Research

• RESEARCH STATEMENT
  Fredrik Skåtar is an architectural and design researcher, active in academia and the commercial sector. His focus is the promotion of architecture's vague, artistic facets, gathering data from professional experience, field trips and experimental drawing.

  
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  FIELD TRIPS

  Since 2012, Fredrik Skåtar has conducted many research field trips with students and companies, gathering examples and data on architectural approaches in selected regions. Until now, he has organised and led excursions to Berlin, Stuttgart, Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels, and he is continuously preparing new trips based on current architectural development and discourse.
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  DEFENDING VAGUENESS

  Artistic expression, mood, and the sensation of well-being and identity are architectural components that are hard to prove and defend. Consequently, they are also challenging to create and given their vague properties; they risk neglect. Yet, aren’t these facets the very driving force of architecture? So how can architects defend and promote them?
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  ARCHITECTURE IS SUSTAINABLE

  Driven by climate change and public demand for climate-friendly architectural solutions, sustainability is ever more present in society. But what does the term mean for architecture? Arguably, sustainable architecture focuses primarily on technical-environmental solutions, which is, of course, valuable. But is there not a risk of forgetting the full scope of the term, such as cultural, societal, and artistic sustainability? Should not architecture be superior to sustainability?
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  UPGRADED TOOLS

  Using the latest design methods (particularly generative/parametric) tend to produce what Fredrik Skåtar labels tool-driven formalism or can-do-ism. That is, some designers choose a specific shape because it is possible, rather than considering who wants it or profits from it. We need to view new technology as subordinate to architecture, perhaps labelling architecture’s design tools as upgraded.
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  algorithmically controlled processes

  — exploring Grasshopper (Rhinoceros) solutions for design and architecture. Fredrik Skåtar focuses on analysing and creating architecturally useful geometry with help from Grasshopper. He strives for integrating these into the normal design process. Why is Grasshopper often associated with spectacular shapes? Is it not better if such a tool is invisible, behind architecture?
  
  Fredrik Skåtar has created an open-source archive of Grasshopper models.