iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Ben Anderson will present recent work with the title "Unfeeling the climate crisis: Disaffection and the politics of intensity" at Human Geography in Lund in a few weeks. Don't miss out if you are in the neighbourhood an interested in affect and politics. Oct 8th, "världen" room 14.15-16.00

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

First day back at work, and found this on my desk. Really nice to see the paper on Lund's "brick brutalist" People's park (Bengt Edman, 1976) strange afterlives, which the wonderful Alva Zalar and I wrote, in print... The volume, on TU Wien Academic Press, looks great and has many great chapters!

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Swedish interwar Co-operative movement posters, from a time when co-ops were a key pillar of social democracy and the labor movement. Photographs from ongoing auction at "Wickmans". Was going to make a bid for the urban development one, but they are not looking like they will be cheap...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Came across this stunning photograph of Lund's 1938 public baths in goodwill bargain book from 1950. Quite the milestone in the local spatial politics of public luxury that was rolled out as social democratic welfare planing in the postwar era. The architects were Hans Westman with Tor Andersson.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Taking a break from taking to discuss antifascist geography tomorrow, in this @rgs.org pre-conference webinar hosted by the political geography research group and organized by Ichamati Mousamputri. Signup still free and open, for those interested in the topic: www.rgs.org/events/upcom...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

The Coca Cola-Palestine Cola dialectics. (Malmö, 2026)

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

The kids (in Småland) are ok, I guess!?!

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

A right-wing slogan in the Swedish election is that the left wants to "force mix" the forms of tenure (=introduce migrant renters to suburbia). This 1976 interview with future conservative housing minister calling for MORE mixing of tenure within housing areas, shows how hard they have moved right.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Slite Cement works and lime quarry, Gotland, Sweden. Sweden's only real remaining cement industry of any scale. Deceptive, in that the real damage is elsewhere. About two thirds of the unknown number of tonnes of mined limestone's mass will circulate as CO2 in the atmosphere for a very long time...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Used the public holiday to take the kids to say goodbye to the last section of Malmö Stadion. This 1958 masterpiece by local modernist outfit Janaecke & Samuelsson has seen Zlatan Ibrahamovic + Pelé not to mention a World Cup and countless league victories and is being torn down for no good reason.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Giving a public talk based old empirical work, but with some new thoughts, on squatting in Sweden since the 1960s. Tomorrow at Smålands Nation in Lund.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

More Bengt Edman-brutalism/People's Park crossover photographs. Used a flea market event as cover to document some interiors yesterday. Note the recurring rhythms, scales and angels connecting indoor and outdoor space.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

First time visiting the Hägerstensåsens Medborgahus/People's House today. It was packed to the brim by people who all had come to hear Wendy Brown lecture on post-liberalism from the left. Very interesting argument that will take some time to fully process, and great to catch up with old friends.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Out just before dawn to try to capture some neo-neobrutliast early 00s architecture in my neighbourhood in the snow + holiday lights.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

Quite like this courtyard I saw yesterday at Uppsala Human Geography (Economics and Social Science Faculty, former Social Science and Humanist Centre). Originally designed by Peter Celsing and completed in 1975, but a lot of the building has been modified, for the worse, in the 1990s...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Highgate: visited. Ghost: haunting. Halloween: done.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Lund University looking very University-like this morning.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

Finally back to writing on what should be the last major piece on our People's Park research, after six weeks of teaching and grant applications. Going through recent photos, and found a few ones with appropriate autumn vibes of Bengt Edman's brick brutalist People's Park cultural center in Lund...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

Inte för att citera Carlyle före frukost, men det är väl ändå en ganska etablerad idé att pressen är en makthavaren och det är en dygd såväl som i dess intresse att även när det blir kass stämning i den verkliga världens gyttjebrottning alltid upprätthålla skiljelinjen kritisk debatt kontra censur?

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

The first high-rises of Lund. Helge Zimdahl, 1958-60. There are three of these cooperatively owned buildings hovering above the villas of the most push area of the city in what used to be the gardens of the Bishop's faux tudor castle-like estate (parts of the gardens are preserved as a public park).

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Höganäs former People's Park (Sweden). Founded circa 1906 by local unions, mostly from the port, nearby mines and ceramics works I would assume. Sold to the municipality more than a decade ago, and redeveloped as a public park and housing area. Many traces in the landscape, however, remain.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Halmstad People's Park (Sweden): built by trade union 1905 and used by them for many decades. What remains is a public park slated for housing development, loudly opposed by a group of locals. Halmstad, particularly its port and railroad, was in the early 20th century a key node of labor militancy.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Used one of the lunch breaks to do the trek to the Olympic stadium to have a look at Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation, and in fact had to hang out under the building as a sudden rainstorm struck. Must say I prefer the other sites of the InterBau, but it was of course very interesting to see.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Just back from a great conference organised by @globalurbanhistory.bsky.social at CMS/TU Berlin. Presented our work on concrete, brutalism, heritage and sustainability with KEG postdoc Alva Zalar. Interesting debates and interventions, and nice opportunity for me to practice photography!

