{"id":31006,"date":"2026-10-15T22:38:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T20:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.listonegiordano.com\/one\/?p=31006"},"modified":"2026-10-15T23:05:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T21:05:35","slug":"building-with-nature-oskar-norelius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.listonegiordano.com\/one\/en\/architecture\/building-with-nature-oskar-norelius\/","title":{"rendered":"Building with nature: Oskar Norelius and the cities of the future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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At Seed, the Perugia festival that chose Humanity<\/strong> as the theme of this 2026 edition, one of the talks looked at the question from the point of view of the places where we live. Oskar Norelius<\/strong>, architect, Partner and Managing Director of Stockholm-based White Arkitekter, one of Scandinavia\u2019s leading practices, brought to Perugia the experience of a studio that has made timber and bio-based materials the heart of its research and design. Named among the 40 Under 40 Europe in Architecture and Design in 2025, Norelius argued that building differently means changing how we look at buildings, bringing different kinds of expertise to the table and rediscovering the energy that comes from working together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Architecture at the speed of change<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Arkitekter was founded 75 years ago, and its mission has remained the same: enabling sustainable life through architecture. What has changed, Norelius explains, is the world architects work in. Energy consumption, harmful materials, climate impact and adaptation, waste, biodiversity loss, social impact, economic feasibility and geopolitical robustness are all on the table at once, and they are evolving faster than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution to one challenge can make another impossible. \u201cWe cannot optimize our way to zero,\u201d Norelius says. There is also a problem of speed: knowledge and best practice now evolve faster than it takes to build a building, especially when democratic processes are slow. In Sweden, a regular housing project can take eight to ten years to obtain permits. An industry built to grow gradually from experience, minimizing risk because so much is at stake, economically, socially and physically, has to reinvent itself and shift towards evidence-based innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why White\u2019s vision, adopted ten years ago, is that by 2030 all its architecture will be regenerative and climate neutral through design excellence. And it is why the studio has redefined the architect\u2019s role. Architects hold a strategic position in a project, with influence that reaches from the sourcing of materials to the use and reuse of buildings. One profession, however, is not enough to fulfill that role. White is today an interdisciplinary practice of architects, landscape and interior designers, environmental specialists, ecologists, building antiquarians and social anthropologists, working on the same commission, not as external consultants. Mixed together, Norelius says, they produce a different architecture from the one architects would make alone. Because the partners own the company together, they can also invest in what they believe in, starting with research and development, to which the studio dedicates considerable resources every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Research as practice: Kiruna and Places for Girls<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

White\u2019s research is often the ground where its practice takes shape. Two projects show it clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moving Kiruna<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Kiruna is a mining town north of the Arctic Circle. The mine runs beneath the city, making it increasingly unsafe, so the town has to be gradually evacuated and rebuilt elsewhere. White won the 2012 competition with an interdisciplinary team that included researchers. Its proposal was to move the city step by step, with strategies to minimize climate impact but also to preserve memory, urban identity and the closeness to nature. It also included the idea of a \u201cKiruna Portal\u201d where building parts could be reused and repurposed. Today the move is happening, between new construction and preservation. One of Sweden\u2019s most famous buildings, the church of Kiruna, was moved in one piece, in an operation broadcast on national television for 18 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Places for Girls<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Places for Girls was born from a statistic: from the age of eight, 80% of the users of public facilities such as playgrounds are boys, while girls feel ten times more insecure in public spaces. The research project set out to develop practical methods for equitable architecture by giving girls the chance to design their own ideal public space. The process, based on dialogue, illustration and model making, starts from the constraints, dislikes and safety issues of an existing environment and moves towards representations of an ideal one. It has since been applied in built projects such as Gascoigne East in Barking and Dagenham, in London, where co-design workshops with the young female residents of Greatfields School helped make the design inclusive for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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