The Hötorget buildings ( or ''Hötorgsskraporna'', "-scrapers") are five high-rise office buildings in the

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

city center in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Located between the squares

Hötorget Hötorget (''Haymarket'') is a city square in the center of Stockholm, Sweden that has been transitioning since the Early Medieval Period. Description To its east lies the Royal Concert Hall, to its south lies Filmstaden Sergel, one of the ...

and

Sergels Torg Sergels torg ("Sergel's Square") is a major public square in Stockholm, Sweden, constructed in the 1960s and named after 18th-century sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel, whose workshop was once located north of the square. Overview Sergels torg h ...

in the central

Norrmalm Norrmalm is a city district in Stockholm, Sweden. History Norrmalm is a part of the larger borough of Norrmalm (''Norrmalms stadsdelsområde''). The southern part of the district, Lower Norrmalm (''Nedre Norrmalm''), also known as the City, ...

district, they stand tall and are a clearly visible landmark.

History

Though not

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

s in an international context, the 19-storey buildings stand out on the Stockholm skyline and so are called "scrapers". Built 1952-1966, they were labelled the architectonic five "trumpet-blasts" (''trumpetstötar'') of the renewed city centre by the Municipal commissioner (''Borgarråd'')

Yngve Larsson Gustaf Richard ''Yngve'' Larsson (; December 13, 1881 – December 16, 1977) was a Swedish political scientist, Municipal commissioner (''Borgarråd''), and Member of Parliament. He was an important force in the urban development of Stockholm d ...

. The buildings are designed by different architects (from Hötorget and south:

David Helldén David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

Sven Markelius Sven Gottfrid Markelius (25 October 1889 – 24 February 1972) was a Swedish modernist architect. Markelius played an important role in the post-war urban planning of Stockholm, for example in the creation of the model suburbs of Vällingby (1950 ...

, Anders Tengbom, Lars-Erik Lallerstedt, and Backström and Reinius) and there is thus a slight variation in the curtain wall façades. Curtain walls are rare in Sweden and were here directly inspired by the

Lever House Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed from 1950 to 1952, the building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merr ...

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by enginee ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

built in 1951-52.Hultin, p 90. Originally, intentions were to allow a series of pedestrian bridges to connect shops and malls on several levels below and around the buildings, but vandalism and other social problems forced the closure of all levels above ground in the 1970s. During the 1990s, much of the complex at ground-level was rebuilt to allow new indoor shops and new tenants. The buildings first appeared in a city planning proposal by

in 1946, and in 1951 he was commissioned, together with

, to develop a detailed plan for the surrounding area and the buildings themselves. His first proposal was modified so that all five buildings looked virtually the same, composed of two narrow volumes, one wider facing south and a smaller facing north. Notably, the second proposal had the system of pedestrian bridges added. In 1953, a new city plan determined the buildings should be made even taller, 19 storeys, and the surrounding building were restricted to two storeys, a decision that finally gave the entire neighbourhood its present appearance.Hall, pp 146, 179-181 According to Professor Thomas Hall, these buildings and the neighbourhood around them are to be regarded as and ultimately originating with

le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

's 1930 ''

Ville Radieuse Ville radieuse (; ) was an unrealised urban design project designed by the French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier in 1930. It constitutes one of the most influential and controversial urban design doctrines of European modernism. Although Le Corbus ...

''. Hall then notes there are few city centres in Europe more deeply affected by these

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

ideas than Stockholm, the most notable exceptions being

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

and

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

, both largely destroyed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He finally concludes the concept is implemented with more elegance and vigour in Stockholm, but that these urban projects seem to have inspired each other.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotorget Buildings Office buildings completed in 1966 Buildings and structures in Stockholm Skyscraper office buildings in Sweden 1966 establishments in Sweden 1960s establishments in Stockholm

History

See also

Notes

References