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Also, The Fröjdenborg municipal housing estate/Health care facility by Aina Berggren (one of Sweden's pioneering women architects).

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Brutalism is for the children. (Building: Landskrona Konsthall, Sten Samuelson and Fritz Jaenecke, 1963; Garden design: Ulla Molin 1989)

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

After the drinks before the canceled Zohran Mamdani all-night election watch party in Malmö.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Cirkel K bensinstation 2025 i Lund eller... 1938 i Nuremberg?

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Det är fantastiskt att vandra runt i. Här en vy från ett av mina favorithus från en torr försommardag i Siemsstadt 2024:

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

This little gem on neoliberal urbanism arrived today. Huge congrats to Burcu, Melissa och Cristina, and happy to see my work on how the everyday uses of Bo01/Västra hamnen in Malmö during their first few years came to shape urban design in the area. Will figure out a way to share the chapter...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Some more pics from same walk, this time from Rosengård (also mostly Thorsten Roos, but with Bror Thornberg, for MKB ca 1962-1963, ie before "Miljonprogrammet").

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Almgården, Malmö. Built 1969-72 (Thorsten Roos). The most Le Corbusier part of Malmö, to my mind. Almgården is where Malmö's far right in the early 00s broke into the mainstream, and located just next to Herrrgården. First experiment with manual exposure settings on my brand new second hand Ricoh.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Inte för att vara den som är den nu när debatten blivit mer generativ, men 1973 är ganska länge sedan, Mathias. Läste nyss av en slump dessa rader, och är inte helt säker på att allt vi kan veta att är att det inte längre är 1950-tal på Kockums varv.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

More Berlin, this time the almost complete retrofit of the GDR era Haus der Statistik on Alex, being completed as a public-common partnership of sorts between various civil society and municipal authorities after being reclaimed from speculators by squatters(!) provoking new municipal plans:

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

More Berlin. The Bode museum has Klee's Angelus Novus on loan for a small exhibition on Benjamin, Klee and the angel of history celebrating the 80 year anniversary of the NS regime's fall. Literally cited that Benjamin text just days before finding out about the exhibition, so pretty cool to see it!

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Back from Berlin field trip with 35 great LU planning students. One of the highlights was stumbling into the "Future Imperfect: Armenian Art from Aftermaths" at the Gorki. Particularly loved this textile by Khoren Matevosyan. Highly recommend going if you are passing through the city this summer:

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Filing this under Hauntological Crimes against Architecture.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Yvonne Rydin, UCL Bartlett, is introducing her work on knowledge, planning and post-growth scenarios at Keg in Lund on May 15th. Open to students and the general public. Feel free to spread the word to people in the region who might be interested!

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Environmental historian Troy Vettese will be in Lund at Stadshallen at 6 pm the coming Tuesday to promote the Swedish translation of his and Drew Pendergrass' BRLLIANT book Half Earth Socialism. Few things I've read cuts so the core of the overlaying crises of our times AND charts a way forward...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 20/04/2025

Lite mer: Eastern Market, Diego Rivera på DIA, Guardian Building, John R King Used Books.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

Fältanteckningar från Detroit, i senaste Flamman. Bjussar på lite foton som inte kom med i reportaget.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

Med det sagt, så ger ju en titt på BLS data vid handen att nästan hälften av industrijobben som fanns i USA 1980 är borta. Hur mycket spelar Nafta roll i detta? Inte vet jag - men tror inte en snabb analys av om jobbortfallen sker precis efter ett avtal skrivs under räcker för slå avfärda samband

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

På det temat, så har ju just Tiden i sin utgivningskatalog ett utmärkt och odödligt råd från 1931:

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

Kul att se vår bok recenserad i senaste Arkitektur, Sveriges mest anrika och historiskt intressanta professionstidskrift: arkitektur.se/tema/nr-2-20...

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Just arrived in Detroit for 2025 AAG. Walked much of the central city yesterday and did the Diego Rivera mural pilgrimage, as one should. Anyone out there with ideas what else not to be missed in while in the city, or things to pay special attention to during the AAG for that matter?

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Loppisfolk i Linköping! Denna tavla på Folkets hus byggande i Norrköping fick noll bud på auktion i Linköping i juli 2024. Antagligen är den donerade till lokal loppis. Om du brukar kolla på loppisar i regionen, eller känner någon, och ser den så skulle jag gärna vet om ni ser tavlan! /historiker

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Helsingborg People's Park, likely 1920s, oil on canvas, by "F. Willén". Photograph from Helsingborg municipal archives, digital collections.

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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

The most West Anderson device I've ever seen: An early 20th century Swedish Cooperative Association enamel receipt-collector and shopping list-maker. Now at auction in Sandviken. No bids.

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