Etikettarkiv: factory

Kvarteren vid Trollspisberget och runt Liseberg

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Episodes 201 to 204 cover a suite of architectural styles from the early 1910s to the early 2020s, with a bit of natural design thrown in for good measure.

Episode 201: kv Entitan, kv Koltrasten, kv Blåmesen, kv Munkeboda, Trollspisen

District: Johanneberg (parts formerly in Lorensberg)

Photo date: 13 August 2021

The block called Munkeboda was originally part of district Lorensberg but got chucked into Johanneberg at the latest administrative reshuffle. Based on architecture and population, it really should still be part of Lorensberg, though, with a consulate, a posh villa by Johan Jarlén, now a school, and yet another lodge. It also has a brand new house designed by the Inobi bureau and put up during the last year. For the other blocks in this episode I refer to a general description of the area, page 126ff.

My grandmother wrote in her memoirs how they used to climb up the hill behind their house and in a crevice light a fire to make coffee. This same crevice gave the name to the hill and it still exists today! For the 1923 exhibition a path was cleared to the hill, for those boring persons who didn’t want to travel by funicular.

Some ten years ago I made a rock survey for a new zoning plan that wants to excavate half the Troll Stove hill and put up two tall houses in the new pit. But that would entail 30 metres high rock cuttings and it is placed right on top of sewers which would give inescapable ”aromas” in the new, expensive condos… The houses have yet to be built. The hill consists of mainly gabbro with various grain sizes. Very pretty.

Episode 202: kv Skokloster

District: Johanneberg (formerly Lorensberg)

Photo date: 13 August 2021

Here is another block that is properly part of Lorensberg. The zones, districts and sub-districts are really confused here… Maybe it’s the ghosts of those who were executed here that play havoc with the minds of city officials? The ghosts didn’t seem to bother my grandmother and her ancestors who lived here for a century. But for the 1923 exhibition, a cable-car was drawn right over this block, which was yet to be built, and over their garden – and sometimes the gondolas stopped and the passengers had to be rescued. So she said.

Episode 203: kv Getebergsäng – inside Liseberg

District: Heden

Photo date: 16 August 2021

Liseberg was one of the many small farms that dotted the area until 1923 or thereabouts. A few of the farm buildings still exist but the gardens have long gone – except maybe here, if you count the funfair as a garden. In her memoirs, my grandmother writes how she visited the manor house once, before the funfair had transformed the idyllic park. She was visiting a school friend who was staying with her relative, the architect Eugen Thorburn.

The 1923 Anniversary Exhibition was a temporary affair, almost ephemeral. And it was a riot of design! Sigfrid Ericson and Arvid Bjerke were the main architects and they created something fairytale-like. All photos from the time are black-and-white but written memories all mention how colourful it was. It was a very ambitious undertaking, with a historical section on the Johanneberg hill and a modern technical section at what became Svenska Mässan. And annexed to that part was the Liseberg funfair, the only part of the venture that wasn’t a spectacular financial loss. So it was decided to keep it and it has generated profit ever since.

Structures at Liseberg come and go, either in planned redevelopment or in sudden fires. The Congress Hall went up in flames in 1973, and the brand new adventure lido that was meant to save the entire tourism sector in Gothenburg melted in a horrid fire a month ago. Wikipedia says the two entrance towers were designed by Axel Jonsson and put up in 1940, as a nod to the two towers from the original exhibition. The pink colour permeating the whole park is said to be the original colour from the exhibition.

Episode 204: kv Getebergsäng (outside Liseberg), kv Sandmusslan, kv Pilgrimsmusslan, kv Immeln, kv Spindeln

District: Heden, Krokslätt (parts formerly Bö and Skår)

Photo date: 16 August 2021

Some 30 years ago I had a job just south of Liseberg and used to walk, run and tram along Södra Vägen almost daily. The big wooden villas and small landshövdingehus that my grandmother knew from her childhood were still there – but just a few years later they had to go to make way for the science centre (designed by Gert Wingårdh) and the award-winning culture museum (designed by Cécile Brisac and Edgar Gonzalez). And for the last six years also for Västlänken. Only the modernist house next to the southern entrance to Liseberg remains, for now…

East of the Mölndal creek the funfair has taken over the city block called Pilgrimsmusslan, where there used to be factories and before that very cheap housing for industrial workers. One part of a larger estate was set off as a sports field and named Balders Hage. This is where the ÖIS football club was started. The factories produced everything from sweets to yarn to engines and some of them were closed only 30 years ago. The Wingårdh bureau also designed the Grand Curiosa Hotel and the lido that burned down earlier this year.

Kvarteren Nornan, Lejonet, Cedern, Triton, Neptun, Eken, Stenen

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Episodes 111 to 114 explore the evolution of the south part of Gårda, with former factories, housing old and new, and infrastructure.

