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the concept, concluding pedestrians on a lower level would produce poor business sites, an analysis which would eventually prove correct. Their own proposal the following year, developed together with various authorities, reserved street-level to pedestrians while cars were confined below ground. This counter-proposal was however produced in only two months, which made it easy for opponents to pin-down its weaknesses (mostly a failure to leave enough space for the metro which was being constructed at this time). Nevertheless, Helldén's proposal failed to impress the city as well, and Helldén together with other hand-picked experts was therefore sent on a tour around Europe, including
384:("Swede Plaza"), was conceived as similar to the present square, but still remained an unarticulated modernistic concept. In this proposal, the square was centred on a rectangular open space furnished with trees, benches, and ponds; a space reached by subways stretching under the surrounding roundabout. During the 1950s, continuously increasing traffic loads made separating pedestrians and car traffic desirable, and several studies produced around 1955 focused on a lower level for pedestrians with cars on street-level with various openings to allow light down to the pedestrians.
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511:, built in the 1930s, Sergels torg is thus an attempt with few parallels in the world, to make public art of a traffic junction dominating the central district of a city. Since the mid-1990s, numerous proposals to rebuild the square have been produced, and the debate regarding the square is likely to continue.
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However, considering
Stockholm's northern location, to give the sun full access to public spaces is top priority, and Kulturhuset has proven a problematic wall which not only shuts the sun off, but also tends to dominate the square with its large volume. Additionally, Sergels torg is dominated by its
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South of the square, intentions were to erect two buildings separated by a street leading to
Brunkebergstorg, but the old buildings south of the square turned their gables towards the modernist composition of Helldén throughout most of the 1960s. A contest in 1965 for this area included a cultural
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In 1957, a first official proposal presented a square virtually similar to the present; except that instead of the fountain there was an opening with tall trees and on the western side, where the flight of stairs is today, was a building standing on pillars. The
Chamber of Commerce was critical of
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was eventually inaugurated in 1974. It basically is a single huge concrete wall from which are consoling shallow stories with glassed façades, a structure Hultén lyrically described as a stage which would "exercise a strong attractive force" by exhibiting people and works of art through the glass
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of 1928. In his proposal he envisioned a square whose north-south oriented axis would line-up with Sveavägen intended to be extended south across the square down to the waterfront with widened
Hamngatan and Klarabergsgatan joining in from west and east. After this first proposal, the square is
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featured on every subsequent city plan produced for the area, with alternations in width and length. Notwithstanding the considerable number of revised proposals produced, surprisingly few were preoccupied by architectonic considerations, instead focusing on optimization of traffic flow.
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and much like its French counterpart remains the most popular space in
Stockholm for meeting friends, for political demonstrations, for a wide range of events, and for drug-dealers. This includes the fountain, in which people celebrate major victories by Swedish sports teams.
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The construction of the square was completed in 1967. Before the creation of
Sergels torg, Brunkebergstorg was the most important public space in the area, the hub about which traffic revolved, the place where people would go to work and to find entertainment.
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Since its creation, Sergels torg has been much criticized for giving priority to cars at the cost of pedestrians. It has, among some quarters, become the main target for criticism of the much debated demolition of the central city district of
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This newly introduced centre-piece resulted in a proposal for a fountain with a monument above it. For the shape of this fountain, Helldén consulted his friend, the mathematician and artist
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Albert
Lilienberg was appointed city-planning superintendent in 1927, and a year later he produced the first proposal for a public square on the location in his
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metro station and other continuous underpasses west thereof, Sergels torg forms part of a continuous underground structure almost a kilometre in length.
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Currently (2015) large areas of the place are closed for renovation of the 50 years old structures. There is also preparation for the installation of
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with a round restaurant with glass walls, an aesthetic device intended to give the square an architectonic dignity.
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North of this traffic junction is a considerably smaller open space overlooked by the high-rise façade of the fifth
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traffic roundabout and is hard to experience as a single coherent space. Together with the traffic structure at
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during the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless, it is not dissimilar to but larger than the public space in front of
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Mathematical
Carnival. A New Round-Up of Tantalizers and Puzzles from Scientific American
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they could conclude that having pedestrians on a lower level required escalators, and in
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Sergels torg has a dominant west-to-east axis and is divided into three distinct parts:
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This plaza is partly overbuilt by a roundabout centered on a glass obelisk and by the
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Huvudstad i omvandling – Stockholms planering och utbyggnad under 700 år
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In the city plan Helldén produced in 1946, the square, still named
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gave them the inspiration to replace the central open space at
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A contest for the central monument in 1962 was won by
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The iconic triangular pattern of the pedestrian plaza.
60:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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398:The hexagonal building, a 1990 coffeehouse (
354:Crystal - vertical accent in glass and steel
722:Buildings and structures completed in 1967
459:Kristall - vertikal accent i glas och stĂĄl
477:Night view of the obelisk and Kulturhuset
120:Learn how and when to remove this message
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252:headquarters facing the square
162:("Sergel's Square") is a major
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626:"Piet Hein's Superellipse"
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563:(in Swedish). Stockholm:
547:Redevelopment of Norrmalm
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672:at Wikimedia Commons
559:Hall, Thomas (1999).
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482:centre proposed by
256:behind. The street
176:Johan Tobias Sergel
154:Sergels torg (song)
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282:Malmskillnadsgatan
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152:For the song, see
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668:Media related to
648:978-0-394-72349-5
610:Hall, pp 181-186.
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500:Kulturhuset
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437:Sveaplatsen
382:Sveaplatsen
298:T-Centralen
294:Strandvägen
274:Kungsholmen
262:Åhléns City
242:Kulturhuset
142:Kulturhuset
711:Categories
684:18°03′52″E
681:59°19′57″N
553:References
204:Kungsgatan
110:March 2013
80:newspapers
520:Hamngatan
444:Piet Hein
425:Stuttgart
278:Hamngatan
234:Sveavägen
168:Stockholm
623:(1977),
537:Norrmalm
532:Hötorget
526:See also
503:façade.
417:Coventry
223:concrete
182:Overview
639:240–254
509:Slussen
345:History
309:May Day
268:to the
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429:Vienna
421:London
323:(2011)
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172:Sweden
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583:Notes
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