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Room, led sign, architectural drawings and text.

Det sista rummet [The Last Room] is an architectural installation designed and constructed by Svenska hemmets studier [Swedish Housing Studies] for the exhibition Hemmets fundament [The Foundations of Home] in Havremagasinet in Boden (Sweden).

Svenska hemmets studier, SHS, is an architect and research group consisting of Daniel Movilla Vega (b. 1984), Lluis J. Liñán (b. 1986) Oskar H. Germann (b. 1999) and Anneli Zetterström (b. 1984).

The exhibition Hemmets fundament, curated by Mikael Andersson and Erik Törnkvist, explores what constitutes a home in its most basic parts: material, sensorial and conceptual.

Housing regulations, standards and design manuals have been crucial for the design of homes in Sweden since the 1940s. Initially, an attempt was made to define a set of rooms that would form the backbone of a good home: entrance hall, kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom and balcony. The current building regulations of the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning are intended to be less detailed, so as not to hinder technical development. However, the result has proven to be somewhat contradictory: while detailed room requirements have disappeared, technical requirements regarding accessibility and energy performance are being cemented. Previous requirements for dimensions, sizes and shapes have been replaced by functional requirements, with drawings that focus on furniture and interior design, beds, seating areas or kitchen benches, completely disconnected from their spatial context. The room as a separate entity has dissolved and become abstract.

The architectural installation by architects Daniel Movilla Vega, Lluis J. Liñán, Anneli Zetterström and Oskar H. Germann explores the interplay between housing standards and actual everyday life –living and dwelling– at the intersection of power, identity and aesthetics. The group has designed the last prescribed residential space according to prescribed norms and standards in order to critically examine it: What kind of room is it, and what does it do?

By asking questions about the role of architecture in shaping societal narratives and norms, the installation can identify the resilience of current housing recommendations as well as the paradoxes inherited in “the Swedish home”. The change in Swedish housing regulations and standards shows that the development of a housing culture is as unstable as the fate of the rooms.