Bureaucracy to Plureaucracy: Expanding the Agency of Public Architecture in MalmöFinn Williams

Bureaucracy to Plureaucracy: Expanding the agency of public architecture in Malmö
Malmö in Sweden is a city with a reputation for progressive architecture and urbanism. Today, Malmö continues to be at the forefront of how public architecture can engage with societal challenges. At a time of growing complexity and instability, traditional command-and-control models of city planning are struggling to keep pace with urban change. Cities as diverse and dynamic as Malmö demand different forms of governance – shifting from old bureaucracy to a new “plureaucracy”. Finn Williams, Malmö’s City Architect, will share insights from working in the space between architecture and politics. How can city planning departments move from fixed regulations and standards to building open platforms, and from reacting to the market to shaping the system itself? How might the traditional model of the singular City Architect be developed into a broader and more inclusive culture of architecture that is shared with citizens?

Responding:
-Regula Lüscher, former Senate Building Director of Berlin and previous Head of City Planning for the Zurich Department of City Planning.
-Leonie Müller, Project Leader for Project Development in the Zurich Building Department.
-Tamino Kuny, former editor of Hochparterre Wettbewerbe and current researching on Zurich’s architecture competitions.

Finn Williams is the City Architect of Malmö. He previously worked to promote public architecture and planning in the UK through roles at Croydon Council and the Greater London Authority, and as the co-founder and chief executive of Public Practice. Finn is a Visiting Professor of Practice at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London and was co-curator of the British Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. Tidskriften Rum named Finn as the most influential individual in architecture and design in Sweden in 2023.