Location: Grønnedal & Ivittuut, Greenland
Thesis project completed: Summer 2015
Task
The project engages a global and a national problem in Greenland; a future where settlements and outlying districts get abandoned. Depopulations does not only affect the citizens emotionally but also create an institutional urgency in the cities to build more residencies while the existing resources in the settlements are unexploited.
The purpose of the project is to make an intervention- to stop the extinction of the bygds from happening by highlighting the potentials of the settlements in a national and a local perspective. Based on the research the project propose what could become of one specific depopulated settlement.
“If the depopulation of the bygds continues, the bygds
will be extinct by the year 2066...! ”
— Possible Greenland” Conditions magazine, 2012
The site of the project is a decommissioned military base located in southern West Greenland. A base called Grønnedal. Grønnedal is a developed settlement with high institutional resources. Yet there hasn't been any interest from the Greenlandic government nor the municipality to reestablish the place - although it negatively affect the nearby settlements.
proposal
Due to global warming there is a growing potential of expanding agriculture in the Arctics. The research even discovered that there is an existing agricultural potential because of the certain climate there is in Grønnedal; which is the sub and low Arctic climate.
The project propose an establishment of a Research Centre focusing on Arctic agriculture and Global warming. The Research Centre is placed in an existing building in Grønnedal called the ‘welfare building’. In addition a gastronomy and agricultural school is included in the programme which focus on arctic and local commodities. This proposal would help to reach a more self-sufficient Greenland by expanding agriculture and farming in Greenland which will strengthen both social and financial conditions in the country.
The project has proposed how the ‘welfare building’ could be transformed into a Research Center taking inspiration in the Greenlandic culture and architecture and in consideration of the arctic climate and with a respect of the story of Grønnedal.
