Functionalism

Functionalism reaches Sweden in the late 1920s. The KTH student union building Nymble by Markelius and Åhrén from 1928, and Markelius's concert hall in Helsingborg, completed in 1932, are among the early works. The breakthrough comes with the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, with Gunnar Asplund as chief architect: buildings in concrete, glass and steel, with flags and advertising in place of ornament.

The following year brings the manifesto acceptera ("accept") by Asplund, Markelius, Åhrén, Gregor Paulsson, Eskil Sundahl and Wolter Gahn. It presents Functionalism as a way of life – modern homes for everyone, with light, bathrooms and central heating.

The background is a crisis. Sweden has the worst housing in Europe, unemployment is high and families are crammed into small, dark flats. In Kris i befolkningsfrågan, Alva and Gunnar Myrdal blame overcrowding for the falling birth rate. The answer is the "people's home". Architects, who had barely cared about ordinary housing, suddenly have a social mission – and the dark backyards of the stone town become the symbol of everything that must go.

In practice this means narrow slab blocks placed for the sun, not for the street. Even Gothenburg's last landshövdingehus break out of the grid and turn north–south, with a smooth concrete base and discreet board-and-batten panelling. Functionalist villas with flat roofs are built across the country, and Södra Ängby in Bromma becomes an entire "white town". Asplund's Woodland Crematorium, built 1937–1940, shows how far the style can reach.

The balcony becomes the decade's signature. Almost every flat gets one – for the sun, the fresh air and for airing the bedlinen. The fronts are made of smooth sheet metal, often white or green, and the mind turns to a ship. At the corners the building opens up with balconies or glass that wraps around, and the heavy volume is conjured away. Windows sit close to the wall face, without glazing bars, placed by the rooms behind rather than by symmetry. In Stockholm, Norr Mälarstrand, Gärdet and Fredhäll fill with tall blocks in parkland, Traneberg and Hammarbyhöjden with three-storey slab blocks. Municipal companies build "barnrikehus" – two rooms and a kitchen with a bathroom for families with many children. Too fine, some critics thought.

Post-war modernism. Buildings of the 1940s and 50s are often softer – brick, pitched roofs and timber details. Functionalism is white, angular and flat.