Building Perceptions - Images in the practice of architecture

Abstract: Working with images as a primary tool for analysis and design, the thesis explores how a photographic archive can help create contemporary architecture that relates and builds upon precedence. The work of Swedish documentary photographer and writer Sune Jonsson (1930-2009) has been a corner stone in this project. In his work from the 1950s and -60s, Jonsson documents rural northern Sweden, undergoing vast changes due to depopulation. By dissecting the (photographic) work of Sune Jonsson, I have tried to discern architectural qualities in the photos with the purpose of implementing them into new buildings. The site is in Djupsjönäs, about 50 kilometers southwest of Umeå, where a collection of buildings is added that could house classes as well as permanent dwelling for 4 – 5 households. The buildings include workshops, a gallery, a library, a common house with dorms, a sauna, and some other practical facilities.