From the end of the ancient Vasa period to the end of the Swedish Empire period, Sweden experienced a level of urban planning activity unprecedented in Europe. More than 50 new cities were founded in the country, including Finland and the other Swedish possessions. On the other hand, several of the planned new foundations never materialized.[16] Until well into the 19th century, urban landscapes were dominated by irregular grids subject to the topography of the terrain. The streets connected the waterways, the plaza and the church, and the main street usually ran parallel to the waterway. Olof Bure's urban planning plans for the Norrland coast are typical examples of this planning. Another form of urban planning applied until mid-century was the long street plan, in which the main street constitutes the continuation of a country road that runs through the city and from which cross streets branch off. This model was used by Anders Torstensson) and Per Brahe the Younger "Per Brahe (the younger)") used this model. In 1608, the Dutchman Petter Nicolaus de Kemp") produced the first orthogonal plan of Sweden, for the city of Hisingen.[17]​.

During the Age of Freedom") the remodeling of the old Swedish cities continued, although at a slower pace. The context for this intense urban construction activity was Sweden's position as a great power and its victory in the Thirty Years' War, which brought the country, at least initially, large revenues. The reason for the numerous city foundations was not only to give the great power a majestic appearance, but also to create a hierarchy of administrative headquarters that also encompassed the most remote areas of the world. country.[18]​.

With the administrative reform of 1634, many of the new towns became residence towns (residensstäder) in which the governor was based. The privileges of cities were regulated, and some of them were granted the right of emporium or storage, and were allowed to participate in foreign trade. Trade was carried out to the east with Stockholm and to the west with Gothenburg. Gothenburg was one of the few newly founded cities that were granted storage rights from the beginning. In Finland, Turku, Vyborg and Helsinki enjoyed emporium rights.[19] Gothenburg obtained city privileges in 1621 and became the most prosperous of all newly founded cities. It was planned following the Dutch model, with an orthogonal plan, a system of interior port canals and a fortified perimeter ring.[20]​.

After the administrative reform of 1634, Stockholm registered a large influx of ordinary citizens, merchants, politicians, officials, soldiers and an emerging intellectual elite, since the central administration and government of the kingdom were located here. Almost at the same time, the first major road regulation of the city began, that of Clas Larsson Fleming"). In 1636, the government commissioned Olof Hansson Örnehufvud"), mayor general and man closest to Clas Larsson Fleming, to carry out "a project for the streets of the city, widening them as much as possible". Örnehufvud was a disciple and collaborator of the mathematician and cartographer Anders Bure"), and both had in the past drawn up plans for Jönköping and Gothenburg. A network of roads was laid out through Norrmalm and Södermalm that still characterizes the city's urban landscape today. Stockholm's population rose from 9,000 inhabitants (1630) to almost 60,000 (1685). The next largest population It was Turku (Åbo), with just over 5,800 inhabitants, followed by Falun, Malmö and Gothenburg.[21]​.

In the late 1640s, Nicodemus Tessin the Elder produced schematic grid plans for a series of towns on the Norrland coast. His project for the city of Gävle, which was never carried out, is representative of his orthogonal grid style. Frequently, maps show the pre-existing road network below the new grid, as in the planning proposal of Södermalm (1641) and Härnösand (1648); see the following maps.

Throughout the period after the Middle Ages and until the second half of the century, Swedish urban planning was characterized by orthogonal grid plans following the Renaissance ideal. This concept originated in Italy and was spread through posters showing plans and buildings, and propaganda descriptions. Stockholm was followed by Köping and Norrköping (1641), Hedemora (1642) and Uppsala (1643).[22]​.

Also the newly created cities followed the same grid plans, quite simple and schematic, with the square and the church as the only variations.[23] Even today, this distribution is noticeable in almost all Swedish cities.[18] An example is the prosperous mining city of Falun, whose orthogonal plan was drawn in 1664 and the city was built along both banks of the river Falu. "At that time, Falun was the second largest city in Sweden, with about 6,000 inhabitants. In Stockholm, an urban planning more adapted to the terrain and more varied was applied, similar to a radial design with the Tre Kronor castle "Tre Kronor (castle)") in the center. The Venetian city of Palmanova "Palmanova (Italy)") was possibly taken as a model.[24]

A special aspect of urban planning was the so-called fortress cities "Fortress (architecture)"). These were cities with a star-shaped fort surrounded by moats. The city itself also had an orthogonal layout (except for Fredrikshamn, which had a radial plan), but the fortified ring was polygonal with projecting bastions. This intervention was very expensive, so only a few cities were built with this configuration, including Karlskrona, Helsingborg, Gothenburg and Kalmar.[23] However, the project to transform Landskrona into a fortress city did not go beyond paper, and the Jönköping fortifications project of 1620 was only partially carried out. Fredrikshamn (Hamina, in Finnish) is one of the few fortified cities in Europe built systematically according to a radial plan and which still preserves its foundations and some of its fortifications today. The architectural plans of fortified cities, such as those of Fredrikshamn and Landskrona (in the photo in the introduction), are usually of great aesthetic richness.[25]​.

The most common action in terms of urban planning consisted of the relocation of towns. Moving wooden buildings was relatively easy as they could be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere. For example, Västervik was moved in 1544 and Eksjö in 1569, as was Nya Lödöse") (precursor to Gothenburg) at the end of the century. Sometimes the reasons for demolishing existing buildings lay in the construction of castles or fortifications. In Vadstena, the medieval quarter of Sanden was demolished in the 1540s to make way for Vadstena Castle.[26]​.

The most extensive demolition operations in the kingdom took place in Stockholm in the middle of the century, when the large urban complexes of Norrmalm and Södermalm were built. This meant the demolition or relocation of hundreds of houses and farms to make way for majestic stone buildings. Taking into account the size of the city, this was a transformation of a magnitude far greater than that of the Norrmalm redevelopment, the transformation of central Stockholm that took place between the 1950s and 1970s.[27] Often, the fires also served as motivation to rebuild the burned neighborhood in a completely different way and provide it with stone buildings instead of wood, or establish a framework road that would hinder the spread of future fires. The first urban planning motivated by a fire was carried out in 1613 in Kalmar, and after the Great Fire") of the western area of Stadsholmen in 1625, the first urban planning of Stockholm was carried out with an orthogonal grid plan.[28]​.

In the century the simple orthogonal plane still predominated, although some variations were introduced. These included coastal streets with docks to ensure access to water in the event of a fire. In the 19th century, Stockholm already had its promenade at Skeppsbron, followed by Riddarholmen and Norrmalm. Tree-lined avenues also began to relax the rigid urban plans. They also served as firebreaks, as the architect Carl Johan Cronstedt maintained in a letter from 1767.

In the 19th century, Swedish town planning plans were usually drawn up by town planning engineers. One of them was the country's first urban planning engineer, Anders Torstensson"), who not only planned the suburbs of Stockholm, but also those of Södertälje, Uppsala and Turku, among others.[31]​.

When the Industrial Revolution reached Sweden, the urban population grew considerably. In the middle of the century, Sweden had about 3.5 million inhabitants. Between 1860 and 1900, the population of Swedish cities tripled, from 0.43 to 1.37 million inhabitants. Stockholm was the largest industrial city in the country, while Gothenburg, Norrköping and Gävle were also important industrial cities and others were added to them. Exhaustive planning was therefore necessary that would respond to urban needs in terms of housing, schools, hospitals, prisons, factories and, above all, that could accommodate new infrastructure such as the railway, with its station buildings, as well as water, gas and electricity supply facilities. Great attention had to be paid to fire protection and hygienic conditions.[32]​.

The task of preparing such a comprehensive plan fell to Albert Lindhagen"). His planning project was approved in 1874. The result was a modern and progressive regulation, even by European standards. The main objective of the Building Regulations (Byggnadsstadgans) was to make it mandatory for cities to have an urban plan that governed the development of the city. The concept of urban plan remained until 1987, when it was changed to plan of detail.[33]​.

