Palimpsest: Narratives for placemaking and architectural resilience through time
2026 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (professional degree), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis [Artistic work]
Abstract [en]
This thesis proposal investigates architecture in relation to time and place. It questions the idea of architecture as permanent, whether intentionally through the creation of monuments for posterity or the preservation of what is valued as heritage, or implicitly through a lack of consideration for how buildings weather and adapt over time. Through interviews and workshops guided by critical visual methodology and slow-looking, local knowledge is shared, re-interpreted and synthesised.
The thesis elaborates on how the history of forest ownership systems in Sweden, from the commons to privatisation, has changed the way we relate to the boreal landscape. Traces of earlier systems were found to persist within the present through the preservation of former f‰bodvallar by changing it into land collectively managed by civic associations. Palimpsest and time perspectivism is used as a theoretical framework for how time is perceived and divided across multiple scales. Rather than viewing these sites as relics of the past, this proposal frames them as potential points of continuity between past and present forms of land use.
Through a reinterpretation of the f‰bodvall in a contemporary rural context of Gottnebydgen, it proposes the construction of a timber frame building which allows local residents to connect to the cycles of the boreal forest, and is continuously remade through repair.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2026. , p. 31
Keywords [en]
Palimpsest, co-ownership, rural, situated knowledge, cyanotype
National Category
Architecture
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-254718OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-254718DiVA, id: diva2:2071207
Subject / course
Master's Thesis, Master of Fine Arts in Architecture and Urban Design
Educational program
Architecture Program
Supervisors
Examiners
2026-06-122026-06-122026-06-12Bibliographically approved