Uno Åhrén

Uno Åhrén ( born August 6, 1897 in Stockholm, † October 8, 1977 Arvika ) was a Swedish architect and city planner, and one of the main proponents of functionalism in Sweden.

Life and work

Uno Åhrén studied at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He settled early impressed by the architecture of Le Corbusier and from social housing in Germany during the 1920s with Walter Gropius as a leader. His radical commitment to living social issues could Åhrén demonstrate at the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930. Here he was, together with, inter alia, Sven Markelius, Paul Hedqvist and Sigurd Lewerentz, homes and interiors for people with limited economic opportunities. As early as 1931 he put these ideas to practice, and so the row house was built in Norra Ängby in the Stockholm district of Bromma. There were four simple, built of wooden houses line consisting of two or three rooms with kitchen and cellar. But each house had a garden, which was intended primarily for your own supply of fruits and vegetables.

Uno Åhrén described the functionalist ideas as criticism of outdated tradition and authority that belonged to a past society. Each architectural style is the expression of a certain society and a particular culture, he said. So now that modern society was realized, one must also accept the style of modernity.

Uno Åhrén was very active in the theoretical issues of social planning. He wrote diligently debate articles in the trade press and published books. He was co-author of the famous Swedish manifesto for modernism he ind architecture " acceptera " ( 1931). Together with Gunnar Myrdal, he published in 1933, for example, the work Bostadsfrågan som Socially planläggningsproblem ( The housing problem as a social planning problem). Practically Åhrén could realize his ideas as an urban planner in Gothenburg ( 1932-43 ) and as head of the local housing association Riksbyggen ( 1943-45 ). During this time he also planned Årsta centrum in the Stockholm district Årsta, the first suburban mall in Sweden according to the idea of the community center, where the shops and stores subordinate cultural buildings such as the library, theater and community center.

In 1947 he got the first professorship in urban design at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, this he held until 1963. Åhrén was from its foundation (1928), member of the Congrès International d' Architecture Moderne.

Works ( selection)

  • Ford Motor Company AB, Stockholm Free Port 1930-31
  • Cinema Flamman, Hornstull, Stockholm 1930
  • Terraced houses in Norra Ängby, Bromma 1931-40
  • Map for Johanneberg, Gothenburg 1937
  • Årsta centrum, Stockholm 1943-53

Vocations

  • Gothenburg city planning chief 1932-1943
  • Chief of Riksbyggen 1943-1945
  • Professor in Urban Design at the Technical University in Stockholm 1947-1963

Literature and source

  • Stockholm Byggnader, Bokförlaget Prism 1977
  • Svensk Arkitektur, Byggförlaget 1986
  • Urban Designer ( Sweden)
  • Architect of Modern
  • Architect ( Sweden)
  • Swede
  • Born 1897
  • Died in 1977
  • Man
  • High school teacher ( Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm )
Functionalism (architecture) Stockholm Exhibition (1930) Integrated Authority File
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