During the rapid urban expansion that ensued, the orthogonal plan remained the dominant pattern. The inspiration came mainly from the great imperial cities of the continent: Saint Petersburg, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, etc. The Ringstrasse in Vienna and the boulevards of Georges-Eugène Haussmann in Paris were taken as role models. The urban plans of these cities were based on a classicist tradition of orthogonal blocks arranged in a large-scale system of star-shaped road axes and squares. In Gothenburg, these ideas were put into practice even before general building regulations existed. Sweden's first urban design competition focused on areas outside the Gothenburg moat, the current districts of Gullbergsvass", Heden", Lorensberg", Vasastaden") and Haga&action=edit&redlink=1 "Haga (Gothenburg) (not yet drafted)"). Based on this result, an urban plan was drawn up that was approved in 1866, in which the main axis was the Kungsportsavenyn").

The urban planning of the industrial era was that of the rigid structure of rectangular blocks. Planning was usually carried out by engineers and sometimes turned out to be mere office work that was impossible to apply in practice. In 1859, the architect Adolf W. Edelsvärd published in the Tidskrift för Byggnadskonst och Ingenjörsvetenskap ("Architecture and Engineering Magazine") a strictly symmetrical urban planning model for Swedish cities with railway stations. A characteristic of the models of the time was the large square located in front of the station building, surrounded by public buildings, and to the right and left of which extended a grid of rectangular blocks intended for residential buildings.[36]​.

Stockholm's old town was also to be remodeled in accordance with the ideals of the new urban planning. There were no less than ten serious proposals to provide it with an orthogonal plane. The most developed was the one presented in 1873 by Rudolf Brodin, Axel Kumlien and Axel Ryding. The old town was spared a comprehensive transformation due to the high costs that a project of these characteristics would have entailed.[37]​.

Towards the end of the century, new ideas regarding urban planning arrived in Sweden. Several young architects and engineers had grown tired of regularity and advocated for a more flexible urban design adapted to the terrain, without endless esplanades. It was the approaches of the Austrian architect Camillo Sitte that were transferred to the Swedish particularities. Urban planning was also infected by the art of the time: romantic nationalism and criticism of the "engineering cities" or "topographical cities" that had been built with the intervention of a ruler and "without any real artistic knowledge" were heard by Per Olof Hallman), among others.[38]​.

In addition to Hallman, Fredrik Sundbärg") (later municipal architect in Landskrona) was a defender of this ideal, and in 1897 he wrote in the magazine Ord och Bild ("Words and Images"): "Wherever you look, in small or large towns, on flat or hilly terrain, almost only checkerboard systems are seen...". Sundbärg had written some articles critical of the usual way of planning He stated that, although the orthogonal system was also used abroad, it had been especially popular in the country. As a warning, he pointed to the case of Skara, where a grid had been unceremoniously projected onto the medieval city plan. Ironically, he wondered why the cathedral, which interfered with the beautiful system, had been spared.

Per Olof Hallman") was a specialist in urban planning and a champion of what were then considered modern and well-founded ideas in this field. He drew up plans for a large number of Swedish rural towns, such as Kiruna, Kalix, Boden"), Haparanda, Härnösand, Ludvika, Sigtuna, Åre and Västerås. In Stockholm he made numerous urban plans, such as those for Lärkstaden") (1902-1907), Aspudden (1906), Diplomatstaden") (1913-1915) and Röda bergen") (1922). In 1901, he won first prize (along with his colleague Fredrik Sundbärg") for his project for the new district of Johanneberg"), in Gothenburg. Albert Lilienberg"), Gothenburg's first municipal engineer (1907-1927) and also a supporter of Sitte's ideas, was mainly responsible for its application. Some of the largest areas in which the spirit of Sitte was applied are Bagaregården") and Kungsladugård"), in Gothenburg. Here the typical Gothenburg houses (landshövdingehus"), which means "governor's house") were built according to the designs of the architect Arvid Fuhres"), with one stone floor and two wooden floors.[40]​.

[41]

The fifth urban planner of the group close to Sitte's ideas was the civil engineer Nils Gellerstedt. In 1906 he won first prize in the Helsingborg urban planning competition. The approach of the competition was very similar to that of Gothenburg five years earlier, again with very rugged terrain, and the reason for the urban plan was the significant increase in the city's population. The court considered that the "pictorial effect of the urban landscape was convincing".[42] It is estimated that Hallman, Gellerstedt and Lilienberg prepared 80% of all Swedish urban plans in the first decade of the century.[42]​.

The "stone cities" (stenstaden) soon could not accommodate the large influx of inhabitants. With the arrival of public transport, it was possible to build new areas further away from the urban core and thus garden cities, residential communities and suburbs were born. The concept of the "garden city" came from England, from the social reformer Robert Owen and the urban planner Ebenezer Howard. The idea was that several garden cities (Garden Cities) would be located, as satellites, close to nature and around the capital (Central City).[43]​.

The 1911 book Stockholms förstäder och villasamhällen ("Suburbs and residential communities of Stockholm") lists no less than 30 locations, from Täby in the north to Nynäs in the south. In a description of the suburb of Aspudden, it was said of communications: "They will be extremely convenient and fast and are currently provided by the electric tram from Liljeholmsbron to Hägerstens there".[44]​.

In addition to Stockholm, in Gothenburg there are several examples of areas inspired by the English garden city. These include the garden city of Örgryte, the single-family housing area of ​​Landala") and Bagaregården"). Skellefteå also has a garden city.

The First World War was a setback for construction activity in Sweden, and by the 1920s the ideas of Hallman and Gellerstedt were largely out of date (Sundbärg died as early as 1913). The era of Romantic Nationalism had ended, as had the landscape exuberance of urban planning, which was now going to be more austere within the spirit of the Nordic classicism of the 1920s. Albert Lilienberg adapted to this new trend from the beginning, and since then his projects became more rigorous and technical, but also more conventional. In 1927, Hallman was replaced by Lilienberg as director of urban planning for Stockholm.[45]

The interwar period was also a time of change for Swedish architecture and urban planning. As is often the case, the formal concepts of modernism came from abroad, mainly from Germany and the famous Bauhaus school in Dessau. In Sweden, this movement was known as functionalism, and reached its peak at the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, of which Gunnar Asplund was the architect. The country's young architects, such as Sven Markelius, Paul Hedqvist"), Kurt von Schmalensee"), Nils Ahrbom"), Helge Zimdal, Uno Åhrén, Sigurd Lewerentz and the director of the Cooperative Office of Architects (Kooperativa förbundets arkitektkontor, KFAI) Eskil Sundahl, contributed to the exhibition, which presented the new functionalist world. The term "Folkhemmet")" in its Swedish version (literally "the people's house") was coined in 1928 by Per Albin Hansson.[46]​.

A year after the exhibition, the manifesto "acceptera", written by Gregor Paulsson") was published together with Gunnar Asplund, Wolter Gahn, Sven Markelius, Uno Åhrén and Eskil Sundahl. It argued that the design language of the new era, i.e. functionalism, had to be accepted and that the historical construction style could no longer contribute anything, but was an obstacle and a burden. In 1934 another essay by opinion of great impact that would also influence housing construction during the interwar period: Kris i Bevölkerkningsfrågan ("The crisis in the question of population"), by Alva and Gunnar Myrdal. The book addressed the consequences of a sustained low birth rate in Sweden and proposed measures to combat it.[47]​.

The urban plans inspired by functionalist ideas sought to make the homes airy, bright and hygienic. These plans were implemented in the new suburbs of Stockholm with multi-family housing, such as Hammarbyhöjden") and Traneberg"), and also in single-family housing areas such as Norra Ängby"), and the residential area of ​​Södra Ängby"). The latter is one of the largest surviving residential areas of functionalist architecture in the world, and is protected by the Swedish National Heritage Council as an asset of cultural interest. Many of the urban plans were designed by Thure Bergentz"), who was Albert Lilienberg's closest collaborator.

The Urban Planning Law and the Building Regulations of 1931 introduced the prohibition of constructing new buildings in urban areas subject to urban planning study. The concept of prohibition of new constructions also included the prohibition of reforming and modernizing buildings. The idea was to avoid a revaluation that would make future compensation for properties in the areas subject to urban remodeling more expensive, but this regulation also caused the owners to stop maintaining their buildings and the real estate stock in the affected areas to deteriorate.[48]​.

In Stockholm, Nedre Norrmalm's redevelopment planning began with Albert Lilienberg's Stockholm General Plan in 1928, which called for Sveavägen to run directly from Sveaplan to Gustav Adolf Square. An international urban planning competition was held in 1932, but despite 350 applications, the competition was unsuccessful. later known as the Norrmalm redevelopment") (Norrmalmsregleringen) was pending for many years and only became a reality after the Second World War. Albert Lilienberg's ideas were not taken into account, and in 1944 Sven Markelius succeeded him.[49]​.

