bryn space

bryn space is an experimental and sensitive architectural practice, operating across the borders of architecture. Works deal with space, culture, time, interaction, and sensuousness, regardless of whether the medium is a building or something else. bryn space has expertise in participatory processes, that map complex social relations and other invisible structures, in their interplay with the built environment.

bryn space was founded in 2011 and is run by Daniel Persson. Clients include Akademiska hus, Bonniers, Region Skåne, Moderna museet and Malmö City Library. Daniel Persson's texts have been translated into four languages and published in newspapers, trade journals and research publications. Daniel Persson also teaches at the Bachelor Programme in Digital Cultures at Lund University.

 instagram.com/brynspace
Malmö
2011 - 2024
Photographer: Rickard Grönkvist

SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF RUNO LAGOMARSINO'S PLATSENS LJUS

Runo Lagomarsino's public work Platsens ljus (The Light of the Place) consists of 164 globes. The work hangs in the entrance hall of one of the new hospital buildings in Malmö. Each globe has a light source that reproduces the daylight of a place in the world where a staff member comes from. The globes shine individually in the diurnal and annual rhythms of their locations.

Platsens ljus conveys a diversity of positions from which to view reality. It is both this place and other places, dreams and memories, presence here and there, belonging and longing, everyday exchanges among staff. It is also beautiful and thought-provoking, for staff, patients and visitors.

The work is spatially organized to be without hierarchy. Each individual globe is neither superior nor subordinate to any other. There are no discernible patterns. The places that the globes represent are also organized so as not to be read as geopolitics or clusters, but to be in individual play with each other and with the work as a whole.

The hospital is complex and the work is experienced not only from the floor of the entrance hall, but from stairwells, elevator halls, the mezzanine, and deep into the corridors of the building. The work is both consistent from all viewpoints and dynamic as you move through the space.

There is an underlying regular grid in the building’s structure, in which the globes are forced to hang. A composition without pattern or hierarchy in that context is a challenge.

Still, people are good at finding patterns. In the work, any pattern-finding becomes more like constellations in a starry sky, rather than an overall order. ...to contribute to, and not obscure, the idea of the work.

WATER TOWER IN HEMMESTA ON VÄRMDÖ

From a distance it is elusive, like a drop of water refracting or reflecting light. It is there, it exists, but all you really see is the distortion of its surroundings.

Once in the clearing, Värmdö reveals itself. Reflected in the water tank, above the treetops, you see the horizon, communities, the sea, islets and islands. This is our place. The here and now is extended and reinforced, it is tangible.

It also has a kind of deadpan humor: water in a big cup! On the other hand, water is life, maybe it's a tribute instead, a silver cup, a prize.

It's not made from silver, but mirror-polished stainless steel. That is also fine, the same as the cutlery I eat with. The convex water tank spreads the light softly, augmenting the clearing, and does not throw any focused rays around.

A person sits on one of the wooden decks and stares at the image painted by the water tank, perhaps immersed in his own reflection.

The sunsets are beautiful, the horizon sun cast back down into the clearing by the water tank. It is romantic.

People from school are here sometimes. The youngest play an elongated and difficult game of hide and seek, waving at each other from hiding places through the reflection.

It is a wondrous and beautiful place.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

The articles in Helsingborgs Dagblad and Sydsvenskan describe the city where the readers live, as it happens. The aim is for the readers to open the paper or the app, be familiar with and read some thoughts about their city, then walk out into it and perhaps see and reflect on it in a new way.

The articles describe architecture and urban design in an accessible way, from the ground up. Sustainability is integrated in the descriptions. The articles try to stimulate a frank discussion about the challenges facing the architectural and urban design professions, particularly in relation to the climate crisis.

The first article focused on the H22 city expo in Helsingborg and the newly built Oceanhamnen area. It was published the weekend the expo opened.

The weekend that H22 ended, a second article was published, about all the ideas whirling around the city during the temporary chaos of an expo.

The third article is about how the small town of Ängelholm is complicated by the river that meanders through it. As the city becomes more complicated, it also gets a higher resolution and a richness in different spatialities.

The last article so far is about how viable buildings on Sorgenfri in Malmö are demolished instead of refurbished for new uses, while new buildings with similar aesthetics down the street are nominated for architectural awards.

RESEARCH ON A LIVABLE POST-ANTIBIOTIC FUTURE

The research team was multidisciplinary, with an emphasis on the humanities and social sciences. Daniel Persson's role was to use speculative design to build an understanding of a future world without functioning antibiotics.

