Etikettarkiv: Cornilsen

Architect, link in Borganäs

Kvarteren Järneken, Falken, Morkullan, Anden, Sångsvanen, Sothönan, Fiskmåsen, Brushanen, Hägern, Spoven, Berget

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Episodes 216 to 219 contemplate the pros and cons of tearing down a whole district of un-modern wooden houses with a strong sense of community, to build modern machines for living where the community spirit has been lost.

Episode 216: kv Järneken, kv Falken, kv Morkullan, kv Anden

District: Landala

Photo date: 22 August 2021

Landala was once a vibrant working class district, with much crime and poverty but a strong sense of community. At least, that is what the inhabitants said in surveys after they had been uprooted in the 1970s ”sanitation” efforts, and sat in their single, lonely flats with all the mod cons. Sure the old landshövdingehus and rustic cottages were picturesque, but cold and draughty with outhouses in the courtyards and only cold water if any. Current inhabitants in the machines for living say they are pleased enough to live there.

The razed area was distributed among seven private entrepreneurs as well as the city’s housing company. The new Landala Torg and the too-brutalist block south of if were designed by Lars Ågren, Ingemar Mattsson and the K-Konsult bureau.

The little chapel that looks forlorn between the Brutalist architecture and the merciless traffic on Aschebergsgatan was built in 1885 from designs by Carl Möller.

Episode 217: kv Sångsvanen

District: Landala

Photo date: 22 August 2021

At the south end of Landala are a couple of blocks that weren’t fully sanitized in the 1970s. The landshövdingehus were some of the last to be built here, in 1915, from designs by O M Holmén and Hjalmar Cornilsen among others. The geology department of the university was located in Sångsvanen until the 1990s: a sign in one of the windows declared this. At that time, I was studying computational linguistics at the Holterman Hospital, then home to the computer science department of Chalmers. The old syphilis hospital has since been further remodelled to become a hostel for Chalmers students.

Episode 218: kv Sothönan

District: Landala

Photo date: 22 August 2021

These eleven disc houses were designed by Sven Brolid – the Brutalism can sometimes be stifling. But the Robert Dickson Foundation always adds some kind of decoration to their facades. The ones in The Coot are quite fun. I work in the same house as the Foundation, maybe I should climb the stairs one day and ask them about their artists?

Episode 219: kv Fiskmåsen, kv Brushanen, kv Hägern, kv Spoven, kv Berget, the water tower castle

District: Landala

Photo date: 22 August 2021

The Brutalist architecture continues up the Landala Hill. These houses were designed by Jaak Lohk who, before joining a private entrepreneur, was one of the architects who developed the new zoning plan for the city in the late 1960s.

The northwest side of Landala is slightly less sanitized than the rest of the district. Here are a few remaining landshövdingehus, a preschool from 2010, and three buildings from earlier expansions of the city’s critical infrastructure. The first water reservoir was constructed in 1871, the little fairy castle (and underground reservoir) came in 1892, a time when Peterson was very busy building water stations and schools, and finally the Jugend pumping station in 1905.

It is now April of 2024 and I can not remember why I didn’t go out to do any photography between September 2021 and January 2022, when the story picks up in district Annedal. How short and fickle the memory is!

Kvarteren Malmöhus, Oppensten, Borgeby, Örbyhus samt Lorensbergsparken

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Episodes 171 to 175 tour the tail-end of Neo-Renaissance and celebrate early and late Modernism.

Episode 171: kv Malmöhus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 30 May 2021

Wallenstam recently changed its logo from the ant carrying a letter m or W, to a stylised ant drawn with a single looping line. Maybe the ant carrying a pine needle, as seen on Engelbrektsgatan 28, is the original logo from the 1950s?

Trying to find some information about the modern houses in the middle of the block (a real estate agent says they were built in 1943), I came across the current zoning plan for the area. It is dated 1867!

Episode 172: kv Oppensten

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

Wilhelm Röhss was one of the magnates in the 19th century who donated parts of their estates to the city, to be used for the public good. Since the sums were substantial, the foundations are still operating today. The Röhss monies were used to build this museum to which my mother would drag me quite often (my favourite museum was the ethnographic one, with American Indians). When the museum was built, it was in the then-fashionable National Romanticist style. The two extensions were also designed in then-current fashions: Melchior Wernstedt’s 1930s early-Modernism and the late-Modernist one from circa 1960, by Sven Brolid and Jan Wallinder.

