Sami Parliament competition

May 14, 2007

The Sami are one of the largest indigenous groups in Europe. The population, estimated at about 85,000, occupies parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Kiruna is one of the Swedish towns built by the sami people and also the place of their new Parliament (in Sweden). The competition jury that was set up to decide the best design for this building, chose 5 finalists ( I could find only 4 of them).

AART project showed a circular, white building with ribbon-like windows that seemed cut in a massive block of ice. Carl Fredrik Svenstedt Architecture, imagined a design which reminds me very much of the Sami Parliament in Norway. ALA, a young but daring architectural studio, presented an interesting solution with 4 igloo-like structures which penetrate a simple polygonal shape. The roof of this shape ends in the massive hills of snow. I think this was a daring approach. The winning project, designed by Hans Murman Arkitekter, looks like a protective snow wave. The building seems to be in the same time opened to the outside world but protected from the hard weather.

Now let’s see when and where this building will be built. Fore some years Kiruna is encountering serious problems because of what seems to be a slow motion earthquake which is tearing the town apart. This will force the city to move….

AART project