Many urban planning projects were put on hold during the Second World War, and even in the early 1950s the Swedish housing standard was one of the lowest in Europe. After the war there arose a pressing need to realize the ideals of the "Folkhemmet" ("people's house") and modernist urbanism. The period between 1945 and 1960 is known as the "period of popular housing." (folkhemsperioden), during which some 900,000 homes were built in Sweden.[51] The architecture and construction of Swedish folk housing also attracted attention abroad and was the first time that foreign architects were inspired on a large scale by Swedish architecture. Until then, Swedish architects of almost all periods looked abroad for inspiration. concept of "neighborhood unit" (grannskapsenhet) in general urban planning, while at the same time having social and political pretensions.

The post-war boom years (known as the "record years": rekordåren), during which the Swedish export industry experienced a long period of prosperity, provided the country with the necessary economic conditions to finance the projects. In 1945, the Stockholm City Council decided, at the initiative of Yngve Larsson"), the city's mayor, to launch the redevelopment of Norrmalm"). modern times and a large part of the country's architectural elite participated. The redevelopment of Norrmalm made possible the expansion of the metro, which lasted for a long time and ended up generating growing citizen protest. The "elm conflict" of 1971 (Almstriden)[52]​ is often cited as the turning point of the redevelopment of Norrmalm, and from that moment on it was no longer politically viable to carry out. more important transformations in the central areas of the city, given that the concept of "careful remodeling" was imposed that did not require major planning modifications.[53]​.

Sven Markelius, as director of urban planning for Stockholm between 1944 and 1954, was responsible for designing and directing the projects for Stockholm's new satellite cities. The inspiration came again from abroad and from English neighborhood planning, with its concept of Community Centre, in which small residential areas were grouped around a large urban center equipped with municipal and commercial services. This idea was first applied to the south of Stockholm, where Markelius commissioned the architect David Helldén" to draw up an urban plan for Södra Hammarby, which was later called Björkhagen"). However, the most important project was located north of the city, along Lake Mälaren, and was called Vällingby Group. The residential neighborhoods were arranged along the new metro line (the current Green Line) like a string of pearls, separated from each other by green spaces. The centerpiece of this planning was Vällingby, with Vällingby centrum"), which attracted great international attention and became the paradigm of public housing construction.

In Gothenburg, Tage William-Olsson") was head of urban planning between 1943 and 1953, succeeding Uno Åhrén, who had held the position since 1932. William-Olsson, one of the architects of the emblematic Slussen project in Stockholm, had submitted several elaborate proposals for the redesign of Nedre Norrmalm"), but none of them were carried out. In Gothenburg he devoted himself above all to the housing issue. He planned new neighborhoods and developed new housing typologies. Over ten years, he planned areas for 34,000 homes, such as Bagaregården") (1944), Tolered") (1946), Kungsladugård") (1947), Södra Guldheden") (1948) and Kortedala") (1952).[54]

Not all projects had clearly modernist elements. Sven Backström") and his partner Leif Reinius") transformed the rigid plans into playful variants. Its "star house" areas (stjärnhusen) were built in Gröndal in Stockholm (1944-1962) and, above all, in Rosta in Örebro (1947-1951). Örebro, in particular, was considered a "model city", and the city's strongman, Harald Aronsson, led housing policy in the 1950s and 1960s as a councillor. The Rosta and Baronbackarna buildings by Backström & Reinius, designed by architects White (1953-57), are the best known of the large housing estates in Örebro, with 1,340 and 1,230 apartments respectively. This was an order of magnitude unusual in Sweden.[55]​.

Smaller areas were built in Malmö, such as Augustenborg (1948-1952), with Gunnar Lindman"), the city planner, as the driving force. Similarly, Årsta centrum, in the Årsta") district of Stockholm, was small in scale. The urban plan for Årsta centrum was drawn up in 1940 by the architect and director of Svenska Riksbyggen"), Uno Åhrén. The buildings were designed by architects Erik and Tore Ahlsén").[56]​.

In 1947, the government commission on social housing addressed, among other issues, the reorganization of urban centers. The prevailing attitude was that buildings "suitable for rehabilitation" should be demolished to make way for new buildings. Several cities undertook extensive operations to demolish old buildings and their urban centers were transformed at the expense of identity and historical roots. Furthermore, the Urban Planning Law of 1931 and the building regulations had caused the deterioration of the real estate stock.[57]​.

At the end of the 1950s, many people were looking forward to the advances and transformations that were to come.[58] In rural Swedish cities, the municipal architect himself was usually in charge of the design of the new urban area. The results sometimes showed a certain lack of definition in the design of the volumes and details.[59]​.

Sweden's rural towns also found it difficult to cope with the growing flow of private cars. The construction of ring roads freed the central neighborhoods from through traffic. New buildings for shopping centers such as Domus, Tempo and EPA, followed by community services such as a liquor store and a pharmacy along a new pedestrian street, characterize the central areas of many small Swedish towns. När Domus kom till stan ("When the Domus came to town") is a 2004 documentary by Anders Wahlgren) that analyzes from a critical perspective the transformation of 14 Swedish cities and which represented "one of the largest urban transformations in Sweden of all time".[60]​.

Photographer and journalist Jeppe Wikström") paints a more conciliatory picture of the urban transformations that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. The author opens his 2002 book, Tråkiga vykort ("Boring Postcards"), with these words: "The war was over, the economy was booming, and many small communities were trying to gain a bit of continental shine. A new skyscraper, a new Konsum store, a road crossing, a factory or a guarded railway crossing were proof that they were opening up to the world." Everything new deserved to be represented on color postcards. Thus, Umeå proudly showed off its new pedestrian street and Boden") its new crossing. But unlike Stockholm, for example, its only historic center was razed. The historic center of Stockholm, Gamla Stan, was not affected by any demolition, although there were numerous attempts to redevelop it.[61]​.

As part of the redevelopment of Norrmalm in Stockholm, a large number of buildings located in the lower part of Norrmalm (Nedre Norrmalm) were demolished. According to one report, 700 buildings were demolished, including several of great cultural and historical value, such as Sagerska husen, the Sidenhuset and the Blancheteatern, despite strong protests against it. The project has been subject criticism and admiration both in Sweden and abroad, and several of the buildings built as a result of the Norrmalm plan are now classified as assets of public interest").[62]

Demolitions occurred in many parts of Sweden. In 1964, Gothenburg led the country's demolition efforts. Unlike Stockholm, where these had already been carried out since the beginning of the century to solve, among other things, traffic problems, in Gothenburg they affected residential areas outside the city center. To cope with this task, in 1960 the rehabilitation company "Göta Lejon" was established, in which the city council and the business sector participated equally. Looking at the total number of demolitions in Gothenburg between 1959 and 1974, it can be said that approximately the same number of apartments were demolished in both cities. In proportion to the population, approximately twice as many demolitions occurred in Gothenburg. During this wave of demolitions, many of the famous "governor's houses" (landshövdingehus) disappeared from the city.[63]

New expressions were coined: "demolition hysteria" (rivningshysteri) and "demolition frenzy" (rivningsraseri). A paradox, since no one who had organized or carried out the demolitions was "furious" or "hysterical"; These had been carried out "in good faith" and, when the demolitions occurred, protests were initially few. Optimism in the face of progress continued to prevail and the social order was such that the decisions of politicians and experts were rarely questioned. Those who resisted were told that they did not understand what was best for them.[58]

The turning point in public opinion towards a more critical and oppositional attitude towards government decisions occurred with the so-called "elm conflict" (Almstriden), which occurred in 1971 in Kungsträdgården (Stockholm). The city's politicians perceived this new attitude and it had its consequences: the urban renewal plan City 67 was canceled and replaced by Cityplan 1977. It established new, more moderate guidelines, which translated into: "The rehabilitation will be carried out without substantial alterations to the neighborhoods and the road network and it is assumed that it will be carried out in a private environment, except in cases in which the execution of the plan in an area must be carried out in a coherent manner." Today, the term "demolition hysteria/frenzy" is synonymous with the exercise of authority over unjustified demolitions. An example in which the term "demolition frenzy" was used again was in 2009 on the occasion of the planned expansion of the Stockholm Public Library, which was paralyzed.[64]​.

