Engelska

Since its completion in 1937, Tegelslagaren 12 has held a modest yet striking presence in Stockholm's Södermalm district. This brick-and-teak 'rental palace' offers a unique take on functionalism, balancing whimsy with rationality, tradition with surprise. It also marks the beginning of the productive partnership between architects Sven Backström and Leif Reinius and the builder Olle Engkvist, a collaboration that would profoundly shape welfare-state housing and postwar architecture in Sweden as well as internationally.<br/><br/>Originally commissioned and still owned by the same family, Tegelslagaren 12 has recently undergone its first major renovation led by architects Krupinski/Krupinska. This book is a record of a remarkable building and its many makers, stewards and users: a testament to the enduring value of architectural craftsmanship, collaboration, and care.

Media coverage of Japanese architecture the past twenty years has largely been dominated by the works of SANAA, Sou Fujimoto, Jun ya Ishigami and their contemporaries. Their skillfully designed, ethereal white spaces and structures, have proved well suited to being exported in an increasingly visual culture. <br/><br/>Communal Ecologies, on the other hand, highlights an emerging generation of young architects pursuing a very different vision. They strive for an architecture that is rougher, more dynamic, and deeply rooted in social and ecological engagement. With a growing interest in community and network building, and a reevaluation of architecture s connection to nature, they are developing critical methodologies for practice, and are reimagining the role of the architect in the process. Faced with a lack of opportunities in traditional housing design due to Japan s economic decline, alongside a heightened awareness of ecological challenges brought on by frequent natural disasters, this generation of architects are crafting innovative strategies to engage with the existing housing stock and address challenges related to sustainability, reuse and transformation. <br/><br/>Communal Ecologies comprises a collection of interviews that introduce prominent figures from this generation, accompanied by documentation by architectural photographer Marc Goodwin as well as essays by emerging Japanese scholars. This book presents a fresh and nuanced understanding of the Japanese architecture scene, while also hinting at the potential in questioning the traditional role of the architect.

During the latter part of the nineteenth century, so-called esoteric movements became increasingly popular in cultural and intellectual circles in Europe, not least in Sweden. Secret teachings, rituals and practices in alchemy, astrology, occultism and theosophy were predominant, with a belief in correspondences in the cosmos, living nature and transmutations. But esotericism goes back much further in time in Swedish history. Although such esoteric ideas were long considered heresy by the Church and thus driven underground, they have had a significant impact on Swedish culture.<br/><br/>In this anthology, we bring together some of Sweden s foremost experts on the subject to explore the history of esotericism in Sweden and how its rituals, practices and traditions came to influence writers and artists such as August Strindberg, Selma Lagerlöf, Viktor Rydberg, Hilma af Klint, Tyra Kleen and Carl Milles.