Frida Brismar Pålsson

Frida Brismar Pålsson is devoted to the field of human flourishing, aesthetics and architecture. She founded the studio Paradis Produktion in 2015 with a mission to communicate the science behind how buildings - especially schools - and spatial experience shape our development, learning, health and interaction. The basis of her knowledge lies in the intersection of environmental psychology, aesthetics and cognition. Being brought up by two medical professors, she wrote her first paper on how neurological development interacts with space and movement at 18 years old. After a university degree in philosophy and aesthetics, she turned to art studies and architecture. During her early professional years, she worked as a critic in architecture, design and crafts for the Swedish professional magazine FORM, and was the editor for books such as Nordic Architects (2013), See the Light (2012) and Nordic Designers (2011).

Today, she regularly gives lectures, workshops and educational programs to architects, educational planners and policy makers about how school design affects learning outcomes and overall health. Her latest school design project, together with Brunnberg & Forshed Architects, was selected finalist in the New European Bauhaus Award 2022 among 2000 applicants for its inclusive design, “creating a sense of belonging”. Following this project, Frida wrote a book about the scientific evidence behind her school design thinking, presenting the outlines to the European Commission Directorate for General Regional and Urban Policy.

Over the years, she has deepened and broadened her quest for understanding the connection between flourishing, aesthetic experience and the built environment. In 2022 she co-produced a symposium on Architecture and Spaces for Healing in Downing Hall, Cambridge University and moderated the neuro-architecture session with Mark A. Hewitt Donald H. Ruggles and Michael Mehaffy.

Parallel to this, she is a practicing educator in the transdisciplinary field of philosophy, architecture and movement. In 2015-2016 she worked with children and teachers at the outset of the Kiruna city move, using movement and creative dance to understand local architecture and the identity of the place. In the very north of Sweden, Frida and the children co-created the choreography Ark/Arc, which was performed as one of the very last events in the beautiful Kiruna City Hall before its demolition, and at the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi.