Rethinking Kiruna

Semester: Fall 2010

This project seeks to establish a process for gradually shifting the city to firmer ground, while maintaining a constant, critical mass. It is based on a biomimetic study of how penguins huddle in order to survive extreme cold. Just as the penguin huddle is in a state of perpetual mutation as individual penguins peal off from the front to seek sanctuary at the rear, so too here, as individual buildings begin to subside, new buildings are generated on firmer ground to the rear, thereby maintaining a constant critical mass. Individual units coalesce into larger compositions, and roads are then generated to link them.

Thanks: Prof. Neil Leach, Daniel Nay, Brett Vuketts