Telge Hovjö & ANTICIPATING 2020


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2013 Diploma project

2013-2014 continued commission


Curated art and architectural program

Counter-proposal / in waiting of construction

Municipal strategic urban planning

Participatory processes
ANTICIPATING 2020, Master’s Diploma project in architecture 2013. It was followed by a commission from the Municipal housing company Telge Hovsjö to take part in the strategy and planning of a redevelopment process of the area Hovsjö, Södertälje. Doing so by creating alternative visions, illustrations, and imaginations for the continued work and planning.

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The diploma work centered around how to plan for the unplanned - and to plan for the future by acting in the present. The role of the architect and artist, the architecture and urban form when working whitin spatially segregated areas and planning for the future. It was a proposal for a curated art-, and architectural program with a series of temporary installations taking place during 2014-2019.

















The purpose of the Diploma work was to discuss the existing, and possible, urban life in relation to planning and “upgrading” spatially segregated areas in general, and the city area Hovsjö in particular.

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The ambition was to talk about the politics
of planning new areas as well as planning and building within an existing area. To question the need of extensive planning practices and control.












Telge Hovsjö is the municipal housing company that manages the area Hovsjö. Their focus was, in 2013, on social mobilization and participatory work processes by involving the inhabitants in the process and management of the site. Simultaneously they worked on a vision for Hovsjö’s future, a plan called “Hovsjö 2020”.

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The Diploma work ANTICIPATING 2020 was created as a reaction to their plan. By testing different spaces, by charging them with ideas and functions, coming from a diverse group and with temporality as a main objective, the permanent re-development
of the area could come from more informed choices and thereby creating better architecture, spaces and communal areas.



















Central questions; how can you work while waiting for the future to come? While waiting for the area to become even more densified? While waiting for the new shopping malls, restaurants and apartments?













Four objectives were in focus in the Diploma work:

I. The architects, and the architectures role

II. The public spaces and places that were the outcome and conse-quence of the functionalist/modernist urban planning. The planning that resulted in a sort of island urbanism - an archipelago of mono-functional suburbs that are poorly connected to each other as well as to the city center

III. The notion of temporality and events in relation to architecture and art

IV. Vague spaces, creative loopholes, SLOAP (spaces left-over after planning) and to see the existing













The proposed curated program would run between 2014-2019 with invited artist and architects doing one project / work each year.

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For 2014 I proposed the project the Sphere and the Grid.

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The proposal creates small, intimate, public rooms by a park-like installation of spheres. Framing the outlines of rooms, instead of building them.











Hovsjö has a big “Central Park” but the area lacks smaller, intimate, public spaces and rooms. Where one can almost hide.

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This proposal aims to create a diversity in the types of rooms present on the site. Doing so by adding something a bit unexpected and low-key; a park-like installation with spherical plants and wooden globes. Accompanied by a large stainless steel globe that, thanks to its geometry, gives a distorted reflection of ones surroundings and self. When looking into the steel globe through viewing holes, you would find a small cinema with animations and films playing.














The installation is a play with old castle gardens, with the strictness of the grid and its plants, trimmed and perfect. It creates a structure you might not expect in this context. Which also means that the use doesn’t have to be what you expect.

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The unclosed small spaces gives a vagueness to the rooms, as a tactic to keep unprogrammed areas. It also lets the residents decide on the use themselves.





Illustration, view towards Hovsjö Hub


The plants - ligustrum, privet in english, was chosen because it is a living material. Something you, have to, take care of, that easily can become a permanent feature. The wooden spheres are seating objects, that deviates from the grid.

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A grid structure like this creates different views and perceptions of the landscape and space depending on were you are in the structure, and from what angle you look at it. Open rows or semi-closed narrowing rooms. 










©Johanna Fager 2025. All rights reserved
e-mail: johanna@johannafager.se, instagram: @johanna_fager