The story of a place in time: book review of "Biography of an Industrial Landscape: Carlsberg’s Urban Spaces Retold" by Svava Riesto

Almost all stories we read, hear or see, are placed. If a story tells about events unfolding in time through a certain chronological order (or disorder), it also tells about the places and spaces in which these events take place. In novels and films, architectural and urban spaces and landscapes often play a crucial role to situate social activities and even social conflicts. Seen from this perspective, could we also look at places through this notion of storytelling? Is the biography a productive perspective to address the multiple events that have shaped a place in time? Is it possible, through this approach, to reveal the multiple layers that constitute a “sense of place”?

In this book, landscape scholar Svava Riesto investigates the potential of the “landscape biography” approach, by reviewing existing scholarship around notions of place, social space and landscape biography, and by telling the story of the life of a place loaded with history: the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen.