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- Sandvikssågen: Transformation of a former sawmill through critical reuse and spatial reconfiguration(2026) Dahlberg, AdrianForest industries have shaped the landscapes of Norrland since the 19th century, leaving behind structures that still carry material and cultural traces of production. The mill town Holmsund developed in the archipelago outside of Umeå around the former sawmill Sandvikssågen. Even after its production ceased, its legacy of craftsmanship continues today in the form of workshops and ateliers. The building has undergone fragmented adaptations that constrain its current use. This thesis explores how industrial heritage can be reinterpreted to support contemporary craft practices and new public uses through reconfiguration of the existing. An investigation was conducted through photography, archival research, and drawings, resulting in an atlas of spatial qualities, material conditions, and reusable components; this became the toolbox for transformation. The findings are treated as active resources, used to reconstruct spaces from salvaged materials. Drawing from adaptive reuse theory and Stewart Brand’s notion of shearing layers, the building is understood as an evolving structure where permanent and temporary layers change independently. This informed a design strategy operating through critical removal, reconfiguration of building components, and the addition of new functions. Removal exposes concealed qualities, while reconfiguration repositions elements to form new spatial relationships. The building is reorganized into three main parts: a new café and common area open to the public, the former production halls accommodate a wood workshop on the ground floor with exhibition above, and the ateliers are updated with improved facilities. Circulation is reworked through two additional cores that support both public access and workshop use. The project argues that transformation is an active, interpretative process rather than a passive balance between preservation and replacement. By reworking existing structures through critical reuse, new spatial and programmatic relationships emerge without erasing material continuity. Industrial heritage is therefore not a fixed condition to be protected, but a resource that must be actively reconfigured to remain relevant.
- PAST EDEN: Reversing the narrative of adaptive reuse from the past to the future(2026) Andersson, LovisaHistorically the pragmatism of necessity and scarcity have been reasons for adapting existing buildings to accommodate for changing needs, a practice called adaptive reuse. Increased interest in the practice in the 70´s due to raised awareness of the necessity to conserve resources generated alternative approaches (Wong, 2017). The extent expanded and introduced transmission of past narratives and preservation of heritage, which is the prominent approach within theory on adaptive reuse (Plevoets & Cleempoel, 2023). This thesis criticizes adaptive reuse for its nostalgic tendencies, which are problematized and explained through the constant exposure to crisis and fatalistic narratives that render the future hopeless. This predisposes seeking certainty and stability in the known condition of the past (Bauman, 2017). The nostalgia emerges from a lack of hope for the future. Through the concept of crisis the thesis aims to challenge conventional strategies of adaptive reuse. The principles of aemulatio, an adaptive reuse approach aspiring to preserve the intention of the model while surpassing the original (Plevoets & Cleempoel, 2019), is applied to the development of the strategy. The aim is to reverse the narrative from focusing on the past to the future, anticipating contingency as potential instead of limitation. The theoretical framework consists of Lacaton & Vassal´s analysis of the existing, separating the continuous and changeable through the concept Hardware/Software by KOSMOS and two built cases; Thoravej 29 by Pihlmann Architects with cyclical transformation on all scales and Spore Initiative Auditorium by AFF Architekten that embraces patina as potential. The four approaches synthesize in a strategy of how to approach the existing through critical subtraction, addition and reconfiguration. The strategy is investigated through transforming the Old Court of Appeal situated in Renströmsparken, Gothenburg. The good condition and few interventions to the original design by Hakon Ahlberg in 1948, makes it subject to investigate the absence of nostalgia. The vision for the area as an epicenter for art, culture and humanities have shaped the program; a space for creation and sharing of knowledge through artistic practices in a public realm with interventions extending from urban scale to furniture.
- Resurrecting Håby church: Communicating a millennium of alteration and rehabilitation through conservation and adaptive reuse(2026) Björksell, BenjaminAs winds shift and populations change, churches in Sweden have gone in and out of religious use during a millennium of history. Currently, the Church of Sweden is entering a period where numerous churches in rural areas will be deemed redundant due to increasing urbanization and declining membership numbers. Being an early example, Håby church outside of Munkedal in Swedish Bohuslän was closed indefinitely in 2023. Its history traces back to the 1100s and it has been subject to several alterations, rehabilitations and conservational approaches throughout its lifetime. Since 1988, legislation protects churches built before 1940 through preservation. The thesis proposes a speculative future scenario of adaptive reuse outside of these legal restrictions. Working with both living and lost memory, the thesis grapples with the pedagogical value of heritage and explores if selected historical traces need to be removed to increase the communicative values of others when applying conservational approaches, as exemplified by Erik Lundberg’s conservation of Götene church (1964). A deep understanding of the church is sought by carefully mapping out, reconstructing and visualising its different historical manifestations and inventories, inspired by but expanding on Flores & Prats’ process on “Sala Beckett” (2016). Thereafter, a design strategy is formulated, where restoration, preservation and adaptive reuse strategies are selectively applied in different parts of the church to strengthen their existing cultural-historical heritage values through a communicative approach. Thus providing added pedagogical value. The church is then redesigned into a combined road church and restaurant, where an addition is built and the nave is divided into a chapel and dining hall. Letting the history of the church inform the design, historical traces are reintroduced and assets are relocated, disassembled and reassembled into new configurations. This opens the church to the public once again, while retaining the religious inventories both with their original purposes and as bearers of cultural heritage. As this is but one of many redundant churches to come and churches being just one category of heritage buildings in general, the thesis emphasizes the importance of thorough investigations and evaluations to see adaptive reuse opportunities and communicate our cultural-historical heritage.
- Tegeltornen i Gamlestaden(2026) Almfors, Wilma