Thordis Arrhenius

Thordis Arrhenius is an architect and architectural researcher with a strong engagement in contemporary architectural and urban practice and their theories. Her teaching and research is characterised by a dedication to contemporary critical issues in heritage and urbanism where the historical perspective informs actions and strategies. Arrhenius’ research interests concern the exhibition of architecture in mass culture, the relation between architecture and the museum, and the curatorial aspects of preservation. Recent research projects investigate the role of the architectural exhibition in the reception of modern architecture in Scandinavia, the historiography of conservation, and the strategy of alteration and its architectural and theoretical implications. 

Under the working title Restoring the Welfare State she is at present developing a cross-disciplinary project on the welfare-state, its cultures, politics, materials and agents, that aims, through study the ‘making’ of the welfare state, to contribute to the understanding of how the material heritage from the post-war period today is valued. 

Education and employment 

• 2014 – 2018 Professor in Culture Heritage, Department of Social Change and Culture (ISAK), Linköping University
• 2007 – 2014 Professor in Architectural History and Conservation, Oslo School of Architecture and Design
• 2001–2007 Lecturer, School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
• 2003 – Ph.D. School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm. 
• 1996 – MA (with Distinction), Histories and Theories of Architecture programme, Architectural Association Graduate School, London. 
• 1994 – MA in Architecture, School of Architecture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

Positions of trust (selection)

• 2016 Member of committee for professorship at the department of Art History, Oslo University.
• 2016 Peer reviewer/ Member of committee for academic publications, Publications Department University of Södertörn, Stockholm.
• 2016 Member of the examination committee Christian Björk's doctorate, title: The rhetoric and realisation of social differentiation: Critical perspectives on Functionalistic suburban and housing planning in mid – 20th century, Department of Culture and Aesthetic, Stockholms University, 25 February 2016.
• 2015 Member of the examination committee for Christophe Foultier's doctorate, title:  Regimes of Hospitality –Urban Citizenship between Participation and Securitization – the Case of the Multiethnic French Banlieue, Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society, University of Linköping, LiU, 4 September 2015. 
• 2015 Member of the examination committee Marit Johansson's, doctorate, title: Life in a world heritage city. A case study of discussions and contested values in Angra do Heroísmo, the Azores, Tema Q, University of Linköping 5 June 2015.

Honours and awards (fellowship) in selection

• 2015– Scholar at Getty Conservation Institute, (Getty Conservation Guest Scholar Program, LA, USA) 
• 2009– Visiting Scholar, Columbia University, Future Anterior Lab, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. (FORMAS Postdoctoral grant, Sweden). 
• 2007–2008 Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, University of Bath. (FORMAS Postdoctoral grant, Sweden). 
• 1998–1999 Visiting scholar in History and Theory, Architectural Association, London, (Swedish Institute Research Grant for Studies Abroad). 
• 1992–1993 Scholar in architectural conservation at the Swedish Institute in Rome, (Helgo Zetterwall Foundation Scholarship to Rome, Sweden).

Publications:

The fragile monument - on conservation and modernity

ISBN 978-1-907317-47-7

Experimental preservation

ISBN 3-03778-492-X

Place and displacement: exhibiting architecture

ISBN 978-3-03778-416-7