Episode 111: kv Nornan, kv Lejonet

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

In south Gårda, several of the blocks are named after various deities, most of them Greek. Here, however, we have the name for the fate-goddesses in Nordic mythology. They are calle Urd, Verdandi and Skuld, variations on the verb ”to be”. How fitting that the factory built in this block is named after the Nordic fairy or elf, Tomten!

The main building was designed by Carl Ritzén and the clock tower by Arvid Bjerke. They were built just in time for the 300th anniversary expo that in 1923 was built up across the river from here. The rest of the block was redeveloped by Skanska in 1986, and is a housing association for seniors, with restaurant and acitivities centre etc. It looks quite nice.

From The Lion and southwards, we meet the remains of the old Gårda – described as a vibrant community of block upon block of landshövdingehus. When the motorway came through here in 1965 almost all of it was demolished, but you can see how different the district looked at heritage sites.

Episode 112: kv Cedern, kv Triton

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

On the city’s planning site is a document from 2008 that says the Cedar and the half-blocks north and south of it will be torn down to make way for parking garages. So far, nothing has happened other than refurbishment of the rather dilapidated landshövdingehus.

The modernist mineral-water building was designed by Folke Bensow, according to the current owner Higab. Apotekarnes was bought by Pripps in 1950 but the brand name is still going strong. It is above all used for the Swedish Christmas drink that keeps Coca-Cola at bay: julmust. It’s a fizzy sugary drink that is a must (ha ha) during the festive season.

Episode 113: kv Neptun

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Neptune was built in the very late 1920s and was designed by Erik Holmdal and Nils Olsson, prolific architects of landshövdingehus and other buildings at the time. The block was refurished in the 1970s, while the rest of south Gårda was demolished. But then it was left to rot for 40 years despite being semi-listed in the 1990s.

Episode 114: kv Eken, kv Stenen

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

The current zoning plan, from 1986, for city block The Oak gives some hints as to why it hasn’t yet been torn down and replaced with parking garages. The underground consists of 70 to 80 m thick layers of clays, sand and till. Various tunnels underneath the houses and the motorway have caused lowering of the watertable and thus quite serious subsidence. At least the river is far enough away that flooding isn’t yet a major problem – not yet…

The Focus House from 1973 was designed by Arne Branzell. It covers the whole area that was the manor house and gardens of Underås, which is Underhill in English. It was an important property from the late 1500s to the 1960s, when it disappeared. The only trace left of it today are the trees and the plaque outside the Focus House.

Even more Under The Hill is the Gårda Tunnel, which I inspected in July 2020. Railway and road tunnels are inspected every six years, at least, with focus on rock, reinforcements, leakages and anything built into or onto the rock surface.

Kvarteren Örnen, Svanen, Geten, Bleket, Gumsen, Lammet

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Episodes 107 to 110 explore the industrial and social heritage in the middle part of Gårda. Most of it has been redeveloped, not once but twice – or more.

Episode 107: kv Örnen, kv Svanen

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Almost all of the old industrial estate Gårda was demolished in the 1960s, to make way for the new motorway that bisects the eastern part of Gothenburg. New houses were erected in the 1980s, as close to the motorway as was deemed safe. Some of the earliest skyscrapers in Gothenburg were built here at that time too, now long since over-shadowed.

The middle part of district Gårda has been turned into an American-type commercial district with skyscraper offices. All this on marine and glacial clays next to a small river! The newest skyscrapers were finished in 2023 and are documented in Intermission part III.

Episode 108: kv Geten, kv Bleket

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Just a handful of old houses in Gårda were preserved, listed or turned into a museum. Once the corona pandemic was over and forgotten, other museums opened up too, but the Belt Factory is still very much worth a visit! It’s full of old looms and stuff, and they sell some of their products too. Very useful when making tolkienist outfits.

Episode 109: kv Gumsen

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

The old Gårda was not just an industrial estate but also contained many tenement houses for its workers and their families. The school here was closed in 1977 – some ten years after the motorway right next to it had been opened! How could they let children roam there for so long? Anyway, the building seems not to have much of a future.

The parking garage is one of at least three from the post-modernist 1980s that I’ve seen so far on my ramblings. This one was decorated by Klas-Göran Tinbäck who appararently is still alive, at the time of writing (2023).

The firm Tomten not only manufactured detergents etc, but for some reason also sparklers. They are still known as Tomtebloss in Swedish and are branded enthuiastically at Christmas.

Episode 110: kv Lammet

District: Gårda

Photo date: 14 March 2021

Many of the factories in Gårda were built along the Mölndal Creek or River. It was used as a canal for transporting goods and also as a ditch for effluvia. Further up-river were several businesses that have left a very unpleasant chemical legacy in the river bottom. Dredging is quite hazardous but necessary, as the lower part of the river is very flood prone.

The Wool Yarn Factory has its own page at the Higab site.