Kiruna, Forever Changing

The forced relocation of the northernmost city in Sweden is more than a gigantic architectural project. It is also a test for a society at the crossroads.

(Places Journal – Gideon Fink Shapiro)

Another key work, Global Kiruna, tracks the journey of iron ore, via trains and ships and factories, from the depths of the LKAB mine to places like the London Tube, the Burj Khalifa, and undersea data cables in the Gulf of Mexico. Mínguez Carrasco convinced one of the world’s foremost architectural photographers, Iwan Baan, to focus his lens on Kiruna’s industrial infrastructure, from 3,000-foot-deep tunnels to the machine-eaten mountain of Kiirunavaara. Here Kiruna emerges as a crucial node in “the technological megasystem of Sweden’s north,” a web of interlinked mining, transportation, and hydropower installations dating from the early 20th century. 17 Lapland is no wilderness, even though tourists come to admire the vast tundra (a Sámi word) and the Aurora Borealis

Source: Places Journal: Kiruna, Forever Changing

Global Kiruna follows the journey of iron ore from the mines of Kiruna to distant places across the world. Project by Iwan Baan, Anne Dessing, Michiel van Iersel. Photo by Iwan Baan. [ArkDes]