About the Journal

Fabrik&Bolig. The industrial heritage of the Nordic countries

In 1973, the Danish Humanities Research Council hosted an interdisciplinary seminar in the Danish city of Horsens. This resulted in the formation of a working group tasked with initiating a registration of Nordic factories and industrial environments. The group consisted of Professor Christof Glamann, National Archivist Vagn Dybdal, Research Librarian Kristian Hvidt, Professor Hans Chr. Johansen, architect Jørgen Sestoft, as well as museum inspectors Poul Strømstad and Hans Stiesdal.

A journal was founded alongside this first initiative: Buildings and Residences of Industrialism (Industrialismens Bygninger og Boliger), the first issue of which entered publication in 1975, with associate professor Ole Hyldtoft as chief editor. In 1979, the journal was renamed ‘Fabrik&Bolig (Factory&Dwelling). The industrial environment in Denmark.’ It had been the ambition of the editors to, in an easily accessible way, broadcast and promote conservation work within this emerging field, and to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration between lay people and scholars alike.

In the subsequent years, Fabrik&Bolig published several papers generating an overview over contemporary research and knowledge dissemination efforts pertaining to Danish industrial environments, with a key emphasis on the conservation, preservation and reuse of industrial monuments and buildings.

For over 40 years, Fabrik&Bolig was the sole journal published by an association encompassing a broad range of stakeholders, with a focus on the history of industrialisation and industrial cultural heritage. The Society for the Conservation of Industrial Environments (Selskabet til Bevaring af Industrimiljøer) adopted the mantle of the journal’s publisher, and the society’s board counted in its midst a number of the most significant contributors to the discourse within the discipline and to the journal itself.

In 2004, it was decided to re-envision the journal from a quarterly publication in A5 format, to a journal centrally focused on the discipline of industrial heritage; one to be published annually, with a renewed format, layout and colour printing.

In 2011, a second renewal took place, rendering the journal in a larger, more modern format, providing ample space for the publication of additional building- and construction depictions, as well as supplying the published papers with comprehensive abstracts in English.

Untill 2025 the journal is published under the name ‘Fabrik&Bolig. The industrial heritage of the nordic countries’ All publications were peer-reviewed, each issue  featured full reviews, as well as a regular, dedicated section on industrial architecture and transformation. The editorial board consisted of both Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish industrial historians drawn from the world of museums, archives, universities, and administrative entities at both the local and state level.

The raison d'être of the journal had persisted since the journal’s foundation in 1975: It retains a central focus on industrial cultural heritage and its physical manifestations; Buildings, facilities, monuments and artefacts. Just as it was in the 1970’s, it was the objective of the editors to reach the broadest possible active readership, and to contribute to the creation and maintenance of an active research environment within the field of industrial heritage.

Over the years, the target audience was gradually expanded to include architects, engineers, planners and politicians as well as a large segment of citizens with a general interest in the subject matter.

The journal was issued in 600 copies and Fabrik&Bolig entered a collaborative effort with its Swedish sister association Svenska Industriminnesföreningen. Fabrik&Bolig received economic support from the Danish Palaces and Culture Agency/Journal Support Committee.

In 2025 the Society for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage was closed and stopped publishing Fabrik&Bolig. Det industrielle miljø i Norden.