Svava Riesto & Henriette Steiner

Svava Riesto is Associate Professor at Copenhagen University, where she leads the Research Group for Landscape Architecture and Urban History. She studied art history in Tromsø, Berlin and Copenhagen, worked several years in participatory landscape architecture and holds a PhD in landscape architecture and heritage studies. Her writings examine relationships between urban landscapes and power, social orders and values. She focusses on the buildings, cites and landscapes of the 20th century welfare states - their histories, legacies and futures. To do so, Riesto develops new collaborative formats for research and teaching, often together with local communities, NGOs and other societal actors. Recent books include Untold Stories. On Women, Gender and Architecture in Denmark (with Jannie R. Bendsen and Henriette Steiner 2023) and the co-edited Vademecum: 77 Minor Terms for Writing Urban Places (2020, with Klaske Havik, Kris Pint and Henriette Steiner). She co-curated the critically acclaimed exhibition Women in Architecture together with Henriette Steiner, Jannie R. Bendsen and curators at the Danish Architecture Centre in 2022.

Henriette Steiner is Associate Professor and Head of Section at Copenhagen University’s Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management. She holds a PhD in architecture from the University of Cambridge, UK, and has been a researcher or visitor at various schools of architecture, including ETH Zurich and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Henriette Steiner’s work investigates the cultural role and meaning of architecture, cities, and landscapes. She wants to rethink how we can understand the cities and landscapes we have inherited from the 20th century. She also wants to contribute to research and research organization that takes into account the invisible economies of care and collaboration. Recent books include Tower to Tower – Gigantism in Architecture and Digital Culture (with Kristin Veel, MIT Press, 2020); Touch in the Time of Corona – Reflections on Love, Care, and Vulnerability in the Pandemic (with Kristin Veel, De Gruyter, 2021) and Untold Stories. On Women, Gender and Architecture in Denmark (with Jannie R. Bendsen and Svava Riesto, Strandberg Publishing, 2023).