Sweden - From Present to Past

This weekend, I was out early at dawn, taking photographs of various parts of downtown Stockholm. I was struck by the immense lack of innovation of the various building sites. There, I saw the same mexi-brick foundations that made up the spine of the suburbia projects fifty years ago. Has there really been no development since then? I mean, we surely do not dress the same as back then, do we? The Swedish modernism in all its glory belongs to the past. Back then, architecture was integrated in the rest of the art world and followed the currents, making a great paradigmatic leap from from old dusty designs towards the sharp, light structures in beautiful shades of white that we know today as modernism.

When seeing the "bold new face of Stockholm", I begin to wonder; do these new buildings really fulfil the needs of the modern world, or are they stuck in an old 60's philosophy? The need for another revolution becomes obvious. So, one might wonder, are the Swedish architects not confident in their own ideas? I mean, confidence is one of the most important components of creativity. When thinking back at childhood memories, it is striking how three simple factors decided the choices of hobbies. The ones where we had the confidence, encouragement and consent to follow through are the ones that survived. Take a look at Apple's iPod. It was created by giving the designers a whole lot of cred and completely free hands. Then, the design was given to the engineers, who had to make the damn thing function. Not the other way around. If only city planning could do the same, just imagine the amount of joyeous energy that would come out of it! Buildings, like paintings, are best conceived when they are products of one pure vision, without too much intervention from government authorities.

Earlier this spring, Centerpartiet presented a beautiful conceptual idea of a "green", self-sustaining skyscraper in downtown Stockholm. Personally, I would say that is f***ing brilliant, compared to the cowardly projects being undertaken today. It really reflects the architectural trends in the rest of the world. Whilst the brave Duth continue their bold exploration of new materials and gorgeous innovative styles, we linger on in our self-content idea of having the perfect society. Look at the Dutch firm OMA's Seattle Public library, Frank Gehry's now old but still fantastic Guggenheim wonder in Bilbao or the Chinese efficient megacity projects. These new frontiers may appear capricious and random at first, but they are not. They are contemporary, and as such, should be promoted as testimonials of our time.

Now that we are at it, I might just as well show you some pictures from the new concert hall in Uppsala. Yes, I know, it has received almost only positive critique. But, some of the homage rightfully compared it in magnitude to Sergels Torg in Stockholm. And I could not agree more! It is fairly nice, but very old and not very thought through, both when it comes to materials and spaces.