VAKNA – Prototypes for Future Protected Spaces

Purpose and goal

In smaller communities, services and key community functions have become centralised, while many places lack shelters. The potential of shared buildings for civilian protection is often insufficiently explored. VAKNA develops and tests an approach combining everyday use, physical adaptation, local activation and long-term stewardship. Three prototypes on Sollerön—a church, a parsonage and a barn—test how buildings can be converted into protected spaces during crises and heightened preparedness.

Expected effects and result

The project will deliver three prototype concepts, an inventory and assessment method, principles for physical adaptation and a model for local organisation and long-term stewardship, compiled in a guide. Before-and-after measurements will examine perceived safety and preparedness. The results aim to inform decisions by municipalities, parishes and property owners about buildings’ futures and strengthen local knowledge, collaboration, capacity to act and civilian protection.

Planned approach and implementation

The work builds on six years of place-based work on Sollerön and brings partners, local actors and experts together around a shared challenge. Mapping, scenarios, Living Lab, prototyping and analysis turn perspectives into testable solutions. Partners are Gaia Arkitektur, Stockholm Cathedral Parish, the Sollerön–Odenus Foundation, Lund University and the Sätt Institute. The reference group adds expertise in physical protection, local preparedness and crisis psychology, and insights from Ukraine.