5 weeks

2021

Project pitch

Gångbanan is the outcome of a 5-week collaboration between students from different years within the industrial design program and students from interaction and design engineering. The aim of this project is to use speculative design within a group. This project was done in collaboration with Umeå Kommun. The core value of the project was to explore and develop the urban spaces of the city, with a goal to make them attractive and inclusive, for both humans and non-humans.

Team

Emilia Bengtsson, Kristina Bergquist, David Dahlberg, Svitlana Bakumenko, Simon Ljungblahd, Iver Zaitzow Mikaelsen, Karin Myhrberg.

Location

To find an underexposed urban area in Umeå we went to explore different parts of the city. We decided on the largest forest in the city of Umeå, called Gammlia. The forest is located on a hill, its entrance close to the county museum. The area is highly appreciated by the citizens as it supplies them with nature, walking paths, and ski tracks during wintertime.

Problems 

Seasonal limitations

Gammlias area of use changes with the seasons.
Snow free seasons the forests paths are used for dog walks, jogs, coffee breaks, and Sunday strolls.

Accessibility

The elderly people we met on site mentioned the lack of accessibility during wintertime. As the walking paths turn into ski tracks the elderly lose access to the area, they become "non-human".

Activities

The skiers don’t like pedestrians in their tracks, limiting the popular area to one single way of use during winter.

How can we create a place to make participants reflect upon the environment they are in, especially during the dark winter days?

Outcome

By combining the aspects of human, the non-human and nature together with the aims proclaimed in the mood board we came up with Gångbanan. Gångbanan is a 2km long elevated walkway and follows a round route where people can run, walk or travel by wheelchair among the trees.

We wanted to include humans into nature without excluding the animals which already are common visitors to Gammlia. With the elevated passes, we would not intervene and the wildlife would be able to pass freely under the walkway all year around. The elevation also creates more perspective compared to experiencing Gammlia from the ground.

Interaction

Along the walkway, the visitors will find stations to stop by to take shelter or take a break.

In the shelter, there is a wide panoramic window which also functions as a transparent touch screen. On the screen, there is an interactive timeline that the participants can use to learn more about the city of Umeå over different historical times. The idea is to give the participants another way to get a wider perspective about the people and land they are surrounded by. The shelter also has a good view of the outdoors and seating in the middle to start conversations with other people

Similarly, we also added outdoor spaces which enable the participants to sit down, observe nature, reflect and talk to each other. In the middle of the space, we added an electric grill to make it a more attractive place to be and to provide some heating during the cold days.

Lookout

We wanted to create an elevated experience of seeing Umeå from above which otherwise is quite a flat city, and also take advantage of Gammlia’s high location. The big view over Umeå is thought to give the visitors perspective about their environment and life in general. At the lookout area, there is an interactive map where the visitors can get an overview of the area and see if a fireplace is occupied.

The whole area is lit up by subtle lights in the arches and rails. The lights increase the feeling of safety without disturbing the wildlife.

Our primary goal was not to solve a problem but rather to explore an idea and make the user think. We hope this place could help people get a new perspective on their environment and become a meaningful place for all kinds of people living in Umeå.

 Said about the project

“In 2022 Umeå is celebrating 400 years and this is exactly what we’d like as a revival for a popular area like Gammlia”

- Representatives from Umeå Municipality

Key learning - Working with non-humans requires new methods and different lenses since you never know what to expect.
                       - It’s always challenging to work speculative, however it gives you a lot of creative freedom.

© 2024 Karin Myhrberg, All rights reserved.