Jan Åke Granath
Tommy Jan Åke Granath born March 6, 1946 in Eda parish in the county of Värmland, Sweden. He is a Swedish architect, Professor emeritus, educator and writer. He lives since 2007 in France.
Jan Åke Granath is son of Nils Erik Granath, a woodman and municipal commissioner, later an employment office manager and his wife Britt Maywor, born Olofsson. He was married first time with Erna Granath in 1970 and second time in 1991 with Annel Granath. He is father of David Granath – owner and CEO of Granath Havas Worldwide (1) and Sara Granath – working for Save the Children. After studies by correspondence at Hermods he got his higher certificate in 1965 and was accepted to Gothenburg University where he studied theoretical physics for a while. In 1969 he was accepted to the School of Architecture at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg Sweden and got his M.Arch. in 1975 (2). He was employed at Lund & Valentin Architects in Gothenburg 1973-1978. In 1978 he was head-hunted by Professor Joen Sachs at Chalmers University to assist him in developing a new research and education program for Work Place Design in the School of Architecture (2).
1986 he received the degree of Dr.Tech.Arch. (teknologie licentiate) and 1991 he defended his Ph.D. thesis. 1995 he was appointed Docent and 2002 Professor in Architecture (2).
1990-1993 he headed the Gothenburg branch of Arkitektur & Teknik AB (f.d. Riksbyggen Konsult och KF Arkitekter). He returned to Chalmers University in 1993. He retired from Chalmers University in 2005 (2).
1988-1989 he was invited by Professor Colin Clipson as visiting Associate professor at Taubman College of Architecture at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and 2005-2007 he was visiting professor at Department of Building Services Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He has been board member of EuroFM (6) Network and IFMA Sweden (7).
Selected publications in English (3,4,5)
- Granath, Jan Åke. 1991: Architecture, technology and human factors: design in a socio-technical context
- Granath, J.Å. Rehal, S. Lindahl, G. 1996: From Empowerment to Enablement
- Granath, Jan Åke. 1998: Torslanda to Uddevalla via Kalmar: A journey in production practice in Volvo
- Granath, J.Å. 1998: Workplace making - A strategic activity
- Granath, J.Å., Alexander, K., 2006: A theoretical reflection on the practice of designing for usability
- Granath, J.Å., Gillick, L. 2009: Custom Car Commandos
Non-academic work
Programming, design and/or spatial development for -
- Hasselblad Camera Factory
- Library of Kinna
- Gothenburg Opera House
- Volvo Uddevalla factory
- Torslanda car factory
- SAAB Tech Electronics, Stockholm
- Ericsson Microwave Systems, Gothenburg
- Volvo - several
- Gothenburg University
- ALI-Väst, Gothenburg
- Bilia, Gothenburg
- The Swedish Exhibition, Gothenburg
After retirement in 2005 he has been engaged in education in genealogy (8).
External links and references
2) Chalmers University of Technology – the central archive
4) http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-nr94-21095/
5) https://independent.academia.edu/JanGranath