RESEARCH

At LABLAB we explore and communicate the relationship between the perception of landscape and meaning of place and its actual transformations, where perception relates to factual, economic, emotional, social and spatial aspects. Landscapes are based on all these dimensions. They have their own expressive aesthetic, natural, cultural and exploitable qualities – all of the perceived and valued in multiple ways.

“part of the land, as percieved by the local people or visitors, which evolves through time as a result of being acted upon by natural forces and human beings”

Definition of landscapes
by The European Landscape Convention (ELC)

What makes people proud of their region? I am a landscape architect and grew up in the German Suburbia before the emergence of the internet. After turning 18 in 1985, I got a drivers licence and the radius of personal life rapidly expanded. It was the end of the world as we know it and we felt fine.

By Friedrich Kuhlman
Feb 2024
Research essay

New Energy Landscapes

The challenge of linking energy transition with social, cultural and ecological values in the Baltic Sea Region.
2022–2023
International research

LABLAB and its partners were granted funding from the Swedish Institute for the project ”New Energy Landscapes”. The project aims to develop a cohesive trans-national and trans-disciplinary platform of know-how on how land-based renewable energy impacts landscapes, spatial planning and identity in the Baltic Sea Region.

What landscapes are for and for whom?

May 2023
Research essay
New Energy Landscapes
IBA Thüringen

As citizens we need to be engaged in a democratic dialogue that dares to activate the questions on how we progress new values with the landscapes that withhold collective identities and, simultaneously generate electricity for the European industry and households through the transition. Simply, by means of raising the questions of what landscapes are for - and for whom? This implies European citizens to be involved in and part of a critical dialogue that guides us collectively on how to deal with the climate and energy crisis, yet not to leave the rest of the world behind. As Europeans we need to navigate between learning how to “land on Earth” as well as how to “land among senses” hence, the sense of losing landscapes and progressing to new ones.

Boys will be boys? Ukrainian energy landscapes during and beyond war.

By Maryna Semenchenko.
April 2023.
Research essay
New Energy Landscapes

In this essay, I explore the links between energy production and landscapes, as LABLAB typically does, yet complement this discussion with the third dimension of gender roles. Investigating my home context of Ukraine before and after Russia’s full-scale invasion, I build a narrative in four chapters. Starting with a short introduction to the Ukrainian energy sector, I take a closer look at the coal-mining regions in the East, their experiences of decarbonization, and the gender dynamics established there. Further, I reflect on contributing factors that will affect the future energy landscapes of Ukraine and the potential role of women in this future.

LABLAB i samarbete med Virserums Konsthall. Vernissage 15 april 2023.

BETRAKTAD – Landskap som föreställning, resurs och nostalgi.

Vad är det vi ser när vi betraktar en bild som föreställer ett landskap?

Vår blick formar hur vi tolkar landskap. När vi rör oss genom landskapsbilden, upplever och förstår den, ser vi endast landskapet partiellt. Även när vi ser landskap som en verklighet använder vi oss av symbolik och föreställning för att berätta om det. Genom tiderna har människor haft behov av en relation med landskapet – liksom behovet av att forma, uppleva, spegla och beskriva det.
︎I landskapen finns det vi minns, det vi ser och det vi inte vill släppa taget om. I landskapen finns resurser vi använder, extraherar och tillgodogör oss. Där finns sådant vi gör, vi ser och sedan upphör att se. Där finns ett ekonomiskt värde vi vill bevara och samtidigt förmera.

I bilden av landskap finns lager av berättelser. Landskap är en del av vår historia och en förlängning av identiteter som ibland också står i kontrast till varandra. Bilden av landskap berör oss, skapar olika sinnesstämning och berättelser om vilka vi anser oss vara. Landskapen blir de föreställda gemenskaperna.

Utställningen Betraktad: Landskapet som föreställning, resurs och nostalgi vill skapa en dialog kring vilka frågor vi ställer oss när vi betraktar ett landskap. Vad ser vi när vi betraktar en bild som föreställer dessa platser? Är det verkligheten, vår föreställning, vårt minne eller en kombination av lager i bildens berättelse som får oss att ”se” ett landskap?

Sights and Sites of Industrial Transition

This photographic essay is a part of LABLAB’s “Countryside Unfolds” cross-disciplinary research project and explores the notion of industrial transition in the context of the Estonian countryside. ︎︎︎

Landscapes and Cables

The cable runs as far as the eye can see, to the top of Tarfala Valley, located in the very north of Sweden, near the border with Norway. Along the ground, the cable is a framing element, drawing our sight up to the mountains, the glacier and the low lying fog.

Hinterland

Transforming the Signification of Beyond

Through European colonization, the term hinterland acquired global and brutal connotations, the traces of which are still tangible today. Landscape and people beyond the Western world were conquered, transformed and incorporated into the rising capitalism. Many of the former colonies, which, nowadays, are sovereign states, still play the part of hinterland in our age of globalisation. They are sources of cheap labour and production, as well as unregulated spaces that allow most forms of exploitation.

This essay was written for the Swedish National Museum and it’s opening of the exhibition Arcadia – A Paradise Lost in September 2020. Our LABLAB co-founder, Daniel Urey, was one of the main curators on the topic of Hinterland. Below you are able to read his contributing essay to the exhibition publication.

All Research ︎︎︎