Architecture was fundamental to the realization of welfare state policy in the Nordic countries, translating democratic ideals into concrete spatial materializations. An inclusive notion of "welfare for all" was embraced by a generation of architects, landscape architects, and planners, who labored to give physical form to ideas of equality, collectivity, anddemocracy, producing a vast architectural output in Scandinavia during the postwar years. Today, however, the architectural legacy of this era is contested. Welfare for all no longer enjoys the social or political consensus it once did.This publication critically engages with this contested architectural legacy and provides a nuanced portrait of postwar welfare architecture coming to terms with a contentious past and facing an uncertain future With newly commissioned photographic work by contemporary Nordic artists 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
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