At the other end of the block is the Academy of Craft and Design, or some better equivalent to its many names: Slöjdförenings skola, Konstindustriskolan, Högskolan för design och konsthantverk. Hans Hedlund’s original building has been added to by Sigfrid Ericson in 1915 (the penthouse) and the White design bureau in 1992 (filling up the former courtyard). Today, it is part of the university and offers education in all the fine arts.

Episode 173: kv Borgeby

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 30 May 2021

Here is the original Valand that the current Academy of Fine Arts takes its name from. It was quite an important institution (at least locally), producing several fine artists over the years. The school moved to new premises in 1925 and has led a wandering existence since then. The Par Bricole lodge took over the house at that time and are still very much going strong.

The block is built on land that belonged to the old farm Kristinelund. Nothing remains of it but the street name, and apart from Valand nothing remains of the first stone houses either. At the south end of the block is a beautiful Modernist house designed by Nils Olsson in the late 1930s. The middle of the block was razed in the late 1950s and two new houses designed by Helge Zimdal were put up along Avenyn. Some ten years ago they were given a makeover, and the western side of the block was completely rebuilt from designs by Anna Sunnerö at the Wingårdh bureau. Gert Wingårdh is the current mega-star in Swedish architecture.

Episode 174: kv Örbyhus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 29 May 2021

In this block, too, the back side along Teatergatan has been redeveloped from designs by Jacek Zalecki at Wingårdhs. Apparently, the previous 1930s and 1960s houses were ”shoddy” and ”disgusting” – the very same words used for the districts that were lamentedly razed in the 1960s and 70s. Plus ça change…

Originally, the whole block was built in intricate Neo-Renaissance in the late 1890s, but only the end houses have been left standing. Of the three middle houses along Avenyn, the northern one was built in 1935 and designed by Nils Olsson in a calm and clean Modernist style. The other two houses were designed by Lund & Valentin in late-Modernist style and built in 1961. As in Borgeby, they were given a makeover by Wingårdhs some ten years ago.

Episode 175: Lorensbergsparken

District: Lorensberg

Photo date: 5 June 2021

When I was a kid, my parents used to go dancing at a place called Sophus, named after the last and famous restaurateur at the Lorensberg entertainment complex, much written about by Fredberg. Almost nothing remains of it today, other than the Lorensberg Theatre and the name of the whole district. And a small play area with circus horses…

The big hotel was designed by Nils Einar Eriksson in 1948, to house visiting industrialists. It still looks much like it did when it opened but the city library has been given a facelift designed by the Erséus bureau. The theatre was designed by Karl M Bengtsson but when it was turned into a cinema in 1934 it was redesigned by R O Swensson and H Widlund. In 1987 it was turned back into a theatre which it still is. For now.

Kvarteren Furan, Granen, Linden, Aspen, Sälgen

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Episodes 161 to 165 witness the sprouting of tenement buildings, schools and scandalettes in circa 1890.

Episode 161: kv Furan part 3

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 18 April 2021

What is a ”tomte”, plural ”tomtar”? In American, it is usually translated as ”elf”, especially for small tomtar that help Santa Claus or Father Christmas. ”Gnome” is another term used, commonly for the garden variety. But the more original type in Sweden is the farm tomte: a small entity looking after the farm and helping the family, if they behave courteously. They were a staple of children’s faritytales. Later, this kind of tomte became conflated with the Christmas character, Jultomten, who is basically Father Christmas/Santa Claus. But before Jultomten, the main yuletide creature was the Christmas Billygoat, still remembered as a Christmas ornament made of straw.

On the house fronting Vasagatan 11, Thorvald Rasmussen, brother of one of the architects, painted several tomtar being industrious, as well as other fairytale creatures. The house is a sort of German Neo-Renaissance Alpen-style, quite at odds with anything else in Gothenburg. When it was built, this was still an area with large villas and it fitted in quite well. Even the taller residential building behind it, built a few years earlier for the whole Hedlund family, didn’t clash as much with the genteel surroundings. But a few years later, the villas gave way to stone colossi…

From my tolkienist friends, I learn that the Odd Fellows are still going strong, as are all the other old orders too. One would have thought the social democratic system that has pervaded Swedish society since the 1930s would have stamped out such activities – but the social democratic party can, if you want to, be seen as a great big lodge itself!

