WELCOME to KTH Architecture Higher Seminar, Spring 2018

Ola Svenle (olasvenle@gmail.com)
Opponent: Dr Christina Pech, Lecturer at KTH School of Architecture

Lost Grounds: Architectural Knowledge Production as Crisis Management

Abstract
This essay will address the effects of the introduction of industrialization and mass
society, starting around 150 years ago, onto Swedish architecture, and elaborated in
historiographical accounts of that period. More specifically, it will focus on the notion
of a subsequent architectural crisis proclaimed by several architectural historians and
theorists of the late twentieth century. In particular, texts by Björn Linn and Finn
Werne, Swedish architectural historians of the late twentieth century, will be used as
primary material for a critical historiography. The crisis identified refers to the
architectural knowledge base, as well as to the resulting built environments of the
modernist era, and is crucial for understanding late-twentieth-century interpretations
of modern architectural history in Sweden.

Bio
Ola Svenle is a PhD Candidate in History and Theory at the KTH School of Architecture, and holds a Master of Architecture from LTH. His thesis work concerns the restructuring of Swedish architectural training of the late 19th century.
For reading material, please contact Anders Bergström (abe@kth.se).