Functionalism

The Stockholm Exhibition of 1930 brought the new architecture to Sweden. Functionalism soon became the style of the folkhem: bright flats, slab blocks set in parkland and public buildings without ornament.

The exhibition was led by Gregor Paulsson with Gunnar Asplund as chief architect, and the manifesto acceptera followed the next year. Sven Markelius designed the Helsingborg Concert Hall, opened in 1932, and Asplund the extension to Gothenburg Town Hall, completed in 1937 after more than twenty years’ work.

Housing became a political question. HSB and the Co-operative Union built modern buildings, and the narrow slab blocks gave every flat sun and through ventilation.

• The Stockholm Exhibition of 1930
• Helsingborg Concert Hall
• Gothenburg Law Courts extension