Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category

CNN hits the Millennium trail in Stockholm

Architecture, Books, Business, Film, History, Marketing, Media, Miscellaneous, Offbeat, Society, Swedish Life, Tourism: September 9th, 2010 by VT

CNN follows the flocks on tourists on the Millennium tour of Stockholm on Wednesday.

The New York Times goes House Hunting in … Stockholm

Architecture, Miscellaneous, Sweden abroad, Swedish Life: September 9th, 2010 by VT

The New York Times goes House Hunting in … Stockholm and profiles a 4.5 million kronor ($620,000) two-bedroom apartment in Östermalm in its Great Homes and Destinations section on Tuesday.

Video: Building the Icehotel

Architecture, Tourism: December 11th, 2007 by PO

The Times has a video report from the construction of the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi:

The hotel is in Swedish Lapland, a magical region that’s a good match for Narnia for around four months of the year. The fir trees are dusted white, street lamps glow all day with only a glimpse of subdued sunlight over midday, and children glide down the streets on foot-propelled sledges.

“Ikea could solve Australia’s housing shortage”

Architecture, Design: August 15th, 2007 by PR

There’s a smart solution to Australia’s spiralling housing costs, according to Adele Horin, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald: Ikea.

Working with another Swedish giant, Skanska, the world’s favourite blue and yellow furniture firm has been producing flat-pack homes in Scandinavia for years. Soon a project will begin in the north east of the UK.

These flat-pack houses, known as BoKlok (pronounced boo-klook), are cleverly designed and energy-efficient and, judging from the pictures, look like the kind of items featured in an Ikea catalogue.

They have the hallmarks of Swedish design – modern, timber-framed, open plan, wooden floors, tall windows on three sides, higher-than-average ceilings, and fitted Ikea kitchens.

They’re cheap, too and could be just what Australia needs. Alas, Ikea has no plans to start erecting its homes Down Under, but Horin urges readers to lobby the firm:

…it might be worth calling Ikea’s head office to urge it to fast-track its BoKlok plans.

Swedish 1950s town planning: Window between kitchen and bathroom

Architecture, Society: June 15th, 2007 by PO

Workers’ dream or modernist nightmare? Vällingby in northern Stockholm was the blueprint for the so-called ABC town, which was “closely related to the social democratic idea of an ideal city and social environment.”

Qultures takes a look at the thinking behind this monument to political town planning.

The apartments have many features that cater for the modern family of the 1950s. For instance the mother could prepare food in the kitchen while keeping an eye out on her children in the bathtub. How? Through a window in the kitchen that looks into the bathroom.