Johanna Björkman is an art historian specializing in architectural history. She received her PhD at the University of Helsinki in May 2019. Her work was entitled The Success of the Forest Industry in Architecture. Architect W. G. Palmqvist cooperation with the companies in the industrial communities in the 1920s and 1930s. The dissertation connected the architecture she researched to the political, economic and cultural contexts of the studied time frame. Björkman has an interest in industrial architecture and was associated with a Nordic-Baltic research group that published the book Industry and modernism: Companies, architecture, and identity in the Nordic and Baltic countries during the high-industrial period (2007). 

Björkman works as deputy Head of Environment in the Helsinki City Museum. She has worked with built cultural heritage and conservation questions for over fifteen years in museums and at the Finnish Heritage Agency. Björkman has also trained herself in architectural conservation and completed a one-year post-master’s course at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Main publications: 

• Metsäteollisuuden menestyksen jälki arkkitehtuurissa. Arkkitehti W.G. Palmqvistin ja yhtiöiden yhteistyö tehdasyhdyskunnissa 1920- ja 1930-luvulla. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto 2019. [Disseratation: The Success of the Forest Industry in Architecture. - Architect W. G. Palmqvist co-operation with the companies in the industrial communities in the 1920s and 1930s].
• Post-War Modernism in Helsinki City Centre: Heritage or Material for re-use? In Docomomo 14th International conference proceedings 2016. Adaptive reuse, the modern movement towards the future.
• Architects realizing Gösta Serlachius' visions in the industrial community of Mänttä, Kirjassa Industry and Modernism. Companies, Architecture and Identity in the Nordic and Baltic Countries during the High-Industrial Period, toim. Anja Kervanto Nevanlinna. Helsinki: SKS, 2007.