Towards a Day in Lövholmen

Over the past year, I have been researching the changing site of Lövholmen through different lenses: Site as Land – Site as Value – Site as People – Site as Knowledge. After more than a century of industrial production, paint, cement, carbon dioxide, and textiles, the site is undergoing a transformation that will reshape it entirely. The city plans to build 1,800 new apartments, a new waterfront, and a new neighborhood. The old buildings will mostly be demolished. Some will stay. The question is what else stays, and what gets lost in the process.

As part of OPI Lab 2025/2026, I proposed a curatorial project, A Day in Lövholmen (6 June 2026), in which OPI Lab participants presented 11 spatial sketches. A Day in Lövholmen frames questions, comments, and alternative imaginaries about the area's future.

For that day, I created a one-day meeting point and information hub in the middle of Lövholmen. The chosen site has been identified as a probable future location for commercial premises – a café, shop, or restaurant in the center of the new neighborhood of Lövholmen. By gathering there now, I invite a rehearsal of what will one day take place here. Can this layer leave a trace, or change what is negotiated here?

Visitors can have a coffee, ask questions, speculate about the future, and even negotiate around the table. The table isn’t a finished prototype; what happens around the table is the work. The meeting point is a temporary manifestation of what will exist at this spot in ten years time; the table a spatial form for a longer-term proposal to open up Lövholmen, through making connections with those already active in the area.

Towards A Day in Lövholmen proposed a discussion around the proposition of Opening Lövholmen in the present, between actors and the visiting public. On Thursday, 4th June, I hosted a discussion at OPI Lab with local stakeholders and key actors in Lövholmen.

The outcomes of the discussion appeared on the table as an essay.

The essay can be read here: https://abbassbeity.substack.com/p/towards-a-day-in-lovholmen