Territorial mimetics and room types: the spatial development of Swedish district courthouses 1970–2020

Abstract

In this article I investigate the spatial development of Swedish district courthouses and their different room types from 1970 to 2020, with attention to the specificities and commonalities with other building types. How have spatial form and use travelled between building types during this period, and how has this contributed to the recent, quite radical developments and transformation of the courthouse as a building type? In the article, I focus particularly on aspects relating to the architectural and spatial culture of citation, and on what I call territorial mimetics here. Based on a mixed-method approach, the study traces and discusses five spatial themes of typological change in district courthouses, trends that also can be seen as a part of deeper spatial and mimetic tendencies circulating in Swedish society during these decades. I conclude with a discussion of the specific mimetic style of the courthouse as characterised by an ongoing negotiation between type-specific rules and cross-type models.