Almost at the same time that the 1977 urban plan came into force, a period whose name, the Miljonprogrammet, would be adopted much later, ended. It was never a government program,[66]​[67]​ but rather a calculation, prepared by the media, of the number of homes built between 1965 and 1974. The buildings built in these ten years currently represent around 25% of Sweden's housing stock and can be considered a symbol of the welfare society.[68]​.

The record years spanned the entire country. Some of the best-known areas are Skärholmen") and Tensta in Stockholm, Hammarkullen") in Gothenburg and Rosengård in Malmö. Between 1965 and 1974, a total of about 940,000 homes were built,[69]​ of which 350,000 corresponded to single-family homes, 310,000 in urban areas and 40,000 in rural areas, and a total of more than 590,000 homes in apartment blocks, of which just under 390,000 in urban areas and more of 200,000 in rural areas.[70]​.

The so-called Million Program period has been associated with high-rise buildings built with prefabricated concrete elements, although concrete in the facades was only used in the final phase and a third of the housing construction consisted of single-family houses, such as those in Kälvesta"), in the northwest of Stockholm. In this area, facades with plaster, wood and brick finishes are found and much of the original vegetation is preserved. Kälvesta can be called a "horizontal program zone million" with about 2,000 single-family homes. The urban plan was designed in collaboration with the architectural studio Höjer & Ljungqvist, which planned the construction of row and semi-detached homes. The first houses were built in 1966 and the works continued until the mid-1970s.[71]​ More than 4,500 people in semi-detached houses, row houses and independent chalets. Most of the homes were built as semi-detached houses with 4 bedrooms and a kitchen.[72]​.

At the end of the 1960s, around thirty public housing companies indicated that they were beginning to have difficulties renting, especially large apartments.[73] Among politicians, planners and construction companies, the first signs of concern began to appear about the magnitude of the hundreds of municipal construction programs that were going to be carried out in 1972, the year in which an environmental march was organized that brought together more than 100,000 participants against the "Regionplan 70" of Stockholm. In addition, the economy experienced a setback, the oil crisis raised gasoline prices and the population of large cities decreased. The baby boom that had occurred since 1965 faded, ending in 1975. The "green wave" contributed to some young families leaving the cities.

Criticism was also heard in the media, such as the one published by Dagens Nyheter on September 10, 1968 with the title "Riv Skärholmen!" ("Tear down Skärholmen!"). It happened two days after Prince Bertil inaugurated Skärholmen Centrum") with great pomp and pageantry. The newspaper article said, among other things: "The skyline of Skärholmen is the backdrop to one of the most dehumanized suburban centers ever built, a late import of American urban planning from the late 1940s, already obsolete at that time."[74]​ The article triggered the called Skärholmen debate.

Before long, the housing shortage turned into a surplus of empty apartments. In the first half of the 1970s, the number of empty apartments increased, and the problem was no longer limited to certain locations or certain apartment sizes. A similar trend was seen in many European cities.[75] In response to the rise of multi-family housing at that time, the proportion of newly built single-family homes increased from approximately one-third to three-quarters (1977) of the total housing stock built. However, housing construction as a whole contracted, and consequently, employment in this sector also decreased. This caused high unemployment among the construction and architecture professions.

The record years led to Sweden having one of the highest housing standards in the world in 25 years.[75] However, the period was subject to criticism from the beginning, as the new peripheries of large cities, in particular, were popularly described as "newly built suburbs", with a total of 40,000 apartments left empty when the record years ended. It was not until the 1990s when a more balanced scenario emerged, with initiatives for partial demolition, rehabilitation and regeneration of disadvantaged areas in which the segregation of the population was evident.[76]​.

In the late 1970s, large state new construction projects came to an end and there was a shift in residential architecture toward dense, low-rise building. On this occasion, the inspiration came from Denmark. One of the first exponents of this new, more intimate concept of urbanism was Ralph Erskine. His organic urban plans, well adapted to the climate and terrain, acquired international fame. Some examples are the neighborhood Ortdrivaren") in Kiruna (1966), Nya Bruket") in Sandviken (1973-1978) and Myrstuguberget") in the municipality of Huddinge (1977-1985), as well as Ekerö Centrum"), in Ekerö (1983-1991). [77]

In reaction to the large-scale urban development projects of the Million Programme, new small-scale residential areas were created in various parts of Sweden, applying earlier building traditions. The results have sometimes been disparagingly labeled "pastiche" in professional circles, but have been appreciated by the general public. Examples include the St. Erik area (1995-1998) in Stockholm, reminiscent of the Swedish classicism of the 1920s, and Jakriborg") (first phase ready for habitation in 1999) south of Lund, where the architectural design recalls the pre-industrial style of the villages in the Lund region and the Hanseatic coastal cities of the Baltic and North Sea.[78]

In the search for new buildable land for housing, towards the end of the 90s, industrial and port areas near the city were also used, where industrial or port activities had been closed or relocated. In the early 1990s, a major residential area emerged in Stockholm following this model: Hammarby Sjöstad, a former port area located in Hammarbyleden. The area is characterized by a very meticulous detailed study, prepared by the architect Jan Inghe"), in whose design Aleksander Wolodarski"), urban planning architect of the Stockholm Urban Planning Office, exerted a decisive influence.[79][80]​.

Other port areas that have been transformed and are being transformed into attractive residential areas near the sea are Norra Hamnen"), in Helsingborg (1995-1999), with Ole Reiter") as architect, Norra Älvstranden"), in Gothenburg (1989-), and Västra Hamnen"), with Turning Torso, in Malmö, emerged in the context of the prominent construction fair Bo01").[81]​.

In recent years, a new element has been introduced into the urban planning process: creating the conditions for an ecologically sustainable and energy efficient society. As a recent example from Malmö shows, not only paid specialists are now involved in this work, but also non-partisan groups working on a voluntary basis. The idea of ​​an ecological city is not entirely new. Understenshöjden") is a residential area that was built between 1994 and 1996 to be Stockholm's first eco-town, in Björkhagen"). It consists of 44 apartments distributed in 14 one- and two-story houses and a block of flats. However, the technology was not fully developed and the area was criticized for energy waste and problems with damp and mold.[82]

Although Sweden's medieval cities, such as Stockholm and Visby, had no prior planning, arbitrary construction was never allowed. Since the middle of the century, the construction regime in cities was regulated by the Building Code of Magnus Eriksson's Municipal Law. There were provisions that established a certain width of the street (8 cubits "Cubit (unit of length)"), about 4.8 meters)[83]​ and that the construction had to be done taking into account the neighbors. It was also prohibited to build without a building permit, and it was stipulated that "there will be two men in each city, who will be in charge of inspecting the buildings and deciding, with the neighbors, how they should build their houses and demolish them, and about the fines for those who are convicted of crimes."[84] Chapter XXII was dedicated to the always recurring scourge of fires in the cities: "On fire, how it should be monitored, and its punishment for those who do not do".[85]​.

The Building Code (Byggningabalken) of Magnus Eriksson was ratified in 1618 by Gustav II Adolphus without any changes. In 1734, under Charles XI, new building regulations were introduced for rural areas. Construction activity in the cities would be the responsibility of the respective governor and his corresponding council.[83]​.

The Building Regulations of the City of Westerås (Byggnads - Ordning För Westerås Stad) of 1799 became a model for the older generation of building regulations. It contained provisions on the division of land, surveying, streets and buildings. A nationwide building code, written by Albert Lindhagen, was not introduced until 1874. Currently, it is mandatory for all cities to have building regulations prepared in accordance with national regulations. A construction committee made up of five or three members would be created to supervise compliance with urban planning regulations. The Building and Urban Planning Act of 1931 repealed the Building Statute of 1874,[86] although some parts remained in force through transitional provisions and provisional building regulations until 1963,[87] the year in which the remaining parts of the Building Statute of 1874, the building regulations derived from it and the provisional building regulations They were replaced by the legislative text.[88]​.

Since July 1, 1987, with some changes from June 1, 1994 and May 2, 2011, land, water and building planning has been governed by the Planning and Construction Act (Plan- och bygglagen, PBL). The process of preparing a new urban plan, or modifying an existing one, consists of many steps, from the "feasibility study and land allocation" to its legal approval. Implementing a new zoning plan can take several years. While in the past urban planning was the province of a few specialists, today all interested parties must have the opportunity to express their point of view.[89]​.

