The Record Years

"Rekordåren", the Record Years, are the economically strong years after the Second World War, up to the oil crisis of 1973–74. In building history the term stands for a period of enormous construction – and of demolition.

The starting gun goes off in 1953. A wave of clearances of old town centres begins across the country – and it peaks only in the 1960s. Building is industrialised: cranes and lifts replace the brick carriers, the state backs element factories, and the loan rules of 1956–1962 make point blocks of more than nine storeys especially profitable.

In town after town, large parts of the old centres are torn down to make way for department stores, offices, car parks and wide roads. Best known is the Norrmalm redevelopment in Stockholm, with the five Hötorget skyscrapers – built 1955–1962, 19 storeys and 61 metres tall – and Sergels torg. Peter Celsing's Kulturhuset on the square is built 1968–1974. Gothenburg goes even further: twice as many flats are demolished there as in Stockholm, and whole districts such as Annedal and Landala, with their landshövdingehus, disappear.

In the end the demolitions provoke resistance. Only when the districts stand empty do eyes open to what has been lost – and modern heritage work gathers pace. Meanwhile, the large housing estates rise in the suburbs; see the Million Programme.

The Million Programme. The Record Years cover the whole period, town centres not least; the Million Programme is the specific housing programme of 1965–1974.