Maryia Rusak defended her PhD dissertation “Factory Made. The Everyday Architecture of Moelven Brug, 1955-1973” on 22 August 2022. The committee consisted of professor Katie Lloyd Thomas, Newcastle University, associate professor Timothy Hyde from MIT, and professor Bjørn Sandaker from AHO. Rusak’s research was supervised by Mari Hvattum. 

Rusak’s dissertation studies the prolific building output of Moelven Brug—a Norwegian timber prefabrication company that, between 1955 and 1973, built schools, large housing developments and public buildings across the country. Through the lens of a single company, the thesis explores the tripartite convergence between architectural discourse, pragmatic concerns of industrial production, and the bureaucratic institutions of the Norwegian welfare state. Approaching the company in its entirety, it examines aspects ranging from managerial organisation and labour relations to technological import and details of construction. In doing so, the thesis ventures into the socioeconomic “hinterlands,” offering an architectural history of a different post-war Norwegian modernity created by construction companies, managers, engineers, contractors, state regulators, politicians, local planners and architects. Testing the limits of the discipline, this PhD proposes a new methodology to study architecture beyond the canon, bringing forward names and projects hitherto overlooked.

You can download the dissertation here: https://aho.brage.unit.no/aho-xmlui/handle/11250/3010759