Welfare state architecture; Nordic and Arctic studies; Scandinavian colonial history; the history and theory of high modernism; public mass-housing and institutions; urban development and renewal; transformation and restoration; visual and material culture; gender studies and queer theory; post- and decolonial studies.
Frederik Braüner is a PhD candidate in architecture with a designated emphasis in European studies. His research focuses on the history and theory of modern welfare state architecture in the Nordics and the Arctic. In his ongoing PhD research, he is investigating the architecture of welfare colonialism in the Arctic, looking into the social, cultural, and economic factors that influenced the immense waves of urban development and modernization that took place in the postwar decades. In his previous research, he has investigated democratic decision-making policies in contemporary Danish housing developments, gender relations in modernist Scandinavian welfare state housing projects, and postcolonial relations between the Scandinavian countries and the former Scandinavian North-Atlantic colonies.
Braüner holds a BA in art history from Copenhagen University and a MA in architecture from the Royal Danish Academy. His thesis project, "An Intersectional Architecture," won the Danish Commonwealth Thesis Award in 2021. As a licensed architect in Denmark, he has worked in architectural practice, building restoration, and as an assistant editor for the Danish architecture journal Arkitekten.
ARCH 230–Advanced Architectural Theory and Criticism (Spring 2024), TA
ARCH 130–Introduction to Architectural Design Theory and Criticism (Fall 2023), TA
ARCH 170B–Architectural History Survey 2: 1500 to the Present (Spring 2023), TA/GSI
ARCH 270–A History of Modern Architecture (Fall 2022), TA/GSI
2025 Nordic Center Travel Fellowship, UC Berkeley
2025 Gerald D. and Norma Feldman Graduate Dissertation Fellowship
2024 GIAS Simpson ABD Graduate Students Research Fellowship
2023 Stephen Lenci Award
2023 SAH Scott Opler Graduate Scholar Fellowship
2023 The Constructed Environment Emerging Scholar Award
2022 ISS Pre-Dissertation Fieldwork Fellowship
2022 Helmut Kohl Award in German and European Studies
2022 Augustinus Fonden, Scholarship
2021 Danish Commonwealth Thesis Award, 1st prize in Denmark
2021 Arcus Futures Award, UC Berkeley
“The Colonial Welfare State” in Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur: Grønland, no. 10 (Forthcoming, October 2025).
“En tolvkantet himmelsilo” in Arkitekten, no. 7 vol 127 (Forthcoming, September 2025)
“Danmark må tage et opgør med vores egen velfærdsstats kolonihistorie” in Information, January 25, 2025, 18-19.
“Housing the American Welfare State” in Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur: Boligen under forandring, no. 9 (April 2025).
“Stedets Materialer” in Arkitekten, no. 3 vol. 127 (March 2025).
“Et Helligt Sted” in Arkitekten, no. 5 vol. 126 (April 2024), 25-28.
“Fængsel og Fællesskab” in Arkitekten, no. 7 vol. 126 (September 2024), 25-28
“Om Materie og Mennesker” in Arkitekten, no. 7 vol. 125 (September 2023), 43-46.
“Potentialer i Rå Beton” in Arkitekten, no. 10 vol. 124 (December 2022), 23-28.
“An Intersectional Architecture” in Architecture and Culture, vol. 10, no. 01 (Apr. 2022), 1-3.
“Gordisk Byknude” in Arkitekten, vol. 123, no. 09 (Nov. 2021), 11-12.
“Det Andet-Verdslige og Det Underjordiske” in Arkitekten, vol. 123, no. 05 (Jun. 2021), 82-90.
“Feministiske Perspektiver på København” in Landskab (Mar. 2021), 60-67.
“Kunsttransplantation” in Arkitekten, vol. 122, 07 (Sept. 2020), 6-9.
“Gender in Urban Space” in KÅRK: GENDER (Mar. 2020), 102-111.
“Creating Public Spaces” in Here: Finder Sted/Taking Place, edited by Anne Romme, Camilla Hornemann, and Anne Pind, 142. Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy (2017).
