"Sweden? So scary , everyth ing works there "

Lou Reed

Norrmalm is the current trendy district in Stockholm where the main commercial and business activities take place.

This part of the center occupies the old district of Santa Klara .

Between the fifties and sixties Stockholm grew in population and it became necessary to broaden its limits. During

ten years it was debated whether to renew of the Old Town or demolish the area and create a new urban center.

This discussion gave birth to new urban ideas that came from Haussman, who had studied in Paris, Jean de la Vallée

and later on Le Corbusier.

Klara 's old town, one of the areas more rooted in the popular mind, was chosen as a pilot area to introduce this

new desire of modern urban philosophy. So that in 1950 its historic buildings were demolished and replaced by

modern architecture .

What was the goal? To enhance the place or to re-educate society as Le Corbusier pretended ?

Is the fact of demolishing the historic center a crime against the urban landscape ?

Is it a failed attempt of urban rehabilitation ?

Jose Luis Ramirez, is a geo-critic who has been living in Stockholm for 35 years. In " Ciudades históricas vivas-

Ciudades del pasado: Pervivencia y desarrollo" he has a critical attitude toward urban redevelopment considering it a

destroyer component of the history of the city of Stockholm. For him , the man-made approaches and planned

ideas harm rather that help. He believes in nature and chance as essential elements that will be in favor of beauty

LEARNING ACTIVITY: CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF GROWTH AND SHRINKAGE, TASK 1: RESEARCH

ETSA La Sa l le Univers i tat Ramón L lu l l de Barcelona

Andrea Tusel l I Fa lcó

and goodness .

Ricardo Mir de France in a report for El País " Estocolmo, la capital del bienestar “ (Stockholm, the capital of

welfare) considers Stockholm a peaceful society with a distinct ethic . A Welfare State that since the twenties, has

accomplished a deep sense of community and has become the most egalitarian society in the world, almost utopian

. He says : "The city looks like a very old lady who underwent a facelift operation, a face with barely no wrinkles or

any hint of decadence, a place in permanent regeneration”.

Many critical reflections that have been made, some would argue as Jose Luis Ramirez, others like Ricardo Mir de

France. It has tended to generalize and consider that modern urbanism involved disasters of new urban centers and

misinterpretation of the Athens Charter.

This generalization is a fallacy. We can nowadays see how the center of Stockholm, with an effective formal

modernization, works better than many other european cities.

Stockholm from the Welfare State, has become a technologically advanced and ethnically diverse modern city;

with no hint of depressed neighborhoods and a uniformity of living standards.

Bernardo Secchi says that Stockholm, together with Amsterdam, is an european city that best represents the

instances of the modern movement, or at least is a great example of what modern urbanism should be. " And for

this reason , today, in Stockholm, the attention of planners and architects on issues of the physical city is not a

movement of opposition to the principles of modernism and achieved urban techniques , it has not brought the

abandonment of consolidated urban construction project and its joint criteria , as it is intended that often occur in

other parts of Europe , where the same issues are presented complete and less ambiguous way " .

As Oriol Bohigas says " Critical reflections about planning will serve for perfecting rather that than an effort of

annihilation , but perfection. That the transformation of urban control instruments serve to define new operational

relationships between analysis and design, urban planning and architecture, design and regulations. Keeping in mid

that an essential factor of planning is the attribution of a political objective in defining the future of the city . "

Therefore, the question is: What is better ? A lively and trendy neighborhood or a neighborhood tied to its historical past ? Can we restore the historical center of the city and stop seeing it as a well of poverty (a slum)?

Bibilography:

1. Andres, L. (2013) 'Differential Spaces, Power Hierarchy and Collaborative Planning: A Critique of the Role of Temporary Uses in Shaping and Making Places', Urban Studies, 2. Davidson, M. and Lees, L. (2010) 'New-Build Gentrification: Its Histories, Trajectories, and Critical

Geographies', Population Space and Place 3. "Ciudades hist�ricas vivas - Ciudades del pasado: Pervivencia y desarrollo" ESTOCOLMO, ENTRE EL

MEDIEVO Y LA MODERNIDAD Jos� Luis Ram�rez 4. Estocolmo, la capital del bienestar, Ricardo Mir de Francia-El Pa�s 5. Muerte y resurrecci�n del planeamiento urbano, Oriol Bohigas-El Pa�s

Klara Kyrkogata facing south. Photo taken in 1948, a couple of years before the demolition began.

Corner of Klara V�stra Kyrkogata and Stora Vattugatan. The house to the right is Klara school´s annex. Photo from

1906.

A crowd is waiting to see the king Gustaf VI Adolf on his 70th birthday. Corner of Drottninggatan/Klarabergsgatan

in 1952.

Avenue drawn between Hötorget and Strureplan from 1905 to 1911 on a plan by architect Sven Wallander. Kunsgatan, Norrmalm, Stockholm.

Norrmalm with Klarastrandsleden, Klarabergskopplet, Centralbron and Stockholm Central Station in the foreground.

Part of a panorama over Stockholm, Sweden, seen from the City Hall Tower (Stadshuset).

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