Episode 162: kv Granen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 1 May 2021

When I first started on this series in early 2020, it was just for my own personal enjoyment and maybe to show my hometown to some lexxian and tolkienist friends on social media. Just a bit of fun. I added some normal music, without narration. Boom! the youtube copyright algorithms struck! So I decided to make my own soundtracks, it being difficult to schedule recordings with friends who are actually good at making music. And I started narrating more intensely, to mask the bad soundtracks. Of course, the narration soon spiralled out of control, and for this long block I have included pretty much all the text I could find in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” and the block entry in the Old Gothenburg blog.

Regarding the farms that many of the new 1800s and 1900s blocks were put up on, there is an informative paper (in Swedish) that can be found in the city museum catalogue, with a map of the general area of this episode on page 29. There are many more potentially interesting papers in the catalogue, with the tag ”kulturmiljörapport”.

Episode 163: kv Linden

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 24 April 2021

When my grandmother went to school here in the late 1910s and early 1920s, all the big stone houses around it had already been built. She described her walk to school from the family cottage on the edge of town, passing horses, crossing still un-built areas and describing various characters along the way. But in 1889 the area was still semi-rural, with intense exploitation just around the corner.

The girls’ school itself is described by both CRA Fredberg and the Old Gothenburg site (and of course in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, page 174).

Episode 164: kv Aspen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 22 May 2021

Water pipes, bowls courts, farms, bandits, shops and tenants – the history of this block is quite rich! Once the farm, the inn and the shacks had gone, stone houses were put up around 1890. At the northern and western sides, the builders/designers were H & J Börjesson, Nathan Persson, Hedström & Svensson and C B Andersson. The rest of the block had to await new planning from Albert Lilienberg in 1910. The eastern part was built up along the steep street in 1912, from designs by Hjalmar Cornilsen and Zetterström & Jonsson. The south end wasn’t completed until the late 1910s. So we can study the architectural fashions over 30 years: French, German and Italian Neo-Renaissance, Neo-Gothic, Jugend, National Romanticism and the precursor to 1920s Classicism.

Episode 165: kv Sälgen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 1 May 2021

CRA Fredberg devotes almost a whole chapter to this school. Apparently, there was a scandalette over the architectural contract, involving the Hedlund family: S A made sure his nephew Hans won it. Björner son of Hans designed the extensions that were added in 1912. As Björner also did with Hans’s library building in 1926. What a family saga!

Kvarteren Enen, Idegranen, Lönnen, Furan

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Episodes 156 to 160 contemplate heavy development in the 1890s and the 1960s, around a steep hill.

Episode 156: kv Enen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 17 April 2021

There are so many beautiful old houses preserved in this block. They are all described in fine detail in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, page 318ff. One of them, at Haga Kyrkogata 28, has even featured in a major Swedish television series a few years back. Or so I understand, I never watched it myself. The TV show also borrowed 1950s and 60s type radios and television sets from the splendid radio museum on Hisingen.

The narration for this episode is pretty complete but here are some more facts. The farm Anneberg can be seen on an old photo in the City Museum database. The Fogelberg Park was originally called The Viewpoint but was quickly encircled by tall houses and later trees. There is no view to be had anymore, especially in the leafy season. Fogelberg was a sculptor who created the statue of Gustav II Adolf at the main square.

Episode 157: kv Idegranen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 25 April 2021

The Old Gothenburg site has an entry on the Society for Schools for Young Children. The rest of the block is also covered in the link for episode 156.

Episode 158: kv Lönnen

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 25 April 2021

The posh villas along Föreningsgatan and the general history of the area is also covered by the Old Gothenburg site (and of course in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”). In the days when they were built, it was considered a rather long slog to reach the inner city where the banks and shops were. A trip to Örgryte was a full day affair!

Since I can’t read maps properly I accidentally included Södra Viktoriagatan 42 which is a separate block called Järneken (The Holly), and part of city block Pilträdet (The Willow) that was redeveloped in the 1960s. Sorry.

Episode 159: kv Furan part 1

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 18 and 24 April 2021

The Jugend or Art Nouveau villa at Viktoriagatan 17 can be considered a part of the Officials’ area around Föreningsgatan.

