Innovation and sustainability

 

The process of developing Duved, a small village in the North-West of Sweden, is based on the insight that in today’s society it is no longer cities that has the potential of being the innovation engine for societal development, as back in the industrial era. On the contrary, today it is the village – with its tradition of sharing and cooperation – that has the possibility to generate solutions to address the challenges that the world so badly needs. This is a need on both a local and a global scale – and addresses a new possibility: the fusion between a return to handicraft through digital efficiency as well as that of an updated democratic model. With the current world situation it is apparent that the world needs to update democracy and strengthen local production.

Within this transformation, to take us from industrial to societal circular systems, the village of Duved has turned out to be an efficient tool to achieve innovation on several parallel levels. In Duved there is a strong tradition of cooperation between the local citizens as well as an openness to be part of societal development. Duved is close to the ski-resort Åre – with high costs and urban habits – turned out to be a productive starting

point to come to terms with gentrification spirals and achieve paths towards a stronger diversity.

 

January 2018

The process in Duved started in January 2018 by the municipal real estate company, Årehus AB, triggered by the a political decision to build a new school, with a capacity of 800 pupils, in the center of Duved. As the village at this point had 700 inhabitants it was a big step that needed a strong strategy for development. This gave way to a unique process, based on dialogue with the citizens – to strengthen the local situation of people living and working in Duved, as well as to update a local democracy. The process soon came to include local, regional and national interest on the political and public domain. The timing was right – the approach of letting the rural become the force of generate innovation in Duved was immediately understood. The need of what is being achieved was to be emphasised by the pandemic, where rural areas were suddenly a new potential through tools for distance-communication.

Duved has the potential of developing solutions that can be implemented elsewhere since the current context with a shift both in climate issues as well as in productions systems requires new concrete examples of societal development.

The content is based on developing the entire village, i.e. all societal segments, at the same time, to achieve mutual benefits connecting the segments.

 

Initial focus was on:

  • updated democracy where the citizens are included in also the initial process to develop the village

  • new business models where the public side the citizens and private investment work tighter

  • develop prototypes for innovative typologies for affordable housing and test them IRL with a network of different partners

  • use the ”village” to find ways of sustainable living conditions radically reducing cars and find new use of public space

  • develop a food systems to generate a comprehensive and engaging pilot within the pilot - using the local possibilities for self-sufficiency as a guiding force, based on collaboration and sharing

  • a knowledge system beyond "the house", i.e. the urban idea of a built center, to show that in a rural area also a knowledge system from cradle to academy can actually take place in a rural village and thus redesign the very idea of knowledge production

  • where citizens local wishes and ideas are given to high-end creatives to generate solutions that have not only an aesthetic quality but also generate a content that provide answers to global issues for the point of view of the local

  • i.e. where macro needs are generated from the micro-level.

  • legally defined collaboration structures between citizens, public interest and private

    companies