109: “War on Beauty: the Uglification of Sweden.” (guest: Fredrik Kullberg)

Welcome to the 109th episode of Urbcast, in which we will talk about: “War on Beauty: the Uglification of Sweden.” ?

This is the episode which was recorded during the World Urban Forum at the Cities 360 scene. Please be aware that it was recorded live on stage, hence the quality is a bit worse (or just different). I hope you will enjoy the conversation with Fredrik Kullberg – journalist and author of the book War on Beauty: the Uglification of Sweden.

Why should we talk about it?

Can a country like Sweden, famous for its spatial order, face significant problems in its urban fabric? My guest explains that poorly thought-out projects are also present in many Swedish cities. What are those, and how can we save the Allemansrätten?

Why is it worth listening to?

Because Fredrik has been traveling all over Sweden in the search for project that are threatening the Swedish landscape, and well know respect (and access) to the nature called allemansrätten. I hope that by listening you will also want to check the book under the same title.

We talked about:

  • Observations and motivation behind writing the book
  • Internal vs. external image of Sweden
  • Bringing “life” to Swedish towns by building big scale objects
  • Allemansrätten vs. big scale projects destroying nature—a paradox
  • Swedish “indoors” culture—Do Swedish people care about landscape?
  • How to prevent the demolition of valuable Swedish architecture?

Book recommendation:

  • War on Beauty: the Uglification of Sweden.

You get to know more about Fredrik and the book:

You can listen to the episode at: urbcast.pl/en/episode109

You will find more information at: https://linktr.ee/urbcast or urbcast.pl/en

Music: spear_oh

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