Episode 160: kv Furan part 2

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 18 April 2021

In 2023 I could take a good look at the back of Viktoriagatan 15 A/B, and even the inside! Because the rock-face behind the houses was in dire need of reinforcements, including rope work for scaling off loose stones and boulders, clearing away trees whose roots break away blocks, and installing rock bolts. The housing association representative was very interested and I lectured rather condescendingly at him: he turned out to be professor emeritus of structural geology…

The sad story of Gegerfelt and the speculators is told in full in ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” and more narration is added at the Old Gothenburg site. CRA Fredberg also writes about the Eduard Magnus memorial that looked much prettier than the current institutional building from the 1950s.

The nude streetlight has recently been discussed in one of the Old Gothenburg fora. It is apparently a completely private light, put up in 1971 by the former owner of Vasagatan 7. And the city allowed it!

Kvarteren Vik, Nyköpingshus, Rydboholm, Avenboken, Björken

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Episodes 141 to 145 slog around long and lavishly decorated upper-middle class facades at Vasaplatsen.

Episode 141: kv Vik

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 28 November 2020

The Baptist Tabernacle, the Ladies’ School for Girls, pastry chefs and a celebrated man of letters. This block has it all! Including a full narration about design history.

Episode 142: kv Nyköpingshus and Vasaplatsen

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 5 December 2020

Fredberg and ”Vasaplatsen-Lorensberg” (e.g. page 218) write much about the history and the architecture in this area.

As you venture further from the inner city and further in time from the 1880s, lions on facades start to thin out and eventually peter out entirely. In Vasastaden they look very similar, probably because many of the decorations were mass-produced elements that could be added onto any new house. So the facades look unique and spectacular but really they are all much the same. Like teenagers…

One of the victims of the terrible tram crash of 1992 was Åsa Walldén, who had just finished writing a 16-page pamphlet about architecture in Kungsladugård. I’ve made heavy use of it in part 384 ff of this series.

Episode 143: kv Rydboholm

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 1 November 2020

On the south edge of Kungsparken is a string of smaller blocks meant to resemble the so-called patrician villas that dotted the park before the stone city of Vasastaden-Lorensberg was planned and realised. Most of these small blocks are designed as one entity, but some consist of two properties. In this block, the western half was built by the H Börjesson company in 1897 and the eastern half by O A Burman. But the facades for both halves were designed by Carl Crispin Peterson, son of Adrian. The style is described as Tudor Neo-Gothic.

Episode 144: kv Avenboken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 19 December 2020

On page 269 of ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg”, Staffan Sedenmalm writes about the so-called park blocks and the general design history of the area:

Under 1890-talets senare hälft fylldes äntligen den gapande luckan i stenstadsfronten mot parkbältet. Tio år efter tillkomsten av Wijkska villan – den enda privatbostaden i denna märkliga svit av nio kvarter – blev nämligen de fyra sista parkkvarteren, två på vardera sidan av Vasaplatsen, uppförda. Tre kvarter bebyggdes med två samgestaltade bostadshus vardera, två av kvarteren för olika byggherrar. Det blev en skarp kontrast mellan de äldre kvarterens aristokratiska arkitektur och de nya med ett borgerligare kynne. Mot 1870- och 80-talens nyrenässans, formad av mått- och formprinciper som övertagits från de gamla mästarnas läroböcker och översatt från två à tre palatsvåningar i naturlig sten till hyrespalatsens fyra våningar i stenimiterande putsornering, ställdes nu de fem våningar höga tegelborgarna med sin enklare vertikala indelning och en fasadbehandling som likställde våningarna i rang. Stil- och formmässigt fick liksom tidigare varje parkkvarter sin egen karaktär. Till detta bidrog tegelsorternas rikt varierade profilprogram och kulörer med möjligheter att kombinera samstämda toner. Ett verksamt uttrycksmedel i dessa tegelfasader, rikare på kulör än plastisk form, utgjorde järnbalkongernas organiskt sirliga konstsmide. Karaktäristiskt för 1890-talets parkkvarter blev de isärdragna fasaderna på kvarterens baksida – således exponerades bakgårdarnas påvra fasader mot Storgatan ovanför en stängselmur i fasadens arkitektur med en port till respektive gård. Såväl gårdsfasader som brandgavlar fick – med undantag av ett kvarter tillhörigt en inflytelserik organisation – en enkel beklädnad av grov spritputs.

