Porjus Energy Village

• Main Author: Heden Malm, Jenny
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Arkitektur 2021
• Subjects: porjus; hydropower; speculative fiction; luleälven; lule river; renewable energy; dam; erosion; surrealism; Architecture; Arkitektur; Luleälven; sami; Norrbotten
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-307449

My project attempts to nuance the bodies of knowledge produced in relation to processes of natural resource extraction in Norrbotten, Sweden. Operating between fact and fiction, I have presented the project as a speculative video narrative. The protagonist is the Lule River, where the implications of its domestication and agency is explored. This territory can be understood as a wilderness, a cultural landscape, the Sami homelands and a place of extraction. Prior to Vattenfall’s acquisition of Porjus, the estate belonged to Erik Abraham Olofsson Rim (1844-1920). Olofsson Rim was Forest Sami with background in Sjokksjokk sami village. Speculative fiction is a powerful tool to contemplate societal issues and grapple with complex realities. The result lies in the audience’s reading of the project, where the goal is to spark discussion and reflection. In the aesthetics of the proposed post-fossil world, I have ventured into the playfully surreal. The playful in terms of unexpected elements and color palette. The surreal is expressed through composition, scale and juxtaposition. Dealing with such huge infrastructure objects, which are surreal and abstract in themselves, I have attempted to make the line between the real and the unreal fluid, to evoke the audience’s reflection of the possibilities at hand.