Helena Bjarnegård, Honorary Doctor in Agricultural Science

Helena Bjarnegård received her landscape architecture degree from SLU in 1996. For a few years, she worked at White Arkitekter and from 2009 to 2018, she was the city garden manager in Gothenburg, where she was one of the driving forces behind an acknowledged green city development strategy in 2014.

In autumn 2018, Bjarnegård was appointed Sweden's first state architect, stationed at the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. This new post was created along with 50 others when the "Riksdag" tasked the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning to coordinate architecture and designed living environments. The aim was to increase expertise, inspire others and further development in order to allow county councils, municipalities and private actors to raise architectural quality and create good living environments, among other things for healthcare and schools.

Bjarnegård has been involved in "Föreningen Sveriges Stadsträdgårdsmästare" (the Swedish city garden managers' association) and the Children, Play and Nature Committee within World Urban Parks. She has taken part in reference groups relating to the government inquiry "Gestaltad livsmiljö" (designed living environments) as well as helped develop a guide for ecosystem services in relation to the Planning and Building Act. She is also the chair of the government council for sustainable cities.

Bjarnegård is very interested in academia and participated in SLU's Quality and Impact (KoN) evaluation in 2018. According to her, researchers should try to find the most important factor for making our cities develop sustainably, and she will gladly collaborate with SLU to learn more about the subject.

Press photos

(Can be published along with texts about the honorary doctor. Photographer must be marked.)

• Portrait of Helena Bjarnegård. Photo: Charlotte Nilsson
• Portait 2 Helena Bjarnegård. Photo: Charlotte Nilsson