This book prompts architects and anthropologists to think and act together. In order to fully grasp the relationship between human beings and their built environments and design more livable and sustainable buildings and cities in the future, we need new cross-disciplinary approaches combining anthropology and architecture. This is neither anthropology of architecture, nor ethnography for architects, but a new approach beyond these positions: Architectural Anthropology.
The anthology gathers contributions from leading researchers from various Nordic universities, architectural schools, and architectural firms as well as prominent international scholars like Tim Ingold, Albena Yaneva, and Sarah Pink – all exploring, developing, and innovating the cross-disciplinary field between anthropology and architecture. Several contributions are co-written by architects and anthropologists, merging approaches from the two disciplines in order to fully explore the dynamics of lived space.
Through a broad range of empirical examples, methodological approaches, and theoretical reflections, the anthology provides inspiration and tools for scholars, students, and practitioners working with lived space. The first part focusses on homes, walls, and boundaries, the second on urban space and public life, and the third on processes of creativity, participation, and design.
Introduction to architectural anthropology Marie Stender, Claus Bech-Danielsen, and Aina Landsverk Hagen The method of architectural anthropology: six suggestions Albena Yaneva Part I: Home, walls, and boundaries Edited by Claus Bech-Danielsen and Marie Stender 1. The viscous porosity of walls and people Sandra Lori Petersen 2. An outdoor living room: balconies and blurring boundaries Marie Stender and Marie Blomgren Jepsen 3. Mould, microbes, and microscales of architecture: an anthropological approach to indoor environments Turid Borgestrand Øien and Mia Kruse Rasmussen 4. Homelessness and homeliness: collage technique as a research method Laura Helene Højring and Claus Bech-Danielsen 5. Walls and islands: exploring perpetual configurations of carcerality through architectural anthropology Runa Johannessen and Tomas Max Martin Part II: Urban space and public life Edited by Sten Gromark, Aina Landsverk Hagen, and Marie Stender 6. Interdisciplinarity on site: exploring the urban interventions ‘Unidades de Vida Articulada’ in Medellín Lisbet Harboe and Hanne Cecilie Geirbo 7. Engaging with mixed-use design: the case of the urban library in Oslo Cicilie Fagerlid, Bengt Andersen, and Astri Margareta Dalseide 8. Urban youth, narrative dialogues and emotional imprints: how co-creating the 'splotting' methodology became a transformative journey into interdisciplinary collaboration Aina Landsverk Hagen and Jenny B. Osuldsen 9. What makes spatial difference? Conceptualising architectural anthropology through filmmaking Lina Berglund-Snodgrass and Ebba Högström 10. ‘After Belonging’: a study of proposals for architectural interventions for arrival of refugees in Oslo, Norway Eli Støa and Anne-Sigfrid Grønseth Part III: Processes of creativity, participation, and design Eli Støa and Aina Landsverk Hagen 11. Architectural anthropologists in the making? Paths to creative youth participation in local urban development Ingrid M. Tolstad and Astri Margareta Dalseide 12. Questioning the shape of social concepts: transforming anthropological insights into architectural design drivers Drew Nathan Thilmany 13. Rendering atmosphere: exploring the creative glue in an urban design studio Anette Stenslund and Mikkel Bille 14. Constructing community? A collaborative housing development process, meeting credit and concrete Silje Erøy Sollien and Søren Nielsen 15. Norwegian pilots: navigating the technological logic of sustainable architecture Ruth Woods and Thomas Berker Afterword: engaging architectural anthropology Sarah Pink Index
Marie Stender is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, Denmark. Claus Bech-Danielsen is an architect and professor at the Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, Denmark. Aina Landsverk Hagen is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Work Research Institute at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.
