The Arctic is changing rapidly, and nowhere is this more so than in Greenland, which is undergoing radical political, social, economic and demographic changes. In Greenland, urbanization affects the capital Nuuk, but also regional 2nd tier towns like Tasiilaq. Tasiilaq is on the East coast of Greenland. It has approx. 2000 inhabitants and a spectacular landscape setting.
Working with Tasiilaq the studio stresses the fact that contemporary changes in Arctic cities are not necessarily connected to resource exploration and exploitation, but to a general social structure change. The studio also challenges conceptions of Arctic communities as non-urban. Concepts of urbanity in the Arctic are largely imported from other urbanized regions. Most recent attempts to develop specific approaches to Urban Design have essentialized landscape relations in design, focused narrowly on mitigation of local climate or reduced urbanity to an engineering issue.
The studios will develop sets of strong, but complementary logics of urban design that focus on a wide range of issues: social, cultural, infrastructural, ecological, etc. It is the complementarity of these approaches that first and foremost promises sustainability in the future thinking of cities in the arctic.
A mapping of potentials and ressources but also of the challenges and needs in Tasiilaq will form the basis for programming the design exercise.
Specific issues to be addressed in Tasiilaq include: the development of a new airport as part of the city, the location and design of new residences, strategies for long-term sustainable urban development with a focus on inclusive (universally designed) urban social space, the development of tourism infrastructure, as well as the facilitation and redevelopment of new social, commercial and retail services