Purpose – The purpose of the study is to shed light on co-creative approaches for place innovation in an Arctic town, based on the relocation of Kiruna’s city center in northern Sweden. Three cases of co-creative innovation processes in Kiruna are investigated and compared: an R&D project about local perceptions and visions of attractive urban environments, an R&D project about norm-creative design principles for inclusive and attractive urban design, and an R&D project about cross-industrial synergies for city center attractiveness.

Design/methodology/approach – The study’s research design encompasses a comparative and participatory approach. The comparative approach implies investigation and comparison of three cases of co-creative innovation processes in Kiruna. The participatory approach implies joint development of new knowledge by researchers and local actors. The data consists of participatory observations of workshops and qualitative interviews with local actors.

Findings – The study reveals that the studied processes have harnessed the city center relocation as an opportunity to make Kiruna more attractive to residents and visitors, by employing the co-creative approaches of Living Lab, Now-Wow-How and Norm-creative design. These approaches have enabled experts and local actors to jointly identify excluding patterns and norms in the relocation process, and to envision inclusive and attractive (re-)configurations and (re-)conceptualizations of the future Kiruna.

Research implications – The results add to the academic strand of inclusive urban transformation, by providing insights into co-creative approaches for re-imagining an Arctic town in times of industrial and social change. New insights are provided regarding how the geographical, industrial and cultural identity of an Arctic town can be harnessed to envision new configuration, content and communication that is attractive and accessible for a diversity of residents and visitors. 

Practical implications – The results highlight the potential to harness Arctic and rural characteristics in the promotion of urban attractiveness and public wellbeing, especially when combined with co-creative identification and transformation of excluding norms and patterns.

Originality/value – The results provide new insights into how co-creative approaches may facilitate innovative and inclusive renewal of towns and cities in the Arctic and beyond.

This paper investigates the interaction between urban conservation and urban morphology. This relationship was studied using the three basic components of urban morphology – resolution, form and time – and in the context of the urban transformation of Kiruna. Kiruna is a mining town in northern Sweden where, as a result of the subsidence caused by mining, a new town centre is being built on a new site and extensive parts of the existing settlement are being demolished. The empirical data comprises conservation plans adopted by the authorities and residents’ perceptions of the town identified through an urban living lab study. The mapping of stakeholders’ perceptions of urban environments that are important to Kiruna’s character enabled identification of characteristic features of the town’s urban form and selection of the most significant areas for in-depthanalysis. The study shows that traditional containment relationships between form elements, which are internationally recognized as the desirable urban form, did not prevail in the case of Kiruna. Therefore, contemporary urban planning and design ideas need to be adapted to the local context rather than only based on the overall understanding of urban form.

This research project investigates the production of attractive places, through theory form and everyday life. The research study was originally sprung from practical questions regarding the extensive use of the term attractiveness in urban planning and design. What is the term intended to address? How is the term understood in local contexts? How is the term transformed to built environments? The term is rarely scrutinized and criticized and the understanding of the term, its meaning and implications is diverse. Starting from critical urban theory, the research project critically scrutinizes the term and contrasts it with local citizens perspectives of attractive towns. The research project proceeds from the idea of that places are produced not only by planning and urban design professionals, but also by people living in and visiting a place (Lefebvre, 1991). The research question addressed is How is the term attractiveness in built environments understood and designed in the perspectives of architects/urban designers and local citizens, and how can the term be explained to inform future planning of attractive urban environments?

The research design consists of four sub-studies to investigate planning and local perspectives of attractiveness, its presentations and urban forms. The research design was set up in Kiruna and Gällivare, two mining towns in the sparsely populated Swedish north. These towns are undertaking major urban transformations due to the mining activities. Both municipalities explain the transformation processes as opportunities to become more attractive for people to settle as permanent residents. The term was investigated through discourse and qualitative content analysis, whilst the local citizen perspective was investigated through urban living labs.

The conclusion was that the urban planning and design sphere of place production defines the term attractiveness according to their challenges. The term addresses the contemporary situation of place competition where places compete about labour, companies and capital on a global market (Harvey, 1989; Brenner et al. 2014). A discourse of attractiveness can be formulated to focus on three interest areas: urban economics, social wellbeing, and urban townscapes. The term can further be explained as an approach of reinventing places as attractive through urbanization and agglomeration.

The local citizens idea of attractiveness is produced through societal challenges, local opportunities as well as practical experiences. The production of attractiveness is affected partly by everyday experiences and partly by assimilated knowledge about the place and society, from among others media reporting and official urban planning documents. As produced through knowledge, pedagogical processes also affect the idea of attractiveness. Physically, the attractive town is described as a place someone has cared of designing, including a legible town plan, locally distinct character, clear borders between built up areas and nature, and coherent connections between neighbourhoods.

Some reflections drawn from the studies. In order to create truly attractive places, the term attractiveness should be inclusive to perspectives of local citizens. There are, among others, an ethical concern and a potential in this statement. The ethical consideration is that the term attractiveness has different meanings by different communities and individuals; the use of the term is persuasive with the potential to hide agendas seen as attractive according to only some viewpoints. On the other hand there is a potential in acknowledging attractiveness as being produced by everyone practicing place; it opens possibilities for a more diverse and inclusive term with richer ideas of attractive places.