2 minute read
Layers of Change
Are you here now?
You are looking out over parts of the last, central, industrial area in Stockholm. Lövholmen. You can see Hornstull there, on the other side of the water. And Reimersholme, hidden behind those large trees to your left.
If you bend, turn, a little, look to the right, you can see the concrete silos of Cementa. A cement depot facility, run by a large international conglomerate.
Is a boat floating by on the water? Bringing sand from the other side of the world? A seagull sitting on its bow, hunting for fish?
To your left is a brick and stone building called Smedjan, the forge. Here, there were blacksmiths, fires and dangerous work being done.
If you close your eyes maybe you can hear the roaring fire of the forge, smell the smoke from its chimney, hear the banging of the heavy tools - an echo through history.
Now turn your head, can you see the SKROT sign? Scrap - junk. That is what it means. Wonder what kind of interesting things one can find there.
You become a voyeur. Can you see what they are having for dinner, across the canal, in the third apartment from the right in the orange-ish building?
None of these things would have been seen if the carbon dioxide factory, Kolsyrefabriken, was still here. Then, you would look out on a yellow plastered building, there on the plateau. And behind it silos, tubes and the beautiful brick building with its signature sign towards the water.
Now, come back to the burned plot.
Imagine a 40 cm high structure of bricks still standing. Or has someone built them up anew?
In the brick square, slightly to your right, there might have been an office, or a kitchen? Or the factory floor, with the dry ice steaming.
The plot has since the fire been cleared, and stands there now, empty of buildings.
But maybe other things thrive?
A meadow
An amphitheater
A nightclub
A skyscraper or maybe the entrance to a subterranean realm
A playground
A public office
An artificial volcano ?
