Ernesto Garcia's team awarded funding in the "Reimagining Landscapes" research call
7 September 2026
Ernesto Garcia, PhD student at Konstfack, is part of one of three interdisciplinary teams to have been awarded funding by ArkDes to develop knowledge, methods and perspectives on how decommissioned industrial environments can take on new roles.
Clara Eckersten, Erik Svensson and Ernesto Garcia.
Photo: Olle Lenngren, Jitka Svensson, Klara Schyberg
The call was launched in spring 2026 and focused on how industrial environments and landscapes that have been decommissioned or are facing closure can be transformed through innovative design, long-term transformation and the stewardship of industrial landscapes.
The call invited site-specific preliminary studies in which the teams defined their own research questions, methods and content, exploring approaches, design principles and future scenarios for the sustainable transformation of industrial landscapes. The three preliminary studies now selected are based in Munsö Löten gravel quarry on Ekerö, Makadamen quarry in Åstorp and Laisvall mine in Arjeplog.
Taking the latter as its starting point, Garcia — who is also an interior architect, SIR/MSA — will work together with Clara Eckersten, landscape architect, LAR/MSA, and Erik Svensson, park technician and horticulturist at the Alnarp Landscape Laboratory, to address the question: "How can an already remediated landscape be further developed?"
The preliminary study is titled Gro/Grund. More information about this project and the other two studies: Three pre-studies explore transformation of industrial landscapes