ‘known’ work positions related to the programme and what they might entail below.
DRILLERS
LOADERS
TRANSPORTERS
SPRAYERS
MECHANICS
ADMINISTRATION
STAFF
The driller is in the front if the process of making way for the tunnels. They operate the machines which drill the holes where the explosives are being placed.
The loader is the person in charge of explosives. They charge the holes prepared by the “driller” with an explosive substance called Kimolux.
Transporters are carrying the mined stone to the self-driving trains. The transport is done with dumpers.
Concrete sprayers reinforce the mines walls to ensure that no stones come loose, or cracks develop.
Mechanics are the ones taking care of all the machines. Mechanics works both in the mine and in the enrichment.
Administrators are taking care of all day-to-day responsibilities regarding the crew house.
Kitchen staff manages everything regarding food for the workers.
This elongated staff building was drawn by LKAB:s own in-house architect Örjan Lüning. It was built between 1962-63 and is located on a height north of the central plant overlooking the Kebnekaise mountains. Örjans precision with functions, material, and ability to incorporate the human into his building is an inspiration for us.
The workers arrived at the staff house by bus from Kiruna in the morning and from the elevator shaft from the mine by lunch. Before they entered the common areas from the mine, the workers had to go through a cleansing process of both mind and workwear. The cleansing consisted of a five meter long and ten-centimeter-deep basin, followed by stamping grille and drying.(Art. ÖJ) The process of going from the dark cold mine through the cleansing, to enjoying your lunch overlooking the Kebnekaise mountains must have been a sublime experience. After the cleansing the workers entered from the tunnels and by stairs arrived at the common areas. The common areas consisted of a long corridor before entering the washing and clothing room. The stairs in the entrance lead you up to the dining area and self-service counter.
The building itself can be interpreted as the meeting between industry and human. With the well composed material palette of raw aluminum on the first-floor façade, together with the falu red colored pinewood façade of the second-floor dining space. The interior of the dining space is filled with untreated Swedish pinewood to give the workers the warm feeling of a cabin. The meeting between industrial formed aluminum and the linseed oiled pinewood façade gives us a feeling of vernacular Swedish architecture but at the same time a feeling of the building belonging to the industry. The falu red color was first seen in the Swedish city of Falun and originally consists of linseed oil, flour, and mining by-products rich in copper. It was often used by farmers in the 17th century to mimic the upper-class brick buildings and has been used by LKAB throughout the entire industrial complex.
During our research we’ve found materials connected to the context and history of the site. By replacing coal with hydrogen, steel can now be produced with zero carbon dioxide emissions. And just as the assembling of the falu red paint uses slag products from the mine, LKAB now uses the slag products from the blast furnace to produce a more sustainable alternative to concrete. These new sustainably updated materials together with traditional Swedish pinewood wood constitutes a material palette we want to explore in our project.
Wood is a pleasant tactile material and contributes to a sound interior climate. The cold Swedish climate makes the fir grow slowly, this results in a high strength and a beautiful texture.
TREATMENT (Falu paint)
water rye flour pigment iron vitriol linseed oil
HYBRIT
GGBS
Metal produced in CO2 free process. The outcome is the same as regular metal. It’s a odourless solid mass in metallic grey color.
A low CO2 concrete, GGBS is actively helping to reduce the amount of industry rest product going to landfill. It is made from the slab products from the blast furnace. It has a much lighter aesthetic compared to other cement.
METALS
Steel (COR-TEN®)
Iron (Fe)
Copper (Cu)
Chromium (Cr)
Nickel (Ni)
INGREDIENTS
GGBS -Slags -ferrous metal (Ca-Mg-Al) Sand Gravel
functions position
Overlooking the chasm at the foot of Kiirunavaara is the first of two potential positions for a crew house on the industrial site. This location is favourable because of it’s connection to the entrance of the industrial plant and its relation to the nearby mine shafts. The second potential position is by Örjan Lünings crewhouse which has undergone a lot of reconstruction though still exists. Örjan Lünings building is close to the car entry of the mine and also connected to the central plant which makes it a functionally appropriate position.
ARRIVAL
ENTRANCE
DRESSING ROOM
CLEANSING
SHOWER ROOMS
LIGHT ROOM
RESTAURANT
DINING ROOM
RELAXING
TERRACE
ELEVATOR SHAFT
The meeting with the building. An outside area giving you a first good impression
The entrance to the building should be distinct, there should be one entrance for the mine workers and one for the people working at the staff building.
A private room with low transparency. Light is dimmed and materials are easy to clean. High temperature for comfort while dressing.
The ritual of cleansing before entering the staff house is of big importance. It gives a feeling of respect and gives the dining room a value.
Many small private rooms connected in clusters. Material should be easy to clean and to disinfect.
A room for rest and to recover the missed daylight after hours in the mine.
The restaurant is a space which takes a lot of damage from the cooking. The materials should be easy to clean and disinfect.
A open space with warm materials in direct opposite to the industrial material palette.
An area for recovery and relaxation connected to he dining room. Warm materials.
A place for recovery and relaxation during the periods of summer and daylight.
The threshold between the mine and the staff building.
We will develop an understanding of topography in the scale 1:5000 and an understanding of the site through 1:500. Models will be our main choice to materialize and represent our ideas. Through modelling we want to gain deeper knowledge about the materiality and textures but also about atmospheres and other phenomena. We hope to dig deep into tectonics and will explore this trough modelling and drawing of details in 1:10. The building as a whole will be represented with a 1:100 drawing set. All formats are subject to change.
Anna Storm - Post-industrial landscape scars (Palgrave, 2014)
Christian Hönger - climate as a design factor (Quart publishing, 2013)
Christian Norberg-Schulz - Genius Loci (Rizzoli, 1979)
Christina Capetillo - Det sammensatte (PhD Thesis, 2011)
Daniel Golling, Multiple Authors - Kiruna Forever (ArkDes, 2020)
Dom H. Van Der Laan - Architectonic Space (Brill, 1983)
Donna Harraway - Situeret Viden (Mindspace, 2018)
Donna Harraway - Staying with the trouble; Making Kin in the Cthulucene (Duke, 2016)
Hiroshi Sambuichi - Sambuichi and the Inland sea (Toru Kato, 2016)
Jules Verne - The Begum’s Fortune (ACE books, 1958)
Karl Ruhberg, Bernd & Hilla Becher - Anonyme Skulpturen (Art-Press Verlag, 1970)
N/A - Arkitektur Nr. 7, Personallbyggnad för LKAB i Kiruna (1965)
Tadeas Riha, Steel Cities: The architecture of logistics in central and eastern Europe (Park Books, 2019)
Willy Ørskov - Terrain Vague (Borgen, 1992)
Anna Björkman - LKAB:s Sovringsverk, Kiruna (Norbottens Museum, 2003)
https://norrbottensmuseum.se/media/81150/LKABs-sovringsverk-Kiruna-dnr-2003-0432.pdf
LKAB Bladet Nr 6 (LKAB, 2020)
https://www.lkab.com/sv/SysSiteAssets/documents/publikationer/lkab-bladet/lkab-bladet_2020_ nr6.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0oxObMRlLSpeEcLiG9h4BhR8SOEAy2bglwD3ezbTo1sKiBoMFNIrc8N6s
Peter Nestler - Die Nordkalotte (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92LVnyH0dFA&t=1826s
Pier Vittorio Aureli - Design without qualities: Architecture and the rise of Abstraction (AA, 2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHfPYTXu9ws&t=970s
Törncrantz Tintin - Tremors (The Stockholm Review, 2020) http://thestockholmreview.blogspot.com/2020/07/tremors.html