Halfway through the project, the COVID-19 pandemic started. Many of the future spatial practices the speculative design work had identified became reality. The speculative angle turned meaningless and had to be set aside to make room for careful observation and documentation of the changing spatialities brought about by the pandemic.

A sci-fi short story was completed a week before the first pandemic lockdown in Wuhan, China. The text dealt with isolation, social relationships, empathy and youth. It was titled Science fiction med kort framförhållning (Science fiction at short notice) and is published in Efter antibiotika (After antibiotics).

Published in the same book, Beteendeförändring, tag plats!(Behavioral Change, Take Your Seat!) elaborates on the spatial consequences of keeping distance during the pandemic. In particular, it deals with public transport in Skåne and the impossibility of keeping distance, which was requested of the travellers, because the spatial design gave no support to the desired behaviour. Co-author is Henrik Loodin. A longer and more detailed version of the text can be found in Att leva med bakterier (To live with bacteria), which is open access.

In the fall of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic flared up in a second wave, the research group gave a presentation at the Framtidsveckan (Future Week) at Lund University. It is documented on UR Play and has been used as a teaching material there.

The research took place within The Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University.

ANALYSIS OF AND SCENARIOS FOR DÖSJEBRO

Dösjebro is a village with 900 inhabitants and a station on the major railway line Västkustbanan, which connects the village to the larger urban areas in western Skåne. Together with Trivector and Tillvaron, we were commissioned by Kävlinge municipality to analyze Dösjebro and propose future development scenarios, prior to the municipality's work on a new comprehensive plan.

The analysis included extensive dialogue work. We spoke with all civic organizations, employers, service facilities and other actors with a significant presence in the village. Every household in Dösjebro received a form where the villagers could share their thoughts and ideas for the village. The response rate from households was over 30%. We also organized a dialogue meeting where villagers, politicians and officials met and talked about the village, both its current characteristics and how it could be developed. The dialogue meeting also received a great response, with a full meeting hall and respectful and insightful conversations.

Together with statistics, reports, maps and other documentation, the dialogue work provided a high-resolution understanding of Dösjebro as a living environment. Dösjebro turned out to be a village with a clear identity and a strong civic engagement. The village punched above its weight, with a civil society that offered a range of services to the villagers, as well as public meeting places, where public services otherwise had been withdrawn. At the same time, the civic organizations were fragile, burdened by administration and threatened by the same reluctance by individuals to take on voluntary responsibility that affects many non-profit organizations. It also emerged how Dösjebro was part of a network of villages in mutual dependence.

In our scenarios for the future of Dösjebro, we further developed the village's own identity and the strengths of its living environment, based on our understanding from all of the discussions. Smaller station towns like Dösjebro can easily become dormitories for commuters and lose a collective identity; we wanted to avoid this. Dösjebro is beautifully situated by a natural area where the Saxån river runs, and with ancient monuments densely scattered around it, designated a national interest for the conservation of both natural and cultural environment. We took the historical traces and the qualities of the natural area as our starting point, and developed scenarios where the town can develop on its own terms, as a valuable part of the dynamic region it belongs to.

GOOD AND BAD PLACES IN KROKSBÄCK

Commissioned by and in close collaboration with GORA art&landscape, we mapped children’s living environment in Kroksbäck, Malmö. The commission originally came from MKB (Malmö Public Housing Company), with funding from Boverket (Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning), and concerned installing light sculptures at a site in Kroksbäck. In 2015-2016, the site had been part of the project Jämställda platser i Malmö, which aimed to create gender equal recreational/activity areas in three different Malmö neighbourhoods.

When we inventoried the site, and the previous dialogue processes dealing with its design and use, it became clear that the gender equal site was not functioning as intended. In order to get a grip on the site’s role in Kroksbäck, but also to create a bigger picture of children’s living environment beyond the installation of light sculptures, we asked all sixth grade pupils at Kroksbäcksskolan to describe a good and a bad place in Kroksbäck. The pupils discussed in the classrooms and we followed up with discussions and mini-lectures about our thoughts on our work, the site and the light sculptures.

Kroksbäck is a Million Programme high rise housing project, defined by the Police as one of Sweden's 50 or so ”vulnerable areas”. The conversations with the pupils revealed a rather gloomy picture of heavy crime, woven both into social life and the built landscape. Heavy crime is frightening for the pupils, but they shared their strategies for dealing with it with us. At the same time, it became evident there was a strong social cohesion and sense of community in Kroksbäck. The students had a great deal of freedom to play in all the different interconnected courtyards, playgrounds, parks and sports fields, located on the upper level in Kroksbäck, segregated from traffic. The drug dealing takes place on the lower level.