Staffan Sedenmalm, ”Vasastaden-Lorensberg. KULTURMILJÖ AV RIKSINTRESSE I GÖTEBORG. Planering och byggande utanför vallgraven 1850-1900”, Länsstyrelsen Västra Götaland 2016:43

Episode 145: kv Björken

District: Vasastaden

Photo date: 23 January 2021

Opposite city block Rydboholm is another equally long block that takes a very long time to explore and document. Several big-name architects and builders contributed to the splendid facades towards Vasaplatsen and Vasagatan, as listed in the narration and the block’s entry in the blog about Old Gothenburg.

In the very early 1980s I went to yoga classes in a flat at Vasaplatsen 3. It was really big, some six rooms (and a tiny bathroom) with plaster decorations around the ceilings and all. It must have been really expensive even at that time. Since then, almost all flats around Vasaplatsen seem to have been converted to offices and clinics and dentists’.

Kvarteren Borganäs, Kalmarehus, Kronoberg, Fågelvik, Ulvåsa

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Episodes 136 to 140 continue the tour along the north edge of district Lorensberg – or is it Vasastaden?

Episode 136: kv Borganäs

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 October 2020

Abraham Pehrsson was one of the big builders that operated in Gothenburg in the late 1800s. His company built many of the houses south of Heden, for example, but this fabulous house he built for himself. It was designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen in 1882, together with Fahlström’s house across the street making a striking Neo-Renaissance portal towards the south and the rest of Avenyn.

Episode 137: kv Kalmarehus

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 14 November 2020

The English quarter was designed as an English terraced row of the late 1860s, to satisfy the aesthetics of its English-born owners. The John Scott name lives on as a franchise of local pubs – what would the Reverend have said about that? JA Westerberg designed Avenyn 3 and August Krüger the rest of the houses along Avenyn. But all the houses were remodelled or replaced in the mid-1940s, from designs by Nils Olsson, Erik Holmdal, Herbert Kockum and C Hedin. Number 5 got a makeover in 1985 by architects Stjernberg & Hultén.

The Pripp villa at Vasagatan 52 was designed by Adrian Peterson in 1877 (”Vasastaden-Lorensberg” page 229). Unlike much that was built at that time, this house isn’t French, Viennese or Florentine Neo-Renaissance but solid German so-called Rohbau. Meaning, as well as I can understand the term, that the brick facade is left exposed rather than hidden by artistic plaster, and decorations are mainly in the form of coloured or glazed tiles.

Episode 138: kv Kronoberg

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 28 November 2020

Gothenburg is famous for three things: bad jokes, socialism during the now-defunct industrial era, and Chalmers. The latter is still very important and unlike the jokes appreciated by non-Gothenburgers too. We will return to it in part 210 of this series. The first Chalmers school was situated at the north end of Nordstan, where it is commemorated by a very small plaque in the current mall. And the Arts & Crafts school on Vasagatan moved to city block Oppensten, just south of here.

Episode 139: kv Fågelvik

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 21 February 2021

Well, the video narration is pretty complete as far as the design and building history is concerned. The refurbishment in progress in the photos was led by the White bureau, mostly renowned for daring ultra-modern designs completely at odds with lavish Neo-Renaissance.

Episode 140: kv Ulvåsa

District: Vasastaden (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date:1 November 2020

The twin highrises in this block were put up by builder Janne Johansson in 1897, from designs by Hjalmar Cornilsen. The architectural fashion has now moved on to Rohbau, in this block described as Moorish or Crusader-like.

Kvarteren Turmalinen, Agaten, Ametisten, Karneolen

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Episodes 127 to 130 lecture a bit on mineralogy and continue the tour through Jugend, National Romanticism and 1920s Classicism.

Episode 127: kv Turmalinen

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

National Romanticism was a Swedish style that was popular in the early 1900s. It wanted to emulate the styles from when Sweden was great, Gustaf Vasa’s 1500s and the mid-1600s, and also romanticised Sweden’s agrarian heritage. The result was imposing red-brick buildings with decorations in the form of brick patterns, granite sculptures and reliefs, and copper details. It was also popular to build wooden houses, often dark and heavy. A prime example of this style is the Masthugget Church. We see a bit of this on the east side of this block.

On the other side of the block is Södra Vägen 32 which was designed by Hjalmar Zetterström in lightest Jugend style. He also designed Skånegatan 31 a couple of years later, tilting towards National Romanticism. The other Jugend houses along Södra Vägen were created by builder O A Burman and the splendid backdrop to Korsvägen by Robert Anderson Arelius in 1911. Jugend was a continental style, often with a focus on crafts and botanic shapes. On the continent it can be quite extreme, Art Nouveau, while in Sweden it can verge towards National Romanticism as our kind of crafts are heavy and dark, not light and airy.

