Kiruna Explorer

Kiruna Explorer presents a documentary perspective on the extraordinary urban transformation currently reshaping the city of Kiruna. 

At the heart of the installation is a digital tool in development, designed to help visitors explore the complex chain of decisions shaping this process. Through two main interactive interfaces—a dynamic timeline and a series of thematic maps—visitors can investigate how political, technical, and spatial decisions have intersected over time.

The timeline traces key moments and policies that have guided the transformation, while the maps visualize their physical impact on the ground:

–The Red Line explores how land deformation forecasts intersect with Kiruna’s existing urban fabric
–Projected Futures presents different scenarios considered for the new city’s location and design
–Groundwork reveals the material processes of demolition, relocation, and reconstruction shaping the built environment

A curated selection of official documents is displayed in the space, and the tool’s evolving digital interface is made accessible to visitors via a tablet—offering a hands-on preview of a platform still in formation.

Developed as a collaboration between the Department of Architecture and Design and the Department of Control and Computer Engineering of Politecnico di Torino, in partnership with the City of Kiruna, Kiruna Explorer is an early iteration of a tool being created for a project leading up to Kiruna Capital of Culture 2029. 

The installation is part of the Hotspot Kiruna–Heritage in Action, a new exhibition space located at the former mining site TGA, near the new city center and set to become, hopefully, the future Kiruneum, a historical meeting place for the city of Kiruna. The Hotspot opened on August 25th as part of the 2025 TICCIH Congress.

The work underpinning Kiruna Explorer will be published in a forthcoming book by AADR—Art Architecture Design Research, scheduled for release in 2026. 

Kiruna Explorer installation credits
Valeria Federighi (scientific coordination), Giovanni Ceselli and Ilaria Tonti (contents production coordination), Elisabetta Colucci and Fabio Giulio Tonolo (cartographic data consultancy), Anna Bortolotto and Carlotta Tomassetti (contents production) [Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino]

Event co-funded by DAD – Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino.

Kiruna Explorer digital tool credits
Research team: Valeria Federighi (scientific coordination), Giovanni Ceselli (contents production coordination), Camilla Forina, [Department of Architecture and Design, Politecnico di Torino]; Riccardo Coppola, Marco Torchiano, Antonio Vetrò [Department of Control and Computer Engineering, Politecnico di Torino]; Tommaso Listo [Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino]; Clara Nyström, Sofia Lagerlöf Määttää [City of Kiruna]

Production team: Seyedmohammad Khataeipour and students of Master-level course in Software Engineering II, a.y. 2024–25, Politecnico di Torino

Hotspot Kiruna credits
Hotspot Heritage in Action is an initiative by TICCIH Sweden/SIM, produced for TICCIH 2025—Heritage in Action in Kiruna. Project Manager for Hotspot Heritage in Action: Ida Maria Svonni. Working group from TICCIH Sweden/SIM: Catarina Karlsson, Magdalena Tafvelin Heldner, Marie Östblom. From Kiruna Municipality: Clara Nyström, Sofia Lagerlöf Määttää. Hotspot has been carried out as a collaboration between: TICCIH 2025—Heritage in Action, TICCIH Sweden (SIM), Kiruna Municipality, Kiruna School of Culture, the project “Goal Conflicts in the Green Transition”, and Politecnico di Torino. Hotspot Is a part of TICCIH—General Congress 2025—Heritage in Action