We used the light sculptures as anchors for mapping the children’s Kroksbäck and for bringing together stakeholders committed to the neighbourhood. The end result was several new points of contact between the children, Tjejer i förening (which was involved in the process of Jämställda platser in Malmö and continuously organised activities on the site), Kroksbäcksskolan and MKB. We also got an actionable baseline understanding for Kroksbäck's stakeholders’ continued work with young people. The children learned about equality and democracy, and gained ownership of the light sculptures and the site. Finally, of course, the light sculptures were also installed, helping the site to better serve its purpose.

YOUNG IN SJÖBO

Leading up to the work on a new comprehensive plan for Sjöbo, we had conversations with young people about their living environment in the municipality. One of the reasons why the municipality wanted to better understand its young inhabitants was falling results in the self-assessed public health survey that Region Skåne conducts every four years. The results for Sjöbo's young had fallen in relation to both the municipality in previous years and to the region as a whole. The low results for confidence in the future were particularly striking.

All ninth grade pupils at Sjöbo's schools were given the opportunity to take part in our conversations and an estimated 80% of them participated. The conversations were based on a school project on the future of Sjöbo that the pupils had produced, but the topics and focus of the conversations were open. We talked about the pupils’ environment when they were not at school or at home.

The result of the conversations was a story about living in a rural town that lacks most of the services and facilities that young people want. The students talked a lot about their limited mobility; not being able to get to services or friends because the lack of public transport disallows it. Those with EPA (a type of modified car with low speed that can be driven before you get a proper driver’s licence) had solved the mobility problem and could take ownership of their landscape. Students talked about parking lots, the sports field and other places that had permanent temporary use as young people's public space. Conversations also turned to the interface between always having to go somewhere else and being at the bottom of the regional pecking order. This was particularly noticeable for young people in Sjöbo, where the town's bad reputation follows them wherever they end up.

OSCILLATING STRING

Oscillating string is a proposal for a spatial strategy for the LTH university campus.

The LTH university campus is a latent superstructure, consisting of several similar crystalline brick buildings, separated by a vast parkscape, through which north-south transportation arteries run. The majority of the campus’ buildings was constructed 1960-69, in a rush to expand higher education. Although situated in a sloping landscape, all of the buildings’ floors are level to each other, prepared for further expansion, something that never happened.

The oscillating string is a strong axial order, that runs across the transportation arteries and the parkscape, establishing new and unexpected connections and interruptions. The parkscape consists of many small scale situations, slopes, vistas, small hills, groves, clearings, something that is both unused and unappreciated. Life at campus happens inside or just outside the buildings, very rarely does the park get engaged.

The oscillating string tries to break down the vast scale of the parkscape, and engage and enhance the small scale situations. It consists of different insertions made by different creators; architects, artists, designers, and others. Each year a new creator gets invited to make a contribution. The unveiling of the annual contribution is an event, that creates awareness of the possibilites of the park, not only at campus, but for the entire city of Lund. The campus becomes a destination and a resource for more people.

As the string takes shape throughout the years, it will come to consist of wildly different insertions. It will become a catalogue of different spatial/functional/aesthetic ideas. Creators are free to make any kind of insertion they wish, within a stimulating and provoking framework:
Max volume of the insertion is 15 m³.
For 80% of the insertion, max height is 1,2 m.
The insertion should establish a critical and playful dialogue with the rationality of LTH campus.
Color should be a fundamental part of its composition.

The oscillating string will thus enrich the campus, a very rational place, with a whole new set of values. The oscillating string becomes a spine for the park, with a strong spatial identity along its axis, but varying and inviting on its sides. The oscillating string excites the campus park.

SPATIAL SABOTAGE BY CLOTHESLINE

Performances in art contexts take place according to well-mannered and unstated agreements between performer and spectator. The spatial sabotage's intention was to break that social contract.

A clothesline with damp baby clothes was suspended across the room. The clothesline constituted a ribbon, about 30 cm wide, blocking eye contact between performer and spectator. The clothesline was suspended in such a way as to define the socially charged intimate zone closest to the stage. The clothes' bottom edges were at the level of the spectators' foreheads. The clothes were drenched in apple perfumed fabric conditioner.

The intention was to force the spectators to use the space in another way than expected. Eye contact could only be established in the intimate zone. In the rest of the space the contract was open. What do you do when you can't see the performer? The damp baby clothes and their scent were conceived as distractions, to infuse the spectators with social and sensuous associations to divert them from the proper agenda of the gallery. The clothesline demanded action and renegotiation.

