| Popis: |
Kungsleden is Sweden's oldest walking trail with a widespread system of cabins. The cabins are an important part of the safety system in the mountains, offering both comfort and shelter for the hiker. With building functionality in focus, the cabins are constantly renovated and modernized to ensure standards are maintained. Material is replaced with little or no thought to the cultural historical implication of this change. The southernmost stage of Kungsleden stretches from Hemavan to Ammarnäs, along the walking trail there are five cabins which were built in the 1980s when Kungsleden was extended and the area became a nature reserve. This thesis focuses on those five cabins. The thesis aims to contribute with an overall documentation of the cabins along Kungsleden walking trail between Hemavan and Ammarnäs and to investigate and determine whether the cabins possess cultural-historical value. To answer that, interviews are completed with both the owner (the county administrative board) and the tenant (Swedish Tourist Association, STF) of the cabins. The interviews are conducted with the purpose of investigating how the cabins are valued by owners and users, with the collected empirics analysed using value theory emotivism (Bergström, 2012). The thesis study is subsequently included as part of a cultural-historical evaluation together with the help of a government sponsored platform for evaluating the cultural-historical significance of buildings (Riksantikvarieämbetets Platform för kulturhistorisk värdering och urval) (2015) to answer the main question of this study: do the county administrative board and the Swedish Tourist Association (STF) consider the mountain cabins to be culturally and historically significant buildings? The result of the thesis demonstrates that the cabins are buildings with cultural and historical value and should therefore be managed accordingly. However, the county administrative board and the Swedish Tourist Association do not share this view, and believe that the cabins do not possess a cultural or historical value due to their very recent construction, this is a reoccurring argumentation lifted by researchers in this field (Vesterlund, 2019; Serrander, 2019; Lindberg, 2019). The aim of the thesis is to broaden the view of what is seen as a cultural-historical valuable building beyond age, and challenge the perspective currently held by both the owner and tenants. Furthermore, I would like to highlight the discussion concerning the consequences of identifying a building as culturally and historically significant. Can this classification in the case of the cabins have potentially negative consequences or is it a necessary step to ensure that cultural heritage is not lost before it has even been discovered. |
