
Architecture and Retrenchment
Neoliberalization of the Swedish Model across Aesthetics and Space, 1968-1994
Helena Mattsson(Author)
Bloomsbury Visual Arts (Publisher)
Published on 27. June 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-350-36568-1 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the Architects Sweden Critic's Award 2023
Architecture and Retrenchment explores the 'neoliberal turn' in architecture, through the rise and fall of the Swedish welfare state.
There are few better case studies of architecture's role in the retrenchment and dismantling of the welfare state than Sweden, the birthplace of the world-famous "Swedish Model" and now home to Europe's fastest-growing inequality. Through eight in-depth architectural case studies, Helena Mattsson analyzes how neoliberalism has created conditions for a new built environment which was once closely integral to the welfare system, examining how new architectural strategies and techniques were developed in order to protect the agency of architecture in a newly re-organised society, and revealing the role of architecture in creating new types of segregation, discrimination, and social stratification.
With close feminist analysis running throughout - and drawing from oral histories, witness seminars, and participatory workshops - Architecture and Retrenchment provides an original interpretation of how architecture, space, aesthetics, and politics converged at the end of the twentieth century.
Architecture and Retrenchment explores the 'neoliberal turn' in architecture, through the rise and fall of the Swedish welfare state.
There are few better case studies of architecture's role in the retrenchment and dismantling of the welfare state than Sweden, the birthplace of the world-famous "Swedish Model" and now home to Europe's fastest-growing inequality. Through eight in-depth architectural case studies, Helena Mattsson analyzes how neoliberalism has created conditions for a new built environment which was once closely integral to the welfare system, examining how new architectural strategies and techniques were developed in order to protect the agency of architecture in a newly re-organised society, and revealing the role of architecture in creating new types of segregation, discrimination, and social stratification.
With close feminist analysis running throughout - and drawing from oral histories, witness seminars, and participatory workshops - Architecture and Retrenchment provides an original interpretation of how architecture, space, aesthetics, and politics converged at the end of the twentieth century.
Reviews / Votes
With consummate authority, Helena Mattsson tracks architecture's multifaceted, frequently counterintuitive role in the dismantling of Sweden's welfare state. Among so much else, this vivid, theoretically nuanced history of unaccountable power shows how biopolitics stitches architecture and urbanism to political economy, and vice versa. * Reinhold Martin, Professor of Architecture, Columbia University, USA * With devastating clarity and attention to how buildings and projects emerge, Helena Mattsson demonstrates that architects don't simply provide the image of the neoliberal built environment, they actively develop the concepts, practices and collaborations that bring it about. * Katie Lloyd Thomas, Professor of Theory and History of Architecture, Newcastle University, UK * Helena Mattson's book adds significantly to the growing literature on the 'postmodern and neoliberal turn' in architecture, by highlighting its complex and place-specific character: its focus on neoliberalisation's trajectory in the welfare-state bastion of Sweden provides a welcome corrective to stereotypical 'Anglosphere' narratives. * Miles Glendinning, Professor of Architectural Conservation, University of Edinburgh, UK *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
69 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
620 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-36568-1 (9781350365681)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Helena Mattsson
Architecture and Retrenchment
Neoliberalization of the Swedish Model Across Aesthetics and Space, 1968-1994
E-Book
01/2023
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€28.99
Available for download

Helena Mattsson
Architecture and Retrenchment
Neoliberalization of the Swedish Model Across Aesthetics and Space, 1968-1994
E-Book
01/2023
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Visual Arts
€28.99
Available for download
Person
Helena Mattsson is Professor in History and Theory and Head of Department at KTH School of Architecture.
Content
Preface
Introduction: The Next Supermodel
Site 1: The Model (1968)
Site 2: The Suburb (1968)
Theme: Corporatism
Site 3: The Collective House (1935-1993)
Theme: Human Capital
Site 4: The Globe(1982-1989)
Theme: The Code
Site 5: The Postmodern Housing Area (1981-1987)
Theme: Emancipations
Site 6: The Renewal (1988-1993)
Epilogue: Elephant & Castle
References
Index
Introduction: The Next Supermodel
Site 1: The Model (1968)
Site 2: The Suburb (1968)
Theme: Corporatism
Site 3: The Collective House (1935-1993)
Theme: Human Capital
Site 4: The Globe(1982-1989)
Theme: The Code
Site 5: The Postmodern Housing Area (1981-1987)
Theme: Emancipations
Site 6: The Renewal (1988-1993)
Epilogue: Elephant & Castle
References
Index