• 083
        • Metropolitanism and the Welfare City
          Hjalmar Mehr and the Stockholm Kulturhus

        Abstract
        Local politicians have long played a pivotal role in the construction of urban building devoted to culture,  and they also figure prominently in the post-war reconstruction campaigns in cities across Western Europe and in the realization of public buildings that invariably appeared in the new or re-built town centres. As national governments created the legal and financial frameworks of the welfare system, city councils and their leaders took the responsibility for concrete arrangements and for building schools, hospitals or housing. This article retraces the history of the post-war reconstruction of Stockholm’s inner city and the building of a new cultural centre through a study of Hjalmar Mehr, the most powerful Stockholm politician of the period and, arguably, one of the most effective local politicians in post-war Europe. In his various roles of councillor for social, financial and estate development, Mehr pressured his fellow Social Democrats to support the party line of a radical modernization of the city centre. The main public building that resulted from Mehr’s initiative, the Kulturhus, is described as the testament of a politician whose longing for a modern metropolis and a modern society played a crucial role in the radical reshaping of the landscape of a European capital. The building is shown to epitomize the agenda of the welfare state, based on Enlightenment thinking, acquiring an emblematic status for the new welfare city and a better, more just society.
          1. 083
          1. 084
          2. 085
          1. 086
          2. 087
          1. 088
          2. 089
          1. 090
          2. 091
        Citation
        Grafe, C. (2010). Metropolitanism and the Welfare City. Hjalmar Mehr and the Stockholm Kulturhus. Commissioning Architecture, OASE, (83), 83–91. Retrieved from https://oasejournal.nl/en/Issues/83/MetropolitanismAndTheWelfareCity

        Download PDF (455 KB)

          1. 083
          1. 084
          2. 085
          1. 086
          2. 087
          1. 088
          2. 089
          1. 090
          2. 091
    1. 21/11/2023
      call for conversations OASE 118

      Rationalism Revisited

      This Call is written by Justin Agyin, Bart Decroos, Christoph Grafe. The deadline is 17 December 2023.

      Read more

    2. 11/11/2023
      call for abstracts OASE 119
      1. Review of Jean-Louis de Cordemoy's Nouveau traité de toute l'architecture in Mémoires pour l'histoire des sciences & des beaux-arts, September 1706

      Book Reviews
      From Words to Buildings
      In this issue of OASE, the history of the architectural book review is outlined through case studies. This Call is written by Christophe Van Gerrewey and Hans Teerds. The deadline is 20 December 2023.

      Read more

    3. 06/03/2023
      BK Talks on 16 March 2023 about 'Design with Soil: Urbanizing the living surface'

      On 16 March 2023 the TU Delft will host a debate inspired by OASE 110.

      Read more

    4. 21/02/2023
      Call for Abstracts OASE 117. Village Variations

      Read more

    5. 31/01/2023
      Now available: OASE 113. Authorship

      What does the author’s ‘owning’ of a project mean? And does this sense of ownership still prevail in contemporary architecture culture? Other more open forms of cooperation and co-creation are emerging alongside the concept of individual singular authorship.

      Read more

    6. 02/12/2022
      Presentation OASE 112 on 8 December 2022 in Rotterdam, NL

      Read more

    7. 24/11/2022
      Call for Abstracts OASE 116
      1. Carmen Portinho in front of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro (source: Wikimedia Commons)

      ‘The Architect as Public Instellectual’
      Deadline: 23-12-2022

      Read more

    8. 15/10/2022
      Now available: OASE 112. Ecology & Aesthetics

      Through a series of concrete projects, the contributions in this issue explore the field of tension between architectural aesthetics and issues of energy, technology and materiality. Ecological practices in architecture must not only be effective in providing solutions, but inevitably raise questions of beauty, affection and perception as well.

      Read more

    9. 23/05/2022
      Call for Abstracts OASE #115. Interferences: Migrating Practices in Europe

      Call for Abstracts OASE #115 about “Interferences: Migrating Practices in Europe”, written by Justin Agyin, Kornelia Dimitrova, Christoph Grafe and Bernard Colenbrander. Deadline is June 19, 2022. Read the full text of the OASE #115 Call for Abstracts in the PDF.

      Read more

    10. 20/05/2022
      Now available: OASE 111. Staging the Museum

      Museums stage public encounters between visitors, objects and stories. This is not limited to a tour through the exhibition spaces, it starts already with monumental or ‘tresholdless’ entrances.

      Read more

    11. More news …