{"id":29906,"date":"2025-05-02T15:40:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T13:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arkdes.se\/?post_type=project&p=29906"},"modified":"2025-11-06T11:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T10:18:14","slug":"company-towns-and-workers-housing","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/arkdes.se\/en\/projects\/company-towns-and-workers-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Company Towns and Workers\u2019 Housing in Modern Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Facade studies of residences in J\u00e4dra\u00e5s, Ockelbo for Kopparfors AB. 1952. Ralph Erskine. ArkDes collection.<\/i>\n \n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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A study of industrial architecture and social space in the 20th-century welfare project.<\/p>\n

“Live right the Cloetta way” – Elisa López’s research focused on 20th-century industrial communities, with particular emphasis on the role of architects in designing housing. The study also explored landscape planning and social infrastructure such as schools and childcare facilities, often commissioned by successful industrial companies like Cloetta, Storvik, and LKAB.<\/p>\n

Elisa López is an anthropologist who earned her PhD from Uppsala University in 2021. Through her investigations in the ArkDes collection, she contributed to a deeper understanding of how company towns were established across Sweden throughout the 20th century. Her research highlights the role these towns played in the development of the Swedish welfare state—an issue also addressed in the 2020 ArkDes exhibition Kiruna Forever<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ArkDes collection includes materials from both well-known architects such as Ralph Erskine—who designed workers’ housing in Jädraås—and lesser-known figures such as Henry Fraenkel, whose work for Cloetta in Ljungsbro, Linköping, was a key part of the study.<\/p>\n

One of the findings shows how good architecture increasingly came to be viewed as a tool for producing “good workers” from the 1910s onward. The built environments of company towns reflect the social relations of production—both in continuity and in transformation. The architectural expertise developed in these Swedish contexts was later exported internationally, for example in the design of the mining town of Yekepa in Liberia.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

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Guest Researcher<\/h2>\n \n

Elisa L\u00f3pez<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Financier<\/h2>\n \n

ArkDes<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Project timeline<\/h2>\n \n

Autumn of 2023<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

About the Guest Researcher Program<\/h2>\n \n

Since 2021, ArkDes has hosted guest researchers for short-term residencies of three to six months, focusing on specific questions related to the ArkDes collection. The aim of the program is to introduce a wider range of perspectives into the ongoing research on the collection and to make academic knowledge more accessible to the public.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

Research Outcomes<\/h2>\n \n

The outcomes of several guest researcher projects have shaped and enriched the exhibition ArkDes Collectio<\/em>n<\/a>, which opened in 2024. The exhibition is updated annually with new original objects, and research conducted through the Guest Researcher Program can influence both its themes and content.<\/p>\n

Guest researchers also share their work through public events and an annual research conference hosted by ArkDes. Calls for new guest researchers are announced annually, typically during the spring semester.<\/p>\n

For more information about current or past projects, please contact: info@arkdes.se<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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\n Stockholm\n <\/address>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n \n \n Open call for guest-researchers 2023 \u2013 ArkDes collection\n <\/h2>\n <\/a>\n \n
\n \n The collection\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n
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