Ohlsson & Skarne System 66 being erected

Course Presentation

The seminar will investigate the structural systems of the late modernist housing era from 1965-1974 in Sweden. We will do this through visiting, analyzing, and documenting the rapidly changing building stock. We will also begin collecting, identifying, and re-documenting the rapidly disappearing construction documents through interviews, lectures and archive searches.

One million units of housing were built during the ten year period. They are currently under national and international review through the threefold force of sustainability, wear and tear, and social issues. Approximately four to five hundred thousand units will be rebuilt/renovated/changed during the coming ten year period at a cost of approximately SEK 400 000:- to 500 000:- per unit. This amounts to a total investment of up to SEK 250 billion without a clear idea of how this is to be done.

The findings from the seminar will be one step towards producing an exhibit at the Swedish Museum of Architecture in 2013. The nucleus of the exhibit is to be a series of large scale wooden models describing the structural systems and their potential for change; which will be the subject of another course or seminar...