Sand, Seeds, and Soil
Transformative Histories of Million Program Landscapes
On Friday the 7th of February at the Research Semainrs in Architecture series, PhD candidate Chero Eliass will present her project Sand, Seeds, and Soil: Transformative Histories of Million Program Landscapes.
The opponent will be Architect, Historian and Theorist Huda Tayob, Royal College of Arts, London.
Tid: Fr 2025-02-07 kl 13.15 - 16.00
Plats: A608
Bio
Chero Eliassi is a landscape architect and, since 2021, a doctoral candidate in Jennifer Mack’s research project “Parks around the Towers” at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). Her research critically investigates the transformation and use of outdoor environments in Sweden’s Million Program multi-family housing areas, constructed between 1965 and 1974, through social, ecological, political, and spatial lenses.
Eliassi’s doctoral work focuses on case studies in Holma, Norrliden, and Järvafältet that explore spatial practices – such as Newroz, transnationalism, diasporic cultures, and how people understand their rights to postwar Swedish landscapes of housing. Her research employs materials – such as sand, seeds, and soil – as witnesses to trace the evolution of playgrounds, neighborhood parks, and open fields, uncovering the multi-layered histories embedded in these landscapes since their construction.
Eliassi’s key areas of interest include the emergence of new social, spatial, ecological, cultural, and material narratives within these landscapes. Her work also examines how these diverse outdoor environments contribute to Sweden’s cultural landscapes and can be reimagined as part of its cultural heritage.
Opponent
Huda Tayob is a South African architect and architectural historian and theorist. She is currently a a senior tutor at the Royal College of Arts, London and has previously taught at the University of Cape Town, the University of Johannesburg and the Bartlett School of Architecture. Her research focuses on minor, migrant and subaltern architectures, centred on the African continent and global south. She is co-curator of the open access curriculum Racespacearchitecture.org and a lead curator of the digital exhibition, essay and podcast platform, Archive of Forgetfulness. She participated in the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale (2023) with a project titled Index of Edges which traces watery archives, methods and stories along east African coastal edges from Cape Town to Port Said.
For a copy of the transcript please contact Chero Eliassi chero@kth.se