From the end of the ancient Vasa period to the end of the Swedish Empire period, Sweden experienced a level of urban planning activity unprecedented in Europe. More than 50 new cities were founded in the country, including Finland and the other Swedish possessions. On the other hand, several of the planned new foundations never materialized.[16] Until well into the 19th century, urban landscapes were dominated by irregular grids subject to the topography of the terrain. The streets connected the waterways, the plaza and the church, and the main street usually ran parallel to the waterway. Olof Bure's urban planning plans for the Norrland coast are typical examples of this planning. Another form of urban planning applied until mid-century was the long street plan, in which the main street constitutes the continuation of a country road that runs through the city and from which cross streets branch off. This model was used by Anders Torstensson) and Per Brahe the Younger "Per Brahe (the younger)") used this model. In 1608, the Dutchman Petter Nicolaus de Kemp") produced the first orthogonal plan of Sweden, for the city of Hisingen.[17]​.

During the Age of Freedom") the remodeling of the old Swedish cities continued, although at a slower pace. The context for this intense urban construction activity was Sweden's position as a great power and its victory in the Thirty Years' War, which brought the country, at least initially, large revenues. The reason for the numerous city foundations was not only to give the great power a majestic appearance, but also to create a hierarchy of administrative headquarters that also encompassed the most remote areas of the world. country.[18]​.

With the administrative reform of 1634, many of the new towns became residence towns (residensstäder) in which the governor was based. The privileges of cities were regulated, and some of them were granted the right of emporium or storage, and were allowed to participate in foreign trade. Trade was carried out to the east with Stockholm and to the west with Gothenburg. Gothenburg was one of the few newly founded cities that were granted storage rights from the beginning. In Finland, Turku, Vyborg and Helsinki enjoyed emporium rights.[19] Gothenburg obtained city privileges in 1621 and became the most prosperous of all newly founded cities. It was planned following the Dutch model, with an orthogonal plan, a system of interior port canals and a fortified perimeter ring.[20]​.

After the administrative reform of 1634, Stockholm registered a large influx of ordinary citizens, merchants, politicians, officials, soldiers and an emerging intellectual elite, since the central administration and government of the kingdom were located here. Almost at the same time, the first major road regulation of the city began, that of Clas Larsson Fleming"). In 1636, the government commissioned Olof Hansson Örnehufvud"), mayor general and man closest to Clas Larsson Fleming, to carry out "a project for the streets of the city, widening them as much as possible". Örnehufvud was a disciple and collaborator of the mathematician and cartographer Anders Bure"), and both had in the past drawn up plans for Jönköping and Gothenburg. A network of roads was laid out through Norrmalm and Södermalm that still characterizes the city's urban landscape today. Stockholm's population rose from 9,000 inhabitants (1630) to almost 60,000 (1685). The next largest population It was Turku (Åbo), with just over 5,800 inhabitants, followed by Falun, Malmö and Gothenburg.[21]​.

In the late 1640s, Nicodemus Tessin the Elder produced schematic grid plans for a series of towns on the Norrland coast. His project for the city of Gävle, which was never carried out, is representative of his orthogonal grid style. Frequently, maps show the pre-existing road network below the new grid, as in the planning proposal of Södermalm (1641) and Härnösand (1648); see the following maps.

Throughout the period after the Middle Ages and until the second half of the century, Swedish urban planning was characterized by orthogonal grid plans following the Renaissance ideal. This concept originated in Italy and was spread through posters showing plans and buildings, and propaganda descriptions. Stockholm was followed by Köping and Norrköping (1641), Hedemora (1642) and Uppsala (1643).[22]​.

Also the newly created cities followed the same grid plans, quite simple and schematic, with the square and the church as the only variations.[23] Even today, this distribution is noticeable in almost all Swedish cities.[18] An example is the prosperous mining city of Falun, whose orthogonal plan was drawn in 1664 and the city was built along both banks of the river Falu. "At that time, Falun was the second largest city in Sweden, with about 6,000 inhabitants. In Stockholm, an urban planning more adapted to the terrain and more varied was applied, similar to a radial design with the Tre Kronor castle "Tre Kronor (castle)") in the center. The Venetian city of Palmanova "Palmanova (Italy)") was possibly taken as a model.[24]

A special aspect of urban planning was the so-called fortress cities "Fortress (architecture)"). These were cities with a star-shaped fort surrounded by moats. The city itself also had an orthogonal layout (except for Fredrikshamn, which had a radial plan), but the fortified ring was polygonal with projecting bastions. This intervention was very expensive, so only a few cities were built with this configuration, including Karlskrona, Helsingborg, Gothenburg and Kalmar.[23] However, the project to transform Landskrona into a fortress city did not go beyond paper, and the Jönköping fortifications project of 1620 was only partially carried out. Fredrikshamn (Hamina, in Finnish) is one of the few fortified cities in Europe built systematically according to a radial plan and which still preserves its foundations and some of its fortifications today. The architectural plans of fortified cities, such as those of Fredrikshamn and Landskrona (in the photo in the introduction), are usually of great aesthetic richness.[25]​.

The most common action in terms of urban planning consisted of the relocation of towns. Moving wooden buildings was relatively easy as they could be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere. For example, Västervik was moved in 1544 and Eksjö in 1569, as was Nya Lödöse") (precursor to Gothenburg) at the end of the century. Sometimes the reasons for demolishing existing buildings lay in the construction of castles or fortifications. In Vadstena, the medieval quarter of Sanden was demolished in the 1540s to make way for Vadstena Castle.[26]​.

The most extensive demolition operations in the kingdom took place in Stockholm in the middle of the century, when the large urban complexes of Norrmalm and Södermalm were built. This meant the demolition or relocation of hundreds of houses and farms to make way for majestic stone buildings. Taking into account the size of the city, this was a transformation of a magnitude far greater than that of the Norrmalm redevelopment, the transformation of central Stockholm that took place between the 1950s and 1970s.[27] Often, the fires also served as motivation to rebuild the burned neighborhood in a completely different way and provide it with stone buildings instead of wood, or establish a framework road that would hinder the spread of future fires. The first urban planning motivated by a fire was carried out in 1613 in Kalmar, and after the Great Fire") of the western area of Stadsholmen in 1625, the first urban planning of Stockholm was carried out with an orthogonal grid plan.[28]​.

In the century the simple orthogonal plane still predominated, although some variations were introduced. These included coastal streets with docks to ensure access to water in the event of a fire. In the 19th century, Stockholm already had its promenade at Skeppsbron, followed by Riddarholmen and Norrmalm. Tree-lined avenues also began to relax the rigid urban plans. They also served as firebreaks, as the architect Carl Johan Cronstedt maintained in a letter from 1767.

In the 19th century, Swedish town planning plans were usually drawn up by town planning engineers. One of them was the country's first urban planning engineer, Anders Torstensson"), who not only planned the suburbs of Stockholm, but also those of Södertälje, Uppsala and Turku, among others.[31]​.

When the Industrial Revolution reached Sweden, the urban population grew considerably. In the middle of the century, Sweden had about 3.5 million inhabitants. Between 1860 and 1900, the population of Swedish cities tripled, from 0.43 to 1.37 million inhabitants. Stockholm was the largest industrial city in the country, while Gothenburg, Norrköping and Gävle were also important industrial cities and others were added to them. Exhaustive planning was therefore necessary that would respond to urban needs in terms of housing, schools, hospitals, prisons, factories and, above all, that could accommodate new infrastructure such as the railway, with its station buildings, as well as water, gas and electricity supply facilities. Great attention had to be paid to fire protection and hygienic conditions.[32]​.

The task of preparing such a comprehensive plan fell to Albert Lindhagen"). His planning project was approved in 1874. The result was a modern and progressive regulation, even by European standards. The main objective of the Building Regulations (Byggnadsstadgans) was to make it mandatory for cities to have an urban plan that governed the development of the city. The concept of urban plan remained until 1987, when it was changed to plan of detail.[33]​.

During the rapid urban expansion that ensued, the orthogonal plan remained the dominant pattern. The inspiration came mainly from the great imperial cities of the continent: Saint Petersburg, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, etc. The Ringstrasse in Vienna and the boulevards of Georges-Eugène Haussmann in Paris were taken as role models. The urban plans of these cities were based on a classicist tradition of orthogonal blocks arranged in a large-scale system of star-shaped road axes and squares. In Gothenburg, these ideas were put into practice even before general building regulations existed. Sweden's first urban design competition focused on areas outside the Gothenburg moat, the current districts of Gullbergsvass", Heden", Lorensberg", Vasastaden") and Haga&action=edit&redlink=1 "Haga (Gothenburg) (not yet drafted)"). Based on this result, an urban plan was drawn up that was approved in 1866, in which the main axis was the Kungsportsavenyn").

