Sweden’s first platform for artistic research in architecture has been established at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, LTH, Lund University.

Artistic research in architecture at Lund University | AR(T)CH-RES

The initiative strengthens the role of artistic inquiry within the architectural discipline and opens new spaces for reflection, experimentation, and dialogue. Its ambition is to articulate an expanding field where disciplinary knowledge, creative practices, and societal questions intersect in ways that are both critical and imaginative. The third-cycle subject Architecture, leading to the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts, is grounded in the conviction that architecture contributes to cultural and societal development through artistic reflection on people’s relations to their environment. It promotes the development of design practitioners’ forms of expression and enables critical, creative, and innovative exploration. Artistic research in architecture advances the discipline by generating new knowledge, methods, and spatially oriented design practices, produced through artistic and practice-led approaches that are open-ended, constructivist, and non-reductionist. Architecture as a discipline inherently encompasses socio-political issues, modes of production and construction, and critical engagement with both historical and future worlds. Sensibility towards form and matter is central to its aesthetics, while artistic experimentation is essential for imagining speculative futures that contribute to societal transformation. A further ambition of artistic research in architecture at the department is to connect knowledge across scales and domains, including bridging research and education to create a natural continuity between architectural studies and advanced research.