Bräckeminnen

A large scale demolition project, funded by the state, is currently taking place in Bräcke, Jämtland. Due to depopulation and the closure of large industries, the municipality is in a state of economic distress and buildings are demolished in order to lower the municipality's operating costs. Focusing on the three most central buildings being demolished, the project investigates how a community is affected when central buildings are demolished and what social values risk being lost. Convinced that buildings are socially imbued, we have through drawing, model and film explored ways to convey the social aspects of space. Rather than doing a proposal for reuse or a new building, we have through qualitative interdisciplinary methods created an inventory of the buildings' social values and a mapping of how these relate to the social on different levels, ranging from Bräckes societal development to peoples' memories and relations to the buildings. Rather than offering solutions, the project evoke new questions regarding the ontology of buildings, the future of rural Sweden and what place there is today for towns no longer generating profit.