The urban planning of the industrial era was that of the rigid structure of rectangular blocks. Planning was usually carried out by engineers and sometimes turned out to be mere office work that was impossible to apply in practice. In 1859, the architect Adolf W. Edelsvärd published in the Tidskrift för Byggnadskonst och Ingenjörsvetenskap ("Architecture and Engineering Magazine") a strictly symmetrical urban planning model for Swedish cities with railway stations. A characteristic of the models of the time was the large square located in front of the station building, surrounded by public buildings, and to the right and left of which extended a grid of rectangular blocks intended for residential buildings.[36]​.

Stockholm's old town was also to be remodeled in accordance with the ideals of the new urban planning. There were no less than ten serious proposals to provide it with an orthogonal plane. The most developed was the one presented in 1873 by Rudolf Brodin, Axel Kumlien and Axel Ryding. The old town was spared a comprehensive transformation due to the high costs that a project of these characteristics would have entailed.[37]​.

Towards the end of the century, new ideas regarding urban planning arrived in Sweden. Several young architects and engineers had grown tired of regularity and advocated for a more flexible urban design adapted to the terrain, without endless esplanades. It was the approaches of the Austrian architect Camillo Sitte that were transferred to the Swedish particularities. Urban planning was also infected by the art of the time: romantic nationalism and criticism of the "engineering cities" or "topographical cities" that had been built with the intervention of a ruler and "without any real artistic knowledge" were heard by Per Olof Hallman), among others.[38]​.

In addition to Hallman, Fredrik Sundbärg") (later municipal architect in Landskrona) was a defender of this ideal, and in 1897 he wrote in the magazine Ord och Bild ("Words and Images"): "Wherever you look, in small or large towns, on flat or hilly terrain, almost only checkerboard systems are seen...". Sundbärg had written some articles critical of the usual way of planning He stated that, although the orthogonal system was also used abroad, it had been especially popular in the country. As a warning, he pointed to the case of Skara, where a grid had been unceremoniously projected onto the medieval city plan. Ironically, he wondered why the cathedral, which interfered with the beautiful system, had been spared.

Per Olof Hallman") was a specialist in urban planning and a champion of what were then considered modern and well-founded ideas in this field. He drew up plans for a large number of Swedish rural towns, such as Kiruna, Kalix, Boden"), Haparanda, Härnösand, Ludvika, Sigtuna, Åre and Västerås. In Stockholm he made numerous urban plans, such as those for Lärkstaden") (1902-1907), Aspudden (1906), Diplomatstaden") (1913-1915) and Röda bergen") (1922). In 1901, he won first prize (along with his colleague Fredrik Sundbärg") for his project for the new district of Johanneberg"), in Gothenburg. Albert Lilienberg"), Gothenburg's first municipal engineer (1907-1927) and also a supporter of Sitte's ideas, was mainly responsible for its application. Some of the largest areas in which the spirit of Sitte was applied are Bagaregården") and Kungsladugård"), in Gothenburg. Here the typical Gothenburg houses (landshövdingehus"), which means "governor's house") were built according to the designs of the architect Arvid Fuhres"), with one stone floor and two wooden floors.[40]​.

[41]

The fifth urban planner of the group close to Sitte's ideas was the civil engineer Nils Gellerstedt. In 1906 he won first prize in the Helsingborg urban planning competition. The approach of the competition was very similar to that of Gothenburg five years earlier, again with very rugged terrain, and the reason for the urban plan was the significant increase in the city's population. The court considered that the "pictorial effect of the urban landscape was convincing".[42] It is estimated that Hallman, Gellerstedt and Lilienberg prepared 80% of all Swedish urban plans in the first decade of the century.[42]​.

The "stone cities" (stenstaden) soon could not accommodate the large influx of inhabitants. With the arrival of public transport, it was possible to build new areas further away from the urban core and thus garden cities, residential communities and suburbs were born. The concept of the "garden city" came from England, from the social reformer Robert Owen and the urban planner Ebenezer Howard. The idea was that several garden cities (Garden Cities) would be located, as satellites, close to nature and around the capital (Central City).[43]​.

The 1911 book Stockholms förstäder och villasamhällen ("Suburbs and residential communities of Stockholm") lists no less than 30 locations, from Täby in the north to Nynäs in the south. In a description of the suburb of Aspudden, it was said of communications: "They will be extremely convenient and fast and are currently provided by the electric tram from Liljeholmsbron to Hägerstens there".[44]​.

In addition to Stockholm, in Gothenburg there are several examples of areas inspired by the English garden city. These include the garden city of Örgryte, the single-family housing area of ​​Landala") and Bagaregården"). Skellefteå also has a garden city.

The First World War was a setback for construction activity in Sweden, and by the 1920s the ideas of Hallman and Gellerstedt were largely out of date (Sundbärg died as early as 1913). The era of Romantic Nationalism had ended, as had the landscape exuberance of urban planning, which was now going to be more austere within the spirit of the Nordic classicism of the 1920s. Albert Lilienberg adapted to this new trend from the beginning, and since then his projects became more rigorous and technical, but also more conventional. In 1927, Hallman was replaced by Lilienberg as director of urban planning for Stockholm.[45]

The interwar period was also a time of change for Swedish architecture and urban planning. As is often the case, the formal concepts of modernism came from abroad, mainly from Germany and the famous Bauhaus school in Dessau. In Sweden, this movement was known as functionalism, and reached its peak at the Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, of which Gunnar Asplund was the architect. The country's young architects, such as Sven Markelius, Paul Hedqvist"), Kurt von Schmalensee"), Nils Ahrbom"), Helge Zimdal, Uno Åhrén, Sigurd Lewerentz and the director of the Cooperative Office of Architects (Kooperativa förbundets arkitektkontor, KFAI) Eskil Sundahl, contributed to the exhibition, which presented the new functionalist world. The term "Folkhemmet")" in its Swedish version (literally "the people's house") was coined in 1928 by Per Albin Hansson.[46]​.

A year after the exhibition, the manifesto "acceptera", written by Gregor Paulsson") was published together with Gunnar Asplund, Wolter Gahn, Sven Markelius, Uno Åhrén and Eskil Sundahl. It argued that the design language of the new era, i.e. functionalism, had to be accepted and that the historical construction style could no longer contribute anything, but was an obstacle and a burden. In 1934 another essay by opinion of great impact that would also influence housing construction during the interwar period: Kris i Bevölkerkningsfrågan ("The crisis in the question of population"), by Alva and Gunnar Myrdal. The book addressed the consequences of a sustained low birth rate in Sweden and proposed measures to combat it.[47]​.

The urban plans inspired by functionalist ideas sought to make the homes airy, bright and hygienic. These plans were implemented in the new suburbs of Stockholm with multi-family housing, such as Hammarbyhöjden") and Traneberg"), and also in single-family housing areas such as Norra Ängby"), and the residential area of ​​Södra Ängby"). The latter is one of the largest surviving residential areas of functionalist architecture in the world, and is protected by the Swedish National Heritage Council as an asset of cultural interest. Many of the urban plans were designed by Thure Bergentz"), who was Albert Lilienberg's closest collaborator.

The Urban Planning Law and the Building Regulations of 1931 introduced the prohibition of constructing new buildings in urban areas subject to urban planning study. The concept of prohibition of new constructions also included the prohibition of reforming and modernizing buildings. The idea was to avoid a revaluation that would make future compensation for properties in the areas subject to urban remodeling more expensive, but this regulation also caused the owners to stop maintaining their buildings and the real estate stock in the affected areas to deteriorate.[48]​.

In Stockholm, Nedre Norrmalm's redevelopment planning began with Albert Lilienberg's Stockholm General Plan in 1928, which called for Sveavägen to run directly from Sveaplan to Gustav Adolf Square. An international urban planning competition was held in 1932, but despite 350 applications, the competition was unsuccessful. later known as the Norrmalm redevelopment") (Norrmalmsregleringen) was pending for many years and only became a reality after the Second World War. Albert Lilienberg's ideas were not taken into account, and in 1944 Sven Markelius succeeded him.[49]​.

