Etikettarkiv: Robert Dicksons stiftelse

Charitable housing, link in Sothönan

Kvarteren Korpralen, Löjtnanten, Översten, Generalen, Fänriken

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Episodes 243 to 246 comprise charities and public amenities in western Haga.

Episode 243: kv Korpralen

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

Until the early 1800s, much of Gothenburg consisted of wooden houses. And devastating city-wide fires were all too common. In Haga too there were many fires, and seeing all the wood in the northern part of this block one can understand why. All houses were warmed by one or more fireplaces and there were bakeries and smithies and other businesses employing fire. Fredberg has a whole chapter devoted to conflagrations in Haga.

Episode 244: kv Löjtnanten

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

The Castle originally had a terrace on the roof, to give the tenants access to clean-ish air and sunlight. But it wasn’t waterproof so after 20 years it was replaced with an ordinary roof. I think the topside tenants were relieved, imagine the cost for buckets!

Episode 245: kv Översten

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

Imagine not being able to have a proper bath or shower! The modern city dweller shudders in revulsion at the very thought. So did many others 150 years ago I guess, and not just at the thought but at the actual pong of unwashed bodies. Thus a public bath was really necessary. Architect Axel Kumlien specialised in hospitals and other public institutions. Among other things in Gothenburg, he designed the Maternity Hospital and the original core of the Sahlgrenska hospital in Änggården, of which only one small pavillion remains today.

Episode 246: kv Generalen, kv Fänriken

District: Haga

Photo date: 7 May 2022

The Tai Shanghai restaurant was put up for sale in 2025 – the end of an era. Where will Club Cosmos have its annual meetings now? And yes, it is spelled ”Tai” and not ”Thai” as most contemporary persons think it is. As for the Dickson Foundation block, contrast these houses with the ones in Annedal.

Kvarteren Kanonen, Kruthornet, Majoren, Kaptenen, Soldaten samt Skansberget

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In episodes 238 to 242 the focus is on oldey-timey fortifications, the Caponier and Fortress Kronan.

Episode 238: kv Kanonen

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 April 2022

Most of this block was re-developed in the 1980s but the quaint facades along Haga Nygata were preserved – much to the delight of all the cruise ship tourists who visit in summertime.

Episode 239: kv Kruthornet

District: Haga

Photo date: 23 April 2022

Sometimes people ask what houses I’ve looked at are my favourites. I usually answer it’s the ones with subtle surprises, that you don’t notice until you actually look closely at the facades. And the Abako-designed house comprising this whole block is a prime example of this. Yes, the Post-Modernist style is a violent break from the general 19th-century look of Haga, but it’s hard not to be delighted by it, so over the top. And then, if you step closer, you see the reliefs… Artist Pelle P adorned other facades too, like the Guldheden church in part 476 of this project.

Episode 240: kv Majoren

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

Are libraries a thing of the past? I do believe so; listening to young people on the town who brag about not ever having read a book and being disgusted by the very idea, it seems easy-access knowledge is no longer wanted. Maybe AI is convenient and all that, but I think it’s fun to make and find out things myself. Anyway, the early users of this library here had no other options and made good use of the facilities.

Episode 241: kv Kaptenen

District: Haga

Photo date: 30 April 2022

On a map you can see how narrow these north-south running blocks are, as they follow the line of the old caponier that connected fortress Kronan with the rest of Gothenburg in the olden days. Having heard the stories about people falling into the stagnant water here, I always thought a caponier was a sort of mini-moat. When it was eventually filled in, the land was only deemed suitable for poor-housing, which the Dickson Foundation snapped up in the 1870s before selling it to the Burmans. Might one suspect poor geotechnical conditions?

Episode 242: kv Soldaten, Skansberget

District: Haga

Photo date: 14 May 2022

The little square in Soldaten is the centre of Haga, where you might find market stalls, buskers and other events. In all seasons! But in October-November and January-February the Gothenburg weather is not amenable to outdoors activities with items that aren’t waterproof…

My memories of Skansen Kronan are rather sketchy, and involve the old military museum with slightly spooky mannequins dressed in 19th century uniforms, and waffles. The latter still remains, in the shape of a shed which serves pricey pastries that you really need after climbing all those stairs. Club Cosmos celebrated its 50th anniversary in the fortress, but that was before my time.

Kvarteren Krikonet, Plommonet, Aprikosen, Bananen, Konstepidemin, Kastanjen, Hasselnöten

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Episodes 220 to 223 explore the remains of old Annedal – working class district and hospital area from the late 1800s.

Episode 220: kv Krikonet, kv Plommonet, kv Aprikosen, kv Bananen

District: Annedal

Photo date: 15 January 2022

District Annedal is one of those working class landshövdingehus areas that has acquired the sheen of a legendary golden age, when everything was good and true. And yes, looking at old photographs from before the transformation, it did look quite picturesque. Even some of the city officials thought so, and fought the other officials who won and razed almost the whole area in the early 1970s. But here just below the Landala Hill, a homogenous charity estate from the mid-1870s was spared. The northern part is more villa-like and was designed by Victor Adler. The southern part belongs to the Robert Dickson Foundation and was designed and built by P J Rapp.

Episode 221: Konstepidemin

District: Annedal

Photo date: 22 January 2022

Before embarking on this project, I had never been to the Art Epidemic. A couple of visits later I realise I have missed out on esthetic experiences! Not least architecturally, with buildings from the mid 1880s to the early 1920s. You can also pet a cat or converse with artists.

Episode 222: kv Kastanjen

District: Annedal

Photo date: 22 January 2022

When I studied computational linguistics around 1990, our lecture halls were spread out over the city. Our main base of operations was Humanisten but we daily trudged over the hill to Chalmers to learn programming. For one course we went to the psychology department in the old Lyckholm brewery south of Liseberg. Soon after, they moved to this typically-early-1990s building. The BASF building has been completed and the conscription office is kept busy now that Sweden finally has joined Nato. It will take a long time before the Västlänken railway tunnel is finished though…

Episode 223: kv Hasselnöten

District: Annedal

Photo date: 22 January 2022

Some older public buildings line the street too. My mother went to the seminary when she was young, and always referred to it as a happy time. The current main building was designed by one G Hermansson in a Jugend-y style. Above it sits the Media House, designed by the Krook & Tjäder bureau in 2006.

The maternity hospital next to it has also been taken over by Campus Linné. It was designed by Axel Kumlien in 1900, with a 1906 extension by Otto Dymling and a students’ lodgings from 1921.

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!