Typical of the time

Do it again, do it right – Around the country with Renoveringsraseriet by authors Gustav Bergström and Alfred Skogberg.

Over the past decades, we have seen container after container filled with our common building heritage. Beautiful 1950s kitchens are worn out and replaced by mass-produced ones, mouth-blown window glass ends up in landfills, and cheap, unmaintainable materials replace old and solid ones.

Since its inception in 2020, Renovation Fury has criticized careless renovations on their popular Facebook and Instagram accounts of the same name.

In this book, we follow the founders, Gustav Bergström and Alfred Skogberg, on a journey to twelve Swedish cities; from Kiruna in the north to Sölvesborg in the south. They talk to architects, urban planners and experts and point out both good examples and pure disasters.

Do it again, do it right is both a portrait of the times and a cry for help. Caring and preserving is not just about nostalgia, it’s a must if we want to achieve our climate goals. It’s high time we started to see the value of craftsmanship and quality, and realize that new is not always better!

“Painted Floors” is the fifth book in the “Building Care in Practice” series.

It covers all kinds of wooden floors, both indoor and outdoor. From barn floors to checkered 18th century floors and solid colored floors from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The last floor among the book’s examples was painted just a few years ago. A living tradition, then! The book is practically organized and above all intended to serve as a solid instruction for those who want to paint themselves.

Richly illustrated with scale models, color recipes and other tips. The visual material consists of photos, drawings and watercolors.

Swedish Grace is a term coined by contemporaries to denote neoclassical Swedish design from the 1910s and 1920s.

The most representative buildings from this era, such as the Stockholm City Library by Gunnar Asplund, the Resurrection Chapel by Sigurd Lewerentz and the Stockholm Concert Hall by Ivar Tengbom, are all world-famous, and most of what was built during the period is among the most highly regarded architecture in Sweden.

In this anthology, specialists from Sweden as well as other countries discuss different perspectives on Swedish Grace and show aspects that are still relevant today.

“Exterior Renovation” is the third book in the series – Building Maintenance in Practice.

All stages of an exterior renovation are described in detail. Roofs, chimneys, walls, windows, doors, foundations, extensions, lighting and more are covered, based on old Swedish building traditions. The traditional materials and craft methods are presented.

It also shows the ways to restore the exterior of an old house, but also appropriate solutions for how to raise the technical standard of a house, without doing violence to the cultural-historical value.