Biography

Mattias Kärrholm

I am born in Lund, Sweden (1972), took a BA in art history in 1998 and a Master in Architecture in 1999 at Lund University. I took my PhD in architecture in 2004 with the dissertation Arkitekturens territorialitet, and with Professor Finn Werne as my main supervisor. Today, I am a Professor of Architectural Theory at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Lund University, Sweden, since 2013. At the department, I am responsible for the subject of Architecture and Culture. Before that, I was a Senior Lecturer of Architecture (from 2008, when I also became docent), and a Professor of Architecture (2012) at the Department of Urban Studies, Malmö University.

In short, my research relates to the fields of architectural theory and history, urban studies, and urban design. It deals with territoriality, public space, building types, room types, space and culture, everyday life and use. In my different research projects I have, for example, been dealing with the ongoing transformation of everyday life in public spaces and how this relates to the design and development of the built environment. This do, for example, include studies of how public spaces of the city has been transformed during an era of consumption and commercialization, as well as studies of the fragmentation of local public spaces in residential areas. I have also been looking into the development and transformation of different building and room types, including court houses, spatial types relating to retail, and residential room types. Furthermore, I have been dealing with the question of urban scale production (both in relation to urban development projects and changing material cultures), as well as specific urban activities such as walking, running and grocery shopping. Finally, I have also (quite often together with Andrea Mubi Brighenti) been working with the long-term theoretical project of developing a  theory of territoriology, working with concepts to analyze processes of territorialisations in the built environment.   

In 2012, I published the book Retailising Space on Ashgate (second pr. Routledge 2016). The monograph Animated Lands, Studies in Territoriology, written together with Andrea Mubi Brighenti was published on Nebraska University Press in 2020. Edited volumes include Urban Squares (2015), on Nordic Academy Press, and Urban Walls (2018) and Territories, Environments, Politics (2022) on Routledge. The latter two were edited together with Andrea Mubi Brighenti.

I have been opponent and/or part of examination committees at PhD defences at Lund University, Uppsala University, KTH Stockholm, Chalmers Gothenburg, Karlstad University, Linköping University, Luleå Technical University, BTH Karlskrona, KADK Copenhagen, NMBU Ås, Manchester University, UCL London, Pune University and Melbourne University,

Main supervisor of doctoral dissertations (finished)

Dr. Emma Nilsson (2010) Arkitekturens kroppslighet. Staden som terräng.

Dr. Jesper Magnusson (2016) Clustering Architectures: The role of materialities for emerging collectives in the public domain.

Dr. Paulina Prieto de la Fuente (2018) Rhythm Architecture: On Sequential Aspects of Materialities in Urban Space.

Dr. Ida Sandström (2019) Towards a minor urbanism: Thinking community without unity in recent makings of public space

Dr. Sahar Alrabadi (2020) Crowdability of Urban Space.: Ordinary rhythms of clustering and declustering and their architectural prerequisites.

Dr. Laleh Foroughanfar (2022) The Street of Associations: Migration and Infrastructural (Re) Production of Norra Grängesbergsgatan, Malmö.

Dr. Misagh Mottaghi (2023) Carescape of Blue-Green Solutions of Everyday Life: Exploring the socio-materiality of a landscape technology.

Dr. Alva Zalar (2024) Queer as a City, Unsettling Coherence in ‘Sustainable Urban Development’.

Secondary supervisor (finished)

Dr. Mikkel Schønning Sørensen (2007). Projective Planning, An Inquiry into the Justifications for Urban Planning.

Dr. Rickard Persson (2008) Segregation, Education and Space, A Case Study of Malmö.

Dr. Emma Paulsson (2016) Göra plats: graffiti, kommunal förvaltning och plats som relationell effekt.

Dr. Sandra Kopljar (2016) How to think about a place not yet: Studies of affordance and site-based methods for the exploration of design professionals' expectations in urban development processes.

Dr. Johan Wirdelöv (2022) Behavioural Atmospheres and Vagueness in the Sharing of Urban Public Places.