Academic Research Culminates with International Magazine Publication

Prof. Matt Hall first encountered the work of Swedish Architect, Bernt Nyberg, on a study abroad trip in 2010 when he took a group of University of Tennessee architecture students on a grand tour of Sweden to study the work of Sigurd Lewerentz and his contemporaries. For the past four years Prof. Hall, who is currently an Assistant Professor at Auburn University’s architecture program, has become increasingly interested in documenting Nyberg’s collected work because much of it has been demolished or is deteriorating. As part of his ongoing research, Hall has interviewed surviving collaborators and is producing new photography, documentation and archival research to “present it to a larger audience as a call to action to save the remaining buildings and promote a critical dialog regarding the preservation of aging modernist structures.” (studioAPLA – Fall 2016)

In 2015, Hall curated and designed a traveling exhibition on Nyberg’s work that first opened at the Skissernas Museum in Lund Sweden and subsequently opened at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalog that Hall edited. Because of the close relationship between Nyberg and Sigurd Lewerentz, this exhibition led to the commission to design and curate an exhibition and edit a publication celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Lewerentz’s seminal work in Klippan, Sweden, The Church of St. Peter. The reception of these two exhibitions and the demand for the small printed run of related publications led to interest from A+U magazine, a Japanese architectural monthly magazine which is sold in over 100 countries. With the help of a CADC Seed grant, and external grants awarded by the Peter and Birgitta Celsing Foundation in Stockholm, Hall worked closely with collaborator and co-editor Hansjörg Göritz from the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design to curate images and archival material. They also collaborated on editing the team’s personal essays for the publication. Much of the material used was provided by ArkDes: The Swedish Center for Architecture and Design. A+U also funded a trip to Stockholm last winter which enabled Hall to pull additional photographic work from the archives.

Considerable effort was required to produce this first international publication on the Nyberg’s work. Prof. Hall states that he and his collaborators are proud to finally give this obscure Swedish master architect’s work the recognition and exposure it deserves.

View an image of the issue and its details here.

Prof. Hall would also like to recognize the assistance of the following Auburn Architecture students:

Andreas Förnemark – helped with translating archival material and edited most of the new drawings.

Rebecca Ribeiro Magalhaes, Leandro Oliveira Giles and Juliana Pimentel Freitas – Visiting Brazilian students worked in the summer of 2016 to produce drawings

John Dunn Insua – assisted in drawing production.