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Haunting the Legislation of architecture: The Concept of Trevnad
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Architecture, Architecture, Landscapes and Cities.ORCID iD: 0009-0008-9408-2647
2026 (English)In: International Symposium on EMBODIED CULTURE / [ed] Van de Voorde, S., Huyghebaert, I., Cools, J., & Van Holen, L., Brussels: Vrije Universiteit Brussel , 2026, p. 177-184Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

In July 2025, Sweden passed a new building code, replacing windows and daylight with a technicallystandardised daylight factor. Newly built holiday housing in Sweden already shows signs of thisreregulation: instead of rooms, apartments feature windowless spaces of 5 sqm or less in size. This currentstate of affairs stands in contrast to the intangible concept of trevnad (loosely translated as comfort andwell-being), embedded in Swedish legislation from 1932 to 1995. Through a conceptual history analysis oflegal texts and preparatory works, this paper traces how trevnad emerged as a response to critiques ofclosed courtyards and overcrowding, was abolished amid semantic shift and historical amnesia, andultimately disembodied into supposedly neutral technical metrics. As an umbrella concept, trevnad onceanchored aesthetic and social values across scales—from urban plans to interior design—actively shapingthe built environment. Framed by Picon’s notion of architectural "ghosts", this paper invites areassessment of the qualitative values that legislation can embed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Brussels: Vrije Universiteit Brussel , 2026. p. 177-184
Keywords [en]
trevnad (comfort and well-being), architectural quality, legislation and building codes, linguistic governance, Sweden
Keywords [sv]
trevnad, arkitektonisk kvalitet, lagstiftning och byggregler, språkpolitik, Sverige
National Category
Architecture
Research subject
Architecture
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-382759ISBN: 9789491912290 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-382759DiVA, id: diva2:2064002
Conference
International Symposium on Embodied Culture, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Note

QC 20260601

Available from: 2026-06-01 Created: 2026-06-01 Last updated: 2026-06-01Bibliographically approved

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Citation style
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