The danger of modernism
Kersti Bergren, Architect, National Heritage Board, Stockholm
Sergels Torg, the open public space in the very heart of Stockholm City, was completed 1967.
The planning process had been going on for decades. In fact, it had been going on for centuries.
In the 1970th, the transformation of the town district was almost complete. In whole, more than
fifty blocks with buildings from the 17th century onward had disappeared, replaced by a modernistic
entirety.
The actual square cut a hole in one dwelling block, a quite intimate public place for a capital city.
But together with the area for the elliptic shaped fountain, and adherent streets, it reshaped more than
two rather huge blocks.
The creation of such a large new public space in a city centre, as Sergels Torg with surroundings, has few
international parallels.
One of the most determining ideas for planners and architects of the 1960th was of a city in many
layers. Layers not in time, but in space.
Sergels Torg fulfilled plays with
- The subterranean tube level
- The low level of covered pedestrian passages
- The street level
- The high-rise buildings, touching the sky
The House of Culture, mostly on the street level, was erected between the years 1968 and 1973. With it’s
shimmering glass-wall it carries out and enhances the place architecturally.
Other strong architectural elements are the five neighbouring skyscrapers, from the late 1950th and
early 1960th. As a creation they are crucial for the concept of the modernistic city centre. If the
skyscrapers represent the commercial life of the city, the House of Culture equally exposes the cultural life.
But the square and the surroundings has in many respects been treated as a problem
from the start. The City Council had serious ideas of renewing the square already in the 1980th. At
least three architectural competitions concerning the square have taken place.
A City of many layers can be a place of chaos. When all you notice is the clashing of road
signs, shop entries, street lamps, openings leading nowhere, viaducts blocking the view etc. And
what was really the point in letting the cars rule the street’s, in open air, while pedestrians walk in
the underground?
Many of the visions from the time of construction, where never completed.
Instead of black and white marble pavement on the square surface, simply cement. A material
tough to maintain and with hardly any charm when it gets older.
Instead of a luxury underground restaurant with light coming through the bottom of the
fountain, there have been shops of different kinds. Declining in status.
In the beginning of the 1990th, the city council passed a renewal program for the whole
of Stockholm City centre. A renewal of Sergels Torg is a part of that scheme.
One of the leading ideas in the renewal program is to create more dwelling in the centre. This
idea relies, as it seems, on a misleading assumption that residents dominated this part of the town
when the big transformation occurred. In fact, the number of employees did already in the early
20th century exceed the number of residents with ten to one.
But besides the big plans, small alterations are going on, changing the area slowly but surely. If the big
plans never are fulfilled these small changes anyhow deteriorate the square. And further more, the
lack of everyday maintenance looks like a deliberately chosen strategy to make the square unpleasant.
The political majority of Stockholm City today, has declared a complete turn-a-round transformation
of the square desirable. The political opposition couldn’t accept such a transformation without time for
consideration and the public debate has been severe. A number of professionals - architects, planners and
art historians - have tried to convince the politicians not to alter the Sergel Torg area. In no way the old
city will rise from the ruins, but we will, if the ideas are concluded, loose a very important piece of
modernistic planning and architecture.
Recently though, the city council took the decision to rise the square one level. There will no longer be
a sunken, and thereby protected, pedestrian zone. Instead, by reducing of one (the lower) level, equalising the
whole space. And a unique square will vanish. At the same time as it is the only one of its kind it refers to
historical important squares like Il Campo in Sienna. And of course, when the lower part is gone, the
stimulating tension between the square and the House of Culture is reduced.
A former ingenuous wish of building a multifamily residence on the spot has at least hopefully evaporated.
The entire inner-city of Stockholm is, in collaboration between the regional authorities and the
National Heritage board, declared an area of national interest, due to its historical value. The modernistic
centre is a strong part of that value.
The National Heritage Board has also stated that the skyscrapers and Sergels Torg are worthy
of being declared listed buildings. When it came to the crucial moment though, the regional authorities,
the decision-makers in these matters, choose to reject that solution as being unrealistic.
The inhabitants and users of Stockholm City centre are slightly supporting the idea of letting the
square remain as it is.
The clash between the judgements represented by professionals and civil servants, acting as protectionists,
and the local politicians striving for alteration is strikingly. One might conclude, that the children of
modernism surely have learned their lesson.
