Supervisors:
Janike Kampevold Larsen & Anders Ese
This diploma investigates how cumulative infrastructural expansion transforms Arctic landscapes beyond their immediate physical footprints. While Environmental Impact Assessments (Norwegian: konsekvensutredninger) evaluate individual developments and assist authorities in making informed decisions about its implementation, they often rely on predefined methods and categories that shape how landscapes are understood. The question is not whether these processes are effective, but rather what forms of landscape knowledge and transformation remain insufficiently accounted for. Focusing on Northern Norway, the project examines the compression of territorial space through analysis mapping and digital-forensic methods to reveal elements of spatial change that frequently remain hidden within conventional planning frameworks.
THE SITE
The local settlement of Skallelv, Varanger, Norway was chosen as the investigative testing ground. Skallelv is a small coastal town in Vadsø Municipality on the Southeastern coast of the Varanger Peninsula, historically inhabited by both Sámi and Kven people. It was predominately chosen for being one of the only areas along the E75 scenic road with settlement proximity to a varied array of infrastructures, including a NATO research base and the (timely and) pressing development of a proposed mine. More specifically, it is also the site of two occasions of fieldwork in which I have extensively photographed, operated, explored, and resided in.
THE SHRINKAGE IMPACT FRAMEWORK
To address what existing Environmental Impact Assessments overlook, this project develops the Shrinkage Impact Framework (SIF), a transferable landscape architectural methodological toolkit that identifies and represents cumulative pressures through three interconnected fields: visual/lateral, vertical, and ecological occupation. Utilizing open source software, SIF models a 100-year scenario of intensified development using a series of analytical processes to examine how future trajectories reshape conditions of visibility, movement, and continuity. Alongside its technical dimensions, the framework incorporates oral narratives, folklore, and speculative readings of Arctic landscapes, expanding analysis beyond technocratic representation to include atmospheric and cosmological dimensions. In doing so, the project positions landscape architecture as a critical investigative practice, capable of mapping the unseen, confronting cumulative territorial change, and embedding planning itself within the living and evolving landscape.
Central to the framework is an actors matrix that positions military infrastructure, extractive industries, settlement expansion, ecological systems, regulatory zones, reindeer, and cosmological entities as interacting agents within the landscape. Rather than assessing developments in isolation, this diagram examines the complex relationships between actors, helping to identify who benefits, who is placed at risk, and who ultimately bears the consequences of development.
SPATIAL SHRINKAGE
Through SIF, the project identifies five interconnected forms of spatial shrinkage: physical, visual, functional, perceptual, and cosmological. Physical shrinkage describes the direct occupation of land through built infrastructure and restricted areas. Visual shrinkage examines the compression of visible territory and open horizons. Functional shrinkage addresses how expanding infrastructures progressively reduce usable territory (i.e. for reindeer movement and grazing). Perceptual shrinkage investigates changes in how landscapes feel, regardless of their actual size. Cosmological shrinkage explores the loss or suppression of beliefs, knowledge systems, and the non-physical understanding of landscapes. A series of forensic techniques are used to support these typologies, including: hotspot mapping, viewshed analysis, reindeer areas of avoidance/migration, and visible spectrum filtration mapping to identify perceived reindeer forage availability.
THE MODEL
The project's physical model focuses on perceptual shrinkage through the construction of three territorial plinths representing a mine, a settlement, and a military research base. Positioned between these landscapes are layered plexiglass frames that visualize projected expansion across successive periods of time over the next 100 years. As the layers accumulate, they gradually construct a future horizon condition, demonstrating how territorial openness is compressed through the incremental growth of infrastructure. The model translates abstract analytical findings into a spatial experience, allowing viewers to observe the progressive occupation of the horizon and the transformation of landscape perception over time.
COSMOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Alongside its analytical investigations, the project develops a cosmological narrative that challenges exclusively technocratic understandings of landscape. Drawing from folklore, atmospheric conditions, alternative ways of seeing, and the perceived liveliness of Arctic environments, the work considers non-human and cosmological presences as active participants within territorial space. Rather than treating landscapes solely as a physical resource, the project explores how stories, beliefs, atmospheres, and cultural relationships contribute to the continuity of place. In doing so, it expands the scope of territorial analysis beyond measurable impacts to include forms of knowledge often excluded from conventional decision-making processes. By combining the geology of the area, extraction infrastructure, and the imaginative work of John Bauer, this section depicts the proposed mine and its occupation of the underground world, colonizing, destroying, and displacing the beings that reside there.
THE GUIDEBOOK
Rather than prescribing a single design intervention, this project provides a method: a complete tutorial for discerning the cumulative spatial consequences of occupation in Arctic environments. SIF positions landscape architecture as a discipline of spatial expertise capable of revealing and contesting territorial pressures that current planning frameworks insufficiently address. Ultimately, the framework is intended as a practical supplement to assessments and a provocation for more inclusive, multi-dimensional decision-making in Arctic governance. The outcome of the project is a guidebook for applying and replicating the Shrinkage Impact Framework. By documenting its methods, analytical workflows, and representational techniques, the guidebook provides a transferable approach for identifying cumulative territorial pressures and assessing spatial shrinkage across Arctic landscapes and beyond.
Contact
Lucas Martins
joelssondesign@gmail.com / LinkedIn / Instagram / +4747732212