When we opened the Scandinavian Domes Pilot Programme, we did not really know what to expect.
We had decided to find three pilot customers who wanted to test the domes with us for a full year. They would receive more than an early version of a new product. They would become part of the development process—using the dome, observing it through the seasons and telling us what worked, what did not and what they discovered along the way.
We hoped, of course, that a few people would find the idea interesting.
The response was far greater than we had expected.
When we finally counted the expressions of interest, almost a hundred people and organisations had applied, mainly from the region we had identified but also from elsewhere. Yet the number was not really the most surprising part.
It was all the ideas.
One person wanted to create a place for yoga and meditation. A hotel imagined a heated dome on its roof, overlooking Östersund, Lake Storsjön and the mountains. Another applicant had an island of their own and wondered what a dome might add to it. We spoke with people who saw the dome as a base for hang gliding and other outdoor experiences, and with a grower who wanted to use one for cultivating tulips.
In Ånn, there was an idea for an Earthship-inspired greenhouse for year-round cultivation. Others pictured domes at remote farms, mountain cabins, hotels, mountain stations and ski resorts.
Behind the ideas was an equally varied group of people—entrepreneurs, nature guides, hotel owners, architects, families and associations.
In this way, almost a hundred applications became almost a hundred different answers to the same question:
What could you actually do with a dome?
When developing a product, it is easy to think you also know how it will be used. The applications were a useful reminder that you do not. We had never discussed many of these ideas when we started building the first prototypes. The pilot programme therefore also became a way to see Scandinavian Domes through other people’s eyes.
We began arranging calls and interviews. Many lasted far longer than planned. We wanted to understand each place, how the dome would be used, who would use it and why that particular setting could teach us something we could not learn at home in Granberget.
And the more people we spoke with, the harder the choice became.
There was no simple list with three candidates clearly at the top.
On the contrary, we met many people and organisations who could have made excellent pilots. Some had spectacular sites. Others had particularly interesting uses in mind. Some had extensive experience in tourism or in running a business in places where weather and seasons matter greatly. Above all, several had the curiosity and willingness to work together that we were looking for.
That mattered. We were not looking for three customers who simply wanted to be the first to own a Scandinavian Dome. We needed people who accepted that a pilot is a pilot—something to use, follow up, discuss and sometimes change.
At the same time, we did not want three identical sites. If the pilot year was to teach us as much as possible, the domes needed to meet different settings, users and conditions.
In the end, though, we had to start making decisions.
We chose not to name three final winners at a single moment. Instead, we worked through the expressions of interest in the order they had arrived. That felt like the fairest approach. When a candidate who had asked for an interview seemed like a good fit, we continued the conversation and tried to settle the practical and contractual details. We considered a pilot site confirmed only once an agreement had been signed.
Then we moved on to the next.
It was a practical way to manage a selection process with several very strong candidates, where a pilot site also had to work in reality. A good idea alone was not enough. Land, permits, foundations, transport, timing and responsibilities all had to be resolved—and both we and the pilot customer had to agree on what the year together would involve.
The pilot programme thus took shape step by step, rather than through one major selection decision.
When the three agreements were finally in place, we had exactly the variety we had hoped for.
The first pilot was Hemavan Viewpoint with Hemavan Alpint, high above the tree line at the gondola’s upper station. There, the dome would face mountain weather, large temperature changes and people using the site in both summer and winter.
The second was Svalbo at the foot of Hästfjället outside Åre—a very different setting, with different conditions for both use and technology.
The third was Borgafjäll, where another mountain setting and a different use would bring new insights to the pilot programme.
Three domes. Three places. Three different contexts.
It was precisely those differences we wanted.
Perhaps the hardest part of the process was having to turn down so many people.
The fact that the programme had room for only three sites did not mean there were only three good candidates. Quite the opposite. Many of the ideas and people we encountered made a strong impression, and we hope to reconnect with several of them when Scandinavian Domes moves from the pilot programme towards a wider launch.
In that way, the applications gave us something we had not anticipated.
They gave us more than our three pilots. They also gave us a first glimpse of the people drawn to the dome, the places they imagined it in and the many different lives a single structure might have.
During the years of development, we had been able to change almost anything at home in Granberget. Now three real sites and three pilot customers were waiting.
The first dome would go to Hemavan.
For the first time, every part would be packed, leave Granberget and be assembled far from our own workshop. What had until then been a pilot programme on paper would meet the mountains for real.
We had chosen our pilots.
Now we would find out what they could teach us.
During the summer of 2026, we selected three pilot partners from almost 100 applications from Sweden and abroad. The pilot year has now begun with installations in Hemavan, Åre and Borgafjäll.
Under sommaren 2026 valde vi ut tre pilotkunder bland närmare 100 intresseanmälningar från Sverige och andra länder. Pilotåret har nu inletts med installationer i Hemavan, Åre och Borgafjäll.
Tillsammans med våra pilotkunder kommer vi under det kommande året att vidareutveckla varje del av Scandinavian Domes – från materialval och hantverk till logistik, installation och långsiktig hållbarhet – inför den bredare marknadslanseringen 2027.