Architecture and Welfare: Scandinavian Perspectives

The decades after the Second World War saw ambitious building programs to ensure social welfare. The Scandinavian countries in particular underwent an intense modernisation phase with the aim to distribute welfare to all. Yet, the relationship between welfare values and design in Scandinavia is anything but stable. The spatial and political legacy of post-war construction varies amongst Denmark, Sweden, and Norway and their welfare models have been changed, contested, and copied over time. This book explores how architecture, once seen as a medium for universal welfare, inclusion, and political participation, is now often associated with the opposite, such as alienation, exclusion, and segregation. The volume offers new perspectives on the history and redesign of post-war architecture and urbanity.

With attractive photo essays on social housing in Scandinavia
Based on an interdisciplinary research project by KTH Stockholm, Oslo School of Architecture, University of Copenhagen
Internationally renown contributors shed light on aspects of the relationship between architecture and welfare