Architectures of Dismantling and Restructuring: Spaces of Danish Welfare 1970–Present

This work grew out of a cross-disciplinary research project that began in 2017, and is the project’s main publication. With the understanding that welfare is fundamentally spatial, the researchers’ initial hypothesis was that welfare spaces could be understood through their transformations concerning scale and distribution. And while the project began with a focus on the classical ‘pillars’ of welfare (such as housing and social security) and their changes after the post-war golden era, the project team found that it encompasses climate change, infrastructure, security, pandemic effects and other matters, which are transforming the ‘spaces’ of welfare and the welfare discourse.

The ambitious volume tackles these weighty ideas across the themes of security, adaptability and community, with chapters on each containing multiple essays drawing on anthropology, architecture, urban planning and art history. Visualisations are a major component, with more than 100 graphical figures covering spatial developments in Copenhagen and the country as a whole, from the societal and political to the personal. While focused on one country, the book is intended to provide a case study, and will make a useful resource for designers and policy makers alike.