Vällingby is inaugurated
Vällingby centre is inaugurated as an ABC town – work, housing, centre (arbete, bostad, centrum) – around an underground station. Planners from all over the world come on study visits.
Vällingby became a model for suburban planning throughout the world.
After the Second World War Stockholm grew rapidly, and the housing shortage was severe. The city had a long tradition of buying up land beyond its boundaries, and when Spånga was incorporated in 1949 it gained large areas to plan. The first underground line opened in 1950, and a new master plan, drawn up under the city planning director Sven Markelius, proposed that new suburbs should be built like beads on a string along the lines. The idea was based on the English and American neighbourhood concept: the city was to be divided into manageable units, each with its own centre, school and services. Vällingby was to go one step further and also offer workplaces, so that people would not have to commute to the inner city.
Vällingby centre was designed by the architects Backström & Reinius for the municipal housing company Svenska Bostäder and inaugurated in November 1954. It was built as a pedestrian square on top of the underground, with patterns of circles in the paving, fountains, neon signs, shops, a cinema, a library and community halls. Around the centre, tower blocks stand close to the station, then lower slab blocks and, furthest out, terraced houses and villas, so that density decreases the further one gets from the tracks. Car traffic was routed around the residential areas, and footpaths and underpasses meant that children could walk to school without crossing a road. At Råcksta, Vattenfall built its head office, an important part of the workplace idea.
Vällingby became an immediate attraction. Architects, planners and politicians from all over the world came to see the Swedish model, and the suburb received wide coverage in international journals. But the ABC idea only partly worked. Most of the people who lived in Vällingby worked elsewhere, and those who worked there often lived in other districts, so commuting was considerable all the same. The experience was applied in the next large suburb, Farsta, which was inaugurated in 1960 and built to a greater extent for the car. Vällingby centre was renewed in the 2000s, and the 1950s square has been preserved as being of cultural and historical value. It is now regarded as one of the best Swedish post-war suburbs.