Open Architecture Lecture: Erik Sigge

Erik Sigge will give an open lecture “The Worth of Welfare: A Historical Perspective on the Costing and Financing of Public Buildings”

on October 28 at 5 pm at EKA classroom A-501

Since 1993, Sweden has deregulated many of its welfare services, with a majority of the privatization taking place after 2007. In a historical perspective, the longstanding problem of being able to make decisions regarding policies and programs on the basis of social needs – the classic problem of a welfare economy – has gradually been formalized into questions of efficiency and competitiveness.

The talk will address some of the historical changes of welfare policies in relation to building construction and focus on understanding the hidden logics of welfare economics in order to elucidate how architecture and real estate are contingent on the economic policies of its time. Central to “the cost of architecture” is how costing and budgeting are activities that have changed from primarily being conducted in direct relationship to production expenses, to being done in relation to financial opportunities.

Erik Sigge is an architectural historian and preservationist, and Lecturer in theory and history of architecture at the Department of Architecture and the Built Environment, Lund University in Lund, Sweden. He is Head of Unit of Form, Design, Culture and primarily teaches courses in the bachelor program. Erik gained his PhD in architectural history from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and holds a master degree in Historic Preservation from the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at Columbia University, New York (M.Sc. 2003).

The lecture is organised by Urban Studies Curriculum.