Omvandling – RE:purpose is a practice-oriented research project and a collaboration between ArkDes (Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design), the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning (Boverket), the Swedish National Heritage Board, and the Swedish Property Federation. The aim is to explore how the construction and property sectors can transition to more sustainable ways of working and long-term thinking – making better use of what already exists instead of demolishing and building anew.
The construction sector is currently facing major climate challenges. To reduce environmental impact and the use of natural resources, we need to rethink how we work and plan. Interest in circular economy and the management of our historic environments is growing, but more concrete methods and new perspectives are needed to truly drive development forward.
- We need to improve our understanding of the history of our environments in relation to future needs. By working more deeply with the past, we as property owners can create future value and enable a more resource-efficient transformation and management. It is within the stories that engagement is sparked – and where the power to influence future policy lies, says Linda Teng, Head of Student and Research Housing Concepts at Akademiska Hus.
The project combines knowledge development with cultural heritage as a foundation and aims to develop new policy proposals, methods, and ideas that can both inspire and be implemented in practice. Three teams – selected from around 40 applications – will in 2025 each work with one property: in Gothenburg (owned by Platzer Fastigheter), in Stockholm (owned by Vasakronan), and one building owned by us – the Förvaltningshuset on Umeå Campus.
By inviting one of the teams to work with our property, we have the opportunity to both contribute to and learn from the process – and together with other stakeholders, develop new knowledge on how to preserve and repurpose our existing environments for the future.
- For us, participating in a project that connects cultural environments and circular thinking with the practical transformation of buildings is an obvious choice. We look forward to a year full of insights, collaboration, and learning – with the goal of demonstrating how the built environment can be preserved and adapted to meet the needs of tomorrow, says Ulf Widmark, Regional Property Manager at Akademiska Hus in Umeå.
