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The Negotiation Stack – A Hybrid Civic Center for Plural Narratives

Shahmenendyan, Vardges LU (2026) AAHM10 20261
Department of Architecture and Built Environment
Abstract
In this project I investigate how architecture can give form to an institution that creates the conditions for negotiation between competing narratives. It is situated at Sillhovstomten, the contested site behind the Nationalmuseum in central Stockholm. The failed Nobel Center proposal on this site revealed that it is not an empty void awaiting to be filled, but a place where different political, cultural, and social values already confront one another. Rather than resolving these frictions, I understand them as the defining condition of the contemporary democratic city and try to spatialize them through this project.

Through historical analysis, institutional critique, and architectural exploration, I propose a new civic institution... (More)
In this project I investigate how architecture can give form to an institution that creates the conditions for negotiation between competing narratives. It is situated at Sillhovstomten, the contested site behind the Nationalmuseum in central Stockholm. The failed Nobel Center proposal on this site revealed that it is not an empty void awaiting to be filled, but a place where different political, cultural, and social values already confront one another. Rather than resolving these frictions, I understand them as the defining condition of the contemporary democratic city and try to spatialize them through this project.

Through historical analysis, institutional critique, and architectural exploration, I propose a new civic institution centred on production, encounter, and exchange. It operates through changing residencies, maker spaces, exhibitions, and public programmes that continuously overlap in time and space aiming for the master narrative to remain permanently open to reinterpretation.

The intervention takes a step back onto the water, positions itself as a field of negotiation behind the Nationalmuseum and aims to reinterpret Sillhovstomten as an atrium in between these two institutions. (Less)
Popular Abstract
In this project I investigate how architecture can give form to an institution that creates the conditions for negotiation between competing narratives. It is situated at Sillhovstomten, the contested site behind the Nationalmuseum in central Stockholm. The failed Nobel Center proposal on this site revealed that it is not an empty void awaiting to be filled, but a place where different political, cultural, and social values already confront one another. Rather than resolving these frictions, I understand them as the defining condition of the contemporary democratic city and try to spatialize them through this project.

Through historical analysis, institutional critique, and architectural exploration, I propose a new civic institution... (More)
In this project I investigate how architecture can give form to an institution that creates the conditions for negotiation between competing narratives. It is situated at Sillhovstomten, the contested site behind the Nationalmuseum in central Stockholm. The failed Nobel Center proposal on this site revealed that it is not an empty void awaiting to be filled, but a place where different political, cultural, and social values already confront one another. Rather than resolving these frictions, I understand them as the defining condition of the contemporary democratic city and try to spatialize them through this project.

Through historical analysis, institutional critique, and architectural exploration, I propose a new civic institution centred on production, encounter, and exchange. It operates through changing residencies, maker spaces, exhibitions, and public programmes that continuously overlap in time and space aiming for the master narrative to remain permanently open to reinterpretation.

The intervention takes a step back onto the water, positions itself as a field of negotiation behind the Nationalmuseum and aims to reinterpret Sillhovstomten as an atrium in between these two institutions. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Shahmenendyan, Vardges LU
supervisor
organization
course
AAHM10 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Negotiation, Plurality, Civic Institution, Cultural Production, Friction, Narrative, Social Condenser, Institutional Critique
language
English
id
9235278
date added to LUP
2026-06-11 09:03:27
date last changed
2026-06-11 09:03:27
@misc{9235278,
  abstract     = {{In this project I investigate how architecture can give form to an institution that creates the conditions for negotiation between competing narratives. It is situated at Sillhovstomten, the contested site behind the Nationalmuseum in central Stockholm. The failed Nobel Center proposal on this site revealed that it is not an empty void awaiting to be filled, but a place where different political, cultural, and social values already confront one another. Rather than resolving these frictions, I understand them as the defining condition of the contemporary democratic city and try to spatialize them through this project.

Through historical analysis, institutional critique, and architectural exploration, I propose a new civic institution centred on production, encounter, and exchange. It operates through changing residencies, maker spaces, exhibitions, and public programmes that continuously overlap in time and space aiming for the master narrative to remain permanently open to reinterpretation.

The intervention takes a step back onto the water, positions itself as a field of negotiation behind the Nationalmuseum and aims to reinterpret Sillhovstomten as an atrium in between these two institutions.}},
  author       = {{Shahmenendyan, Vardges}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Negotiation Stack – A Hybrid Civic Center for Plural Narratives}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}