Episode 128: kv Agaten

District: Heden

Photo date: 21March 2021

We continue with lots of Jugend built around 1910. Berzeliigatan 11 was designed by Frans Frise while numbers 13 to 17 came from the pen of Hjalmar Zetterström. Södra Vägen 24, however, was designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen. Phew, so many names!

Episode 129: kv Ametisten

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

The middle part of this block was built later than the ends towards Engelbrektsgatan and Berzeliigatan. By that time, Lilienberg’s plans had come into force and National Romanticism was in full swing – which is very much in evidence along Wadmansgatan and Hedåsgatan.

Episode 130: kv Karneolen

District: Heden

Photo date: 28 February 2021

The first houses south of Heden were built in the 1890s, with imposing facades towards the city. The corner house at Södra Vägen 2 was particularly grand, built by Abraham Pehrsson and designed by Hjalmar Cornilsen.

Fredberg writes about Vassnöden and the Jamaica Inn. The style is lively, a bit sentimental, and with the old Swedish grammar that all young fantasy writers fail so miserably at mastering.

Kvarteren Rubinen, Opalen, Bergkristallen, Onyxen, Granaten

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Episodes 123 to 126 take a tour through architectural fashions from the 1890s to the 1990s.

Episode 123: kv Rubinen, kv Opalen

District: Heden

Photo date: 25 December 2020

As you can see by my WordPress signature, my alias in the Gothenburg Tolkien society is Ruby Gamgee. So city block Ruby feels right at home! It’s a little bit weird but also nice how much my alias has become part of my overall personality: before, my favourite colour was blue and now it’s ruby red. When I could create a coat of arms, my life suddenly filled with penguins. And above all: the many and very good friends I have made.

In city block Opal, the 1880s landshövdingehus were torn down in the 1960s to make way for modern buildings – a story that is true for every other district in Gothenburg too. The hotel by Henning Orlando was in perfect 1960s style until the topside extension was added in 2007. Now it just looks wonky. The other buildings in the block were designed by Lennart Kvarnström, and the Lund & Valentin bureau.

Episode 124: kv Bergkristallen

District: Heden

Photo date: 13 March 2021

Now we enter the area south of Heden, where tall stone houses sprang up in a tight cluster from the 1890s to the 1920s. The old farms, tobacco plantations and shacks had to go, to make way for the demands of a modern city – words that are still true today and probably were true even for the old Greeks.

My main source for this area, and indeed the next 50 or more episodes of this series, is an in-depth study of planning and architecture in Vasastaden-Lorensberg, made by Staffan Sedenmalm in 2016. Chock full of information! My other source is of course CRA Fredberg, and my grandmother’s memoirs; she grew up just south of here in the early 1900s.

Along Hedåsgatan, the middle part of the block has been pulled back a bit from the street, creating a more open space. This is a hallmark of the city plans drawn up by Albert Lilienberg, who was planning director in Gothenburg between 1907 and 1927. Lots more will be said about him in episodes 389ff of this series. Berzeliigatan 22 is a very light type of Jugend, almost Rococo, designed by Robert Andersson in 1903.

Episode 125: kv Onyxen

District: Heden

Photo date: 13 March 2021

The area south of Heden was mostly developed by builders who had worked their way up from wooden landshövdingehus. They included August Westerlind, Johan August Frise, Johan Peter A Rydgren, Hans A Kilander, C A Lund, J A Westerberg, Nathan Persson and Abraham Pehrsson. They mostly drew their buildings in-house and only the posher houses along the main thouroughfares were designed by proper architects, like Hjalmar Cornilsen, Frans Frise, Zetterstöm & Jonsson and Olof Holmén.

Sten Sturegatan 21 was built in 1905 by Carl Axel Gillberg. It is a Jugend-type house but a bit heavier than usual, almost Baroque.

Episode 126: kv Granaten

District: Heden

Photo date: 20 March 2021

The stone desert continues, as Fredberg would have put it. The houses along Skånegatan were built as the noughties Jugend had turned into the 1910s National Romanticism, and even into the 1920s Classicism. They are too humble to be worthy of separate comments in my sources, though. The odd fire or too-severe subsidence damage has caused some old buildings to be replaced in the 1990s. Some of the houses along Södra Vägen were designed by Olof Holmén and built in the noughties.