Architecture forms a seemingly immovable and durable presence, resistant to both display and displacement. However, buildings and building parts have, for centuries, provided material for the lively curatorial practice of disassembly and reassembly, collection and display. This tradition has received little scholarly attention yet forms a vital component of our cultural imagination, whether in the [...]

This research project studies 19C century architectural imaginations expressed in texts, documents, drawings and photography alongside buildings. Based on meticulous archival studies, the project investigates architectural historicism as a complex theoretical, historiographical and textual construction. Careful readings of 19C century architectural debates from journals, catalogues, exhibitions and competitions will illuminate the architectural culture of historicism shaped by 19th and 20th century text culture and emerging mass media.

Routes, Roads and Landscapes studies the aestheticization of the modern landscape by looking at routes, roads and railways. The scope of the study is twofold. We investigate ways in which various routes shape modern conceptions of the landscape by framing it as a view, as an aesthetic object or as a place for interaction. Secondly, we inquire into the role of the route itself: as an aesthetic object and as a setting for aesthetic practices.

From the miniature to the mock-up, the model continues to be one of architecture’s most influential mass media. The Model Project is a laboratory speculating on historical, imagined, engraved, painted or fictional model projects and model exhibitions. We study the history and historicity of the architectural model, its shifting materiality, modes of display and character of spaces.The project is run in collaboration with the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Department of Architecture, Oslo, and guest researchers.