Skies over Frölunda: ‘Mixed city’ densification and the lived space of a stigmatised Modernist suburb in Sweden

Abstract

This article elaborates on the shared experience of displacement pressure expressed by low-income residents in the Modernist multi-storey area of Frölunda, built in the post-war decades as part of the Swedish Social Democratic ‘The People’s Home’ project. As Sweden’s second city, Gothenburg plans to grow ‘from the inside and out’ in the coming decades. Areas like Frölunda, located between the city centre and the outskirts, have been targeted for ‘densification’ that will be achieved by both renovation and infill development projects in line with the city’s ‘compact city’ planning ideals. In this context, the concepts of class architecture , territorial stigmatisation and lived space are invoked to argue that, in post-war Modernist areas, ‘social mix’/‘mixed city’ visions can be used to conceal ambitions of gentrification, and that inequality is naturalised when low-income residents are excluded from future visions. Furthermore, with reference to the reoccurring photographs of beautiful skies behind multi-storey façades in the local Facebook group in Frölunda, the article argues that more knowledge of people’s everyday life in this type of area is called for.

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