Many urban planning projects were put on hold during the Second World War, and even in the early 1950s the Swedish housing standard was one of the lowest in Europe. After the war there arose a pressing need to realize the ideals of the "Folkhemmet" ("people's house") and modernist urbanism. The period between 1945 and 1960 is known as the "period of popular housing." (folkhemsperioden), during which some 900,000 homes were built in Sweden.[51] The architecture and construction of Swedish folk housing also attracted attention abroad and was the first time that foreign architects were inspired on a large scale by Swedish architecture. Until then, Swedish architects of almost all periods looked abroad for inspiration. concept of "neighborhood unit" (grannskapsenhet) in general urban planning, while at the same time having social and political pretensions.

The post-war boom years (known as the "record years": rekordåren), during which the Swedish export industry experienced a long period of prosperity, provided the country with the necessary economic conditions to finance the projects. In 1945, the Stockholm City Council decided, at the initiative of Yngve Larsson"), the city's mayor, to launch the redevelopment of Norrmalm"). modern times and a large part of the country's architectural elite participated. The redevelopment of Norrmalm made possible the expansion of the metro, which lasted for a long time and ended up generating growing citizen protest. The "elm conflict" of 1971 (Almstriden)[52]​ is often cited as the turning point of the redevelopment of Norrmalm, and from that moment on it was no longer politically viable to carry out. more important transformations in the central areas of the city, given that the concept of "careful remodeling" was imposed that did not require major planning modifications.[53]​.

Sven Markelius, as director of urban planning for Stockholm between 1944 and 1954, was responsible for designing and directing the projects for Stockholm's new satellite cities. The inspiration came again from abroad and from English neighborhood planning, with its concept of Community Centre, in which small residential areas were grouped around a large urban center equipped with municipal and commercial services. This idea was first applied to the south of Stockholm, where Markelius commissioned the architect David Helldén" to draw up an urban plan for Södra Hammarby, which was later called Björkhagen"). However, the most important project was located north of the city, along Lake Mälaren, and was called Vällingby Group. The residential neighborhoods were arranged along the new metro line (the current Green Line) like a string of pearls, separated from each other by green spaces. The centerpiece of this planning was Vällingby, with Vällingby centrum"), which attracted great international attention and became the paradigm of public housing construction.

In Gothenburg, Tage William-Olsson") was head of urban planning between 1943 and 1953, succeeding Uno Åhrén, who had held the position since 1932. William-Olsson, one of the architects of the emblematic Slussen project in Stockholm, had submitted several elaborate proposals for the redesign of Nedre Norrmalm"), but none of them were carried out. In Gothenburg he devoted himself above all to the housing issue. He planned new neighborhoods and developed new housing typologies. Over ten years, he planned areas for 34,000 homes, such as Bagaregården") (1944), Tolered") (1946), Kungsladugård") (1947), Södra Guldheden") (1948) and Kortedala") (1952).[54]

Not all projects had clearly modernist elements. Sven Backström") and his partner Leif Reinius") transformed the rigid plans into playful variants. Its "star house" areas (stjärnhusen) were built in Gröndal in Stockholm (1944-1962) and, above all, in Rosta in Örebro (1947-1951). Örebro, in particular, was considered a "model city", and the city's strongman, Harald Aronsson, led housing policy in the 1950s and 1960s as a councillor. The Rosta and Baronbackarna buildings by Backström & Reinius, designed by architects White (1953-57), are the best known of the large housing estates in Örebro, with 1,340 and 1,230 apartments respectively. This was an order of magnitude unusual in Sweden.[55]​.

Smaller areas were built in Malmö, such as Augustenborg (1948-1952), with Gunnar Lindman"), the city planner, as the driving force. Similarly, Årsta centrum, in the Årsta") district of Stockholm, was small in scale. The urban plan for Årsta centrum was drawn up in 1940 by the architect and director of Svenska Riksbyggen"), Uno Åhrén. The buildings were designed by architects Erik and Tore Ahlsén").[56]​.

In 1947, the government commission on social housing addressed, among other issues, the reorganization of urban centers. The prevailing attitude was that buildings "suitable for rehabilitation" should be demolished to make way for new buildings. Several cities undertook extensive operations to demolish old buildings and their urban centers were transformed at the expense of identity and historical roots. Furthermore, the Urban Planning Law of 1931 and the building regulations had caused the deterioration of the real estate stock.[57]​.

At the end of the 1950s, many people were looking forward to the advances and transformations that were to come.[58] In rural Swedish cities, the municipal architect himself was usually in charge of the design of the new urban area. The results sometimes showed a certain lack of definition in the design of the volumes and details.[59]​.

Sweden's rural towns also found it difficult to cope with the growing flow of private cars. The construction of ring roads freed the central neighborhoods from through traffic. New buildings for shopping centers such as Domus, Tempo and EPA, followed by community services such as a liquor store and a pharmacy along a new pedestrian street, characterize the central areas of many small Swedish towns. När Domus kom till stan ("When the Domus came to town") is a 2004 documentary by Anders Wahlgren) that analyzes from a critical perspective the transformation of 14 Swedish cities and which represented "one of the largest urban transformations in Sweden of all time".[60]​.

Photographer and journalist Jeppe Wikström") paints a more conciliatory picture of the urban transformations that took place in the 1950s and 1960s. The author opens his 2002 book, Tråkiga vykort ("Boring Postcards"), with these words: "The war was over, the economy was booming, and many small communities were trying to gain a bit of continental shine. A new skyscraper, a new Konsum store, a road crossing, a factory or a guarded railway crossing were proof that they were opening up to the world." Everything new deserved to be represented on color postcards. Thus, Umeå proudly showed off its new pedestrian street and Boden") its new crossing. But unlike Stockholm, for example, its only historic center was razed. The historic center of Stockholm, Gamla Stan, was not affected by any demolition, although there were numerous attempts to redevelop it.[61]​.

As part of the redevelopment of Norrmalm in Stockholm, a large number of buildings located in the lower part of Norrmalm (Nedre Norrmalm) were demolished. According to one report, 700 buildings were demolished, including several of great cultural and historical value, such as Sagerska husen, the Sidenhuset and the Blancheteatern, despite strong protests against it. The project has been subject criticism and admiration both in Sweden and abroad, and several of the buildings built as a result of the Norrmalm plan are now classified as assets of public interest").[62]

Demolitions occurred in many parts of Sweden. In 1964, Gothenburg led the country's demolition efforts. Unlike Stockholm, where these had already been carried out since the beginning of the century to solve, among other things, traffic problems, in Gothenburg they affected residential areas outside the city center. To cope with this task, in 1960 the rehabilitation company "Göta Lejon" was established, in which the city council and the business sector participated equally. Looking at the total number of demolitions in Gothenburg between 1959 and 1974, it can be said that approximately the same number of apartments were demolished in both cities. In proportion to the population, approximately twice as many demolitions occurred in Gothenburg. During this wave of demolitions, many of the famous "governor's houses" (landshövdingehus) disappeared from the city.[63]

New expressions were coined: "demolition hysteria" (rivningshysteri) and "demolition frenzy" (rivningsraseri). A paradox, since no one who had organized or carried out the demolitions was "furious" or "hysterical"; These had been carried out "in good faith" and, when the demolitions occurred, protests were initially few. Optimism in the face of progress continued to prevail and the social order was such that the decisions of politicians and experts were rarely questioned. Those who resisted were told that they did not understand what was best for them.[58]

The turning point in public opinion towards a more critical and oppositional attitude towards government decisions occurred with the so-called "elm conflict" (Almstriden), which occurred in 1971 in Kungsträdgården (Stockholm). The city's politicians perceived this new attitude and it had its consequences: the urban renewal plan City 67 was canceled and replaced by Cityplan 1977. It established new, more moderate guidelines, which translated into: "The rehabilitation will be carried out without substantial alterations to the neighborhoods and the road network and it is assumed that it will be carried out in a private environment, except in cases in which the execution of the plan in an area must be carried out in a coherent manner." Today, the term "demolition hysteria/frenzy" is synonymous with the exercise of authority over unjustified demolitions. An example in which the term "demolition frenzy" was used again was in 2009 on the occasion of the planned expansion of the Stockholm Public Library, which was paralyzed.[64]​.