The result was something else completely. Not as many as expected attended the seminar at the gallery. Instead of standing up cramped, there was enough room for the spectators to sit along the walls. The performers sat down on the stage. The clothesline created a lower and more intimate space, partitioned in one section for the spectators and one for the performer, where all could feel comfortably safe. The baby clothes provided cosy associations. Sometimes a drop fell on the floor.

Spatial sabotage by clothesline was conceived at the same time as the oscillating string campus spatial strategy.

BOOK COVER FOR KAIROS BY ANDRZEJ TICHÝ

Andrzej Tichý's fourth novel Kairos delineates moments when the world is defined. The narration runs along several tracks, through different eras and scenarios. The text alternates between fragmented, saturated and flowing. The different tracks grind and reflect on each other. All tracks deal with hope, struggle, resistance and repression, will and violence, martyrdom, hopelessness, idealism.

The cover consists of three orders; typography, lines and paper, all with their own spatiality. The paper is iridescent and changes color depending on viewpoint. The lines in themselves have three orders that interferes with each other. In the interference, new patterns form, with different significance depending on how the book is viewed. The typography has stable, rounded letter shapes, sitting in the middle of the combined spatiality. When the book is viewed from different angles, paper and lines shift appearances, they transform into and out of each other. The letter shapes appear clearly from some angles, from others they sink completely into the lines.

The cover as a whole is an illustration of the text as a whole. At the same time the cover takes on figurative meanings during the read and illustrates different circumstances and phenomena in the text.

SNOW/TRACING PAPER

The text Snow/Tracing paper describes snow in the city; what the snow looks like, how it sounds, how the snow is shaping the city life and how the city life shapes the snow. Everyday routines are traced in the snow, while the city covered in snow offers new possibilities for its interpretation and usage.

Snow/Tracing paper was originally written in English for the architectural competition Time & Space, where it was awarded 2nd prize. The competition was unique in its thematic, writing about architecture, and received 173 entries from eighteen countries.

Snow/Tracing paper has been published in Danish as Sne/Kalkerpapir, in German as Schnee/Pauspapier and in Swedish as Snö/Skisspapper.

SAMPLODICA

Samplodica is a musical instrument, where sets of four sounds are played rhythmically, while continuously being accessible for manipulation. Samplodica is played by holding the sounds' bars and whipping the instrument in the air, a movement akin to hitting a drum. Manipulation is done by dragging up or down across the bars.

A multitude of sounds are included as standard. There's also the possibility to load your own sounds, as well as recording sounds directly through the built-in microphone.

Playability and the ability to engage the user's creativity are the most important factors for a musical instrument. Samplodica has a radically simplified interaction. It is directly playable, with infinite possibilities within well defined boundaries, for the creativity both to brace against and flow on. Samplodica is specific, with a distinct character of its own. The user is invited to handle the specific character; to play with it.

Samplodica is a configuration of the pioneer spirit and technically naive creativity of tape manipulation and early digital sampling. Samplodica is an instrument dedicated to the joy of sampling, and the joy of playing and manipulating sampled sound.

Samplodica is in conscious opposition to its medium, the smartphone. The medium is at its worst a pastime of the consciousness, with no connection to the body other than that the eyes need to strain to decode the small screen. Samplodica is corporeal, spatial, outside the screen, it demands time and attention, has a resistance and a reward if you practice.

Samplodica has egalitarian graphic design, advanced color composition, mood-setting text, playful sound design, historical context, critique of its medium, body movement integrated in its design, can be played without watching, is sold as super-pop-consumtion-culture, is beautiful, inspiring, contemporary, futuristic. All of the references, all sensitivity and contemplation have in the end crystalised into an instrument that is like toy; simple, fun and creatively engaging.

JÄRVAFÄLTET CEMETERY

Two weeks of sketching could not generate a dignified proposal and all of the sketches were scrapped. In the morning of the day of the deadline this text was written, rushed away to be printed, mounted on A1, and submitted, to convey the sketching's conclusions.

BOOK COVER FOR FÄLT BY ANDRZEJ TICHÝ

Andrzej Tichý's second novel Fält unfolds through a zigzagging inner and outer journey through the world, Europe, Sweden, Malmö, time, memory and the psyche. It is rigorous, sprawling, dirty and beautiful.

The cover is a diagram, so complicated, entangled and superposed that at first it's decoded as a black jumble. At a closer look the many lines and nodes appear. It is scientific, positivist, mathematical, organized, collapsed.

Through the reading, the diagram changes meaning and in the same guise illustrates different phases and turning points of the text. It is a map of Europe or neural pathways, a sprawling dream or a psychosis entangling its way in, a family tree or other.