Kulturhuset
Kulturhuset was conceived as an open “living room of culture” facing Sergels torg, with a long glass façade towards the square and spacious floors where everything can be moved. Between 1971 and 1983 the Swedish Parliament met in the part that is now the City Theatre.
Central Stockholm was demolished and rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s, and at the new Sergels torg the city wanted a building for culture. Peter Celsing won a competition in the mid-1960s, and he also designed the nearby Bank of Sweden building at Brunkebergstorg. The building was erected in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Kulturhuset opened in 1974, the year Celsing died. In the meantime Parliament needed temporary premises while the Parliament House was being rebuilt, and it was therefore allowed to use the southern part. The building has a concrete frame with large spans, so that the floors could be left open. The glass façade facing the square is designed to display the activities inside.
The building consists of two parts: the long, low section facing Sergels torg and a more closed section to the south, where Parliament sat and where the City Theatre is now housed. Towards the square the façade is glazed from floor to ceiling, divided by white concrete bands at each floor slab, so that the building resembles a bookcase. Inside, the floors are open and can be divided in various ways for a library, exhibitions, cafés and workshops. Celsing wanted the building to be an open place where anyone could walk in, read a newspaper or look at an exhibition. In front of the building lies Sergels torg with its sunken plaza, and in the middle of the roundabout above stands Edvin Öhrström’s glass sculpture, the Crystal Vertical Accent.
When Parliament moved back to Helgeandsholmen in 1983, the southern part was converted for the City Theatre, which moved in a few years later. Kulturhuset and the City Theatre have since merged into a single organisation. The building has been renovated and remodelled several times, and the debate about how to preserve Celsing’s idea of openness has accompanied every change. Kulturhuset became one of the clearest expressions of the 1960s belief in culture as part of everyday life, in line with the cultural policy of the time. Celsing was one of the leading architects of his generation, and he also designed Vällingby Church and the Film House at Gärdet. Kulturhuset has become one of Stockholm’s most visited buildings, and the glass façade facing the square is a familiar image of the city.