Almost at the same time that the 1977 urban plan came into force, a period whose name, the Miljonprogrammet, would be adopted much later, ended. It was never a government program,[66]​[67]​ but rather a calculation, prepared by the media, of the number of homes built between 1965 and 1974. The buildings built in these ten years currently represent around 25% of Sweden's housing stock and can be considered a symbol of the welfare society.[68]​.

The record years spanned the entire country. Some of the best-known areas are Skärholmen") and Tensta in Stockholm, Hammarkullen") in Gothenburg and Rosengård in Malmö. Between 1965 and 1974, a total of about 940,000 homes were built,[69]​ of which 350,000 corresponded to single-family homes, 310,000 in urban areas and 40,000 in rural areas, and a total of more than 590,000 homes in apartment blocks, of which just under 390,000 in urban areas and more of 200,000 in rural areas.[70]​.

The so-called Million Program period has been associated with high-rise buildings built with prefabricated concrete elements, although concrete in the facades was only used in the final phase and a third of the housing construction consisted of single-family houses, such as those in Kälvesta"), in the northwest of Stockholm. In this area, facades with plaster, wood and brick finishes are found and much of the original vegetation is preserved. Kälvesta can be called a "horizontal program zone million" with about 2,000 single-family homes. The urban plan was designed in collaboration with the architectural studio Höjer & Ljungqvist, which planned the construction of row and semi-detached homes. The first houses were built in 1966 and the works continued until the mid-1970s.[71]​ More than 4,500 people in semi-detached houses, row houses and independent chalets. Most of the homes were built as semi-detached houses with 4 bedrooms and a kitchen.[72]​.

At the end of the 1960s, around thirty public housing companies indicated that they were beginning to have difficulties renting, especially large apartments.[73] Among politicians, planners and construction companies, the first signs of concern began to appear about the magnitude of the hundreds of municipal construction programs that were going to be carried out in 1972, the year in which an environmental march was organized that brought together more than 100,000 participants against the "Regionplan 70" of Stockholm. In addition, the economy experienced a setback, the oil crisis raised gasoline prices and the population of large cities decreased. The baby boom that had occurred since 1965 faded, ending in 1975. The "green wave" contributed to some young families leaving the cities.

Criticism was also heard in the media, such as the one published by Dagens Nyheter on September 10, 1968 with the title "Riv Skärholmen!" ("Tear down Skärholmen!"). It happened two days after Prince Bertil inaugurated Skärholmen Centrum") with great pomp and pageantry. The newspaper article said, among other things: "The skyline of Skärholmen is the backdrop to one of the most dehumanized suburban centers ever built, a late import of American urban planning from the late 1940s, already obsolete at that time."[74]​ The article triggered the called Skärholmen debate.

Before long, the housing shortage turned into a surplus of empty apartments. In the first half of the 1970s, the number of empty apartments increased, and the problem was no longer limited to certain locations or certain apartment sizes. A similar trend was seen in many European cities.[75] In response to the rise of multi-family housing at that time, the proportion of newly built single-family homes increased from approximately one-third to three-quarters (1977) of the total housing stock built. However, housing construction as a whole contracted, and consequently, employment in this sector also decreased. This caused high unemployment among the construction and architecture professions.

The record years led to Sweden having one of the highest housing standards in the world in 25 years.[75] However, the period was subject to criticism from the beginning, as the new peripheries of large cities, in particular, were popularly described as "newly built suburbs", with a total of 40,000 apartments left empty when the record years ended. It was not until the 1990s when a more balanced scenario emerged, with initiatives for partial demolition, rehabilitation and regeneration of disadvantaged areas in which the segregation of the population was evident.[76]​.

In the late 1970s, large state new construction projects came to an end and there was a shift in residential architecture toward dense, low-rise building. On this occasion, the inspiration came from Denmark. One of the first exponents of this new, more intimate concept of urbanism was Ralph Erskine. His organic urban plans, well adapted to the climate and terrain, acquired international fame. Some examples are the neighborhood Ortdrivaren") in Kiruna (1966), Nya Bruket") in Sandviken (1973-1978) and Myrstuguberget") in the municipality of Huddinge (1977-1985), as well as Ekerö Centrum"), in Ekerö (1983-1991). [77]

In reaction to the large-scale urban development projects of the Million Programme, new small-scale residential areas were created in various parts of Sweden, applying earlier building traditions. The results have sometimes been disparagingly labeled "pastiche" in professional circles, but have been appreciated by the general public. Examples include the St. Erik area (1995-1998) in Stockholm, reminiscent of the Swedish classicism of the 1920s, and Jakriborg") (first phase ready for habitation in 1999) south of Lund, where the architectural design recalls the pre-industrial style of the villages in the Lund region and the Hanseatic coastal cities of the Baltic and North Sea.[78]

In the search for new buildable land for housing, towards the end of the 90s, industrial and port areas near the city were also used, where industrial or port activities had been closed or relocated. In the early 1990s, a major residential area emerged in Stockholm following this model: Hammarby Sjöstad, a former port area located in Hammarbyleden. The area is characterized by a very meticulous detailed study, prepared by the architect Jan Inghe"), in whose design Aleksander Wolodarski"), urban planning architect of the Stockholm Urban Planning Office, exerted a decisive influence.[79][80]​.

Other port areas that have been transformed and are being transformed into attractive residential areas near the sea are Norra Hamnen"), in Helsingborg (1995-1999), with Ole Reiter") as architect, Norra Älvstranden"), in Gothenburg (1989-), and Västra Hamnen"), with Turning Torso, in Malmö, emerged in the context of the prominent construction fair Bo01").[81]​.

In recent years, a new element has been introduced into the urban planning process: creating the conditions for an ecologically sustainable and energy efficient society. As a recent example from Malmö shows, not only paid specialists are now involved in this work, but also non-partisan groups working on a voluntary basis. The idea of ​​an ecological city is not entirely new. Understenshöjden") is a residential area that was built between 1994 and 1996 to be Stockholm's first eco-town, in Björkhagen"). It consists of 44 apartments distributed in 14 one- and two-story houses and a block of flats. However, the technology was not fully developed and the area was criticized for energy waste and problems with damp and mold.[82]

Although Sweden's medieval cities, such as Stockholm and Visby, had no prior planning, arbitrary construction was never allowed. Since the middle of the century, the construction regime in cities was regulated by the Building Code of Magnus Eriksson's Municipal Law. There were provisions that established a certain width of the street (8 cubits "Cubit (unit of length)"), about 4.8 meters)[83]​ and that the construction had to be done taking into account the neighbors. It was also prohibited to build without a building permit, and it was stipulated that "there will be two men in each city, who will be in charge of inspecting the buildings and deciding, with the neighbors, how they should build their houses and demolish them, and about the fines for those who are convicted of crimes."[84] Chapter XXII was dedicated to the always recurring scourge of fires in the cities: "On fire, how it should be monitored, and its punishment for those who do not do".[85]​.

The Building Code (Byggningabalken) of Magnus Eriksson was ratified in 1618 by Gustav II Adolphus without any changes. In 1734, under Charles XI, new building regulations were introduced for rural areas. Construction activity in the cities would be the responsibility of the respective governor and his corresponding council.[83]​.

The Building Regulations of the City of Westerås (Byggnads - Ordning För Westerås Stad) of 1799 became a model for the older generation of building regulations. It contained provisions on the division of land, surveying, streets and buildings. A nationwide building code, written by Albert Lindhagen, was not introduced until 1874. Currently, it is mandatory for all cities to have building regulations prepared in accordance with national regulations. A construction committee made up of five or three members would be created to supervise compliance with urban planning regulations. The Building and Urban Planning Act of 1931 repealed the Building Statute of 1874,[86] although some parts remained in force through transitional provisions and provisional building regulations until 1963,[87] the year in which the remaining parts of the Building Statute of 1874, the building regulations derived from it and the provisional building regulations They were replaced by the legislative text.[88]​.

Since July 1, 1987, with some changes from June 1, 1994 and May 2, 2011, land, water and building planning has been governed by the Planning and Construction Act (Plan- och bygglagen, PBL). The process of preparing a new urban plan, or modifying an existing one, consists of many steps, from the "feasibility study and land allocation" to its legal approval. Implementing a new zoning plan can take several years. While in the past urban planning was the province of a few specialists, today all interested parties must have the opportunity to express their point of view.[89]​.