Episode 115: kv Topasen

District: Heden

Photo date: 27 February 2021

The Gothenburg 300th Anniversary Exhibition in 1923 must have been an amazing event. I wish I could have seen it! My grandmother wrote about it in her memoirs, that she went several times and had a great time. At the Gothenburg Historical Museum site you can look at loads of official photographs from Jubileumsutställningen, and dream of a hundred years ago.

Fifty years later, the city decided to spruce up the old exhibition area with sports facilities and a modern convention centre. And developments are still ongoing! Svenska Mässan is a hundred years old but the buildings on the site have come and gone. The current main building and the first Gothia Tower are from 1984. The Mercury logo is also a hundred years old, first employed during the Anniversary Exhibition and concurrent conventions.

Scandinavium was designed by Poul Hultberg and had a long and expensive gestation period. Controversies still abound: it was ultra-modern fifty years ago but today the city plans to tear it down and replace it with something else. The Valhalla Lido was built in 1956, from designs by Nils Olsson and Gustaf Samuelsson. The main swimming pool has a very zeitgeisty mosaic that you can look at instead of being splashed by the hordes of swimmers that use it daily.

But I still haven’t figured out what the sculpture by the river is…

Episode 116: kv Zirkonen, kv Månstenen, kv Akvamarinen, kv Ullevi

District: Heden

Photo date: 19 September and 24 December 2020

There are no residential buildings between Skånegatan and the Mölndal River, only schools and events centres. All of them are from the 1940s or later – except Katrinelund. The modest kindergarten was built in 1963.

The city’s property company Higab also manages Ullevi, the 75000-seat arena that is mostly used for rock concerts these days. It used to be called New Ullevi, designed by Jaenecke & Samuelsson. The Old Ullevi arena was recently torn down and rebuilt, so it should properly be named New Old Ullevi, right?

Episode 117: kv Heliotropen

District: Heden

Photo date: 24 December 2020

What a warren of schools! Even old Katrinelund has become a school, for gardening and farming. The oldest school building in The Heliotrope is the east wing of Burgården High, originally called the Gothenburg Middle School, that was built in 1938 from designs by Sigfrid Ericson. In 1947 came the Practical Middle School from the pen of Axel Forssén and the girls’ school from 1950 was designed by Erik Ragndal. The latest addition is the west wing from the 1990s, with the striking sculpture by Roland Anderson.

The Norwegian Sailors’ Church was designed by the wonderfully named architects Gudolf Blakstad and Herman Munthe-Kaas. Sailors’ churches are very useful: when my mother and I went on a voyage to Amsterdam in 1971 the ferry took damage in a storm and we were stranded, waiting for my father to arrive on his ship. The Swedish Sailors’ Church took us in and we were very well looked after.

The cineplex under the skate park was originally meant to be built inside the hill behind the Arts Museum. That project was appropriately named the Hall of the Mountain King, but when it was actually realised twenty years later, with the same name, it was as a concrete bunker. It’s functional enough though, even has a mini-IMAX these days.

Episode 118: kv Bärnstenen, kv Polishuset, kv Arenan

District: Heden

Photo date: 16 and 20 September 2020

More public buildings and offices! City block Amber was built ten years ago, filling up an open area that once was a soldiers’ cemetery and a meadow belonging to the old brick works. The new buildings were designed by White Architects, with pre-rusted iron cladding that was a big fad in 2015.

The Police House was built in 1967 and designed by the Backström & Reinius bureau. You can’t see it, though, as it is a classified building and it is forbidden to take photos of it. It was recently extended to a whole judiciary complex, with one building for courtrooms and another for holding cells. But given the current crime wave it would probably need even further extensions – Sweden has become the new Sicily.

Next to the law is sports. The New Old Ullevi arena was built in 2009 and is often used for football matches. The tennis complex harks back to 1901, when my ancestor took up office as caretaker. The 2016 highrise was designed by the Design Bureau (sic).