The Svensk stad (Swedish Town) Project – Architectural History in Action

• Traditionally, historiographical studies deal mostly with published texts, that is, the products of historical writing. This paper will shift focus from the products to the practice of writing architectural history. The study draws inspiration from the development within science studies where the scientific work is seen as a practice. In Science in Action (1987) Bruno Latour writes: “our entry into science and technology will be through the back door of science in the making, not through the more grandiose entrance of ready-made science”. The Swedish Towns project (Svensk stad) is exceptionally well suitable for a study of “architectural history in the making”. It was an interdisciplinary project with the objective of writing the urban history of the Swedish nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century towns and to analyse how the industrialization of the Swedish society affected the urban environments. Swedish Towns was conducted as a teamwork including 20-something participants from various disciplines, but the predominant part had a background in art history. Due to the teamwork structure, the interdisciplinary mode of working and the fact that the process stretched over a decade (1940–1953) the project generated a unique archive material comprising of theoretical and methodological considerations on how to conduct the work. These discussions are for several reasons not included in the final products, published in 1950 and 1953. By returning to the archives of the Swedish Towns project this paper aims at analysing the process and practice of architectural history writing – architectural history in action.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Arkitektur (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Architecture (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Konstvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Art History (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Historiography

art history

architectural history

Svensk stad

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)