• 1 FEMENÍAS Paula, 2015, « Det sociala och renovering - en översikt av tidigare erfarenheter », in LIN (...)

1Post-war housing stock has been the focus of modernisation and transformation in Sweden since the 1980s. Arguments for making alterations and new investments have included the technical deficiencies of the buildings, plus social problems relating to exclusion and segregation in suburban locations. The architecture itself has often been viewed as part of the social problem, with substantial alteration to the character of buildings forming part of the solution1.

• 2 Swedish Government Communication 1997/98:13 Ekologisk hållbarhet.
• 3 STENBERG J., THUVANDER L. & FEMENÍAS P., « Linking Social and Environmental Aspects: A Multidimensi (...)
• 4 Swedish Government 2020, Sveriges tredje nationella strategi för energieffektiviserande renovering(...)
• 5 European Commission 2020/662, A Renovation Wave for Europe - greening our buildings, creating jobs, (...)

2In the late 1990s, the idea was launched of transforming these housing areas into front-line demonstrations of future sustainable living2. The Swedish Government financed a series of sustainable investment programmes, some of which targeted the transformation of post-war housing.3 Since then, housing renovation has been framed by ambitions of energy efficiency. However, the goal of a decarbonised housing sector is still a long way off4. The European Commission recently introduced a new ‘renovation wave’ strategy, aimed at doubling the renovation rate and supporting employment in the building sector5. Accordingly, the Swedish Government has budgeted EUR 4.3 billions for energy efficiency measures and other necessary renovations of multi-residential buildings in a budget running to 2023.

• 6 On 4^th June 2021, the City of Gothenburg celebrates its 400^th year.
• 7 LINDGREN A., PETER S. & METELIUS A. R., Moderna Göteborg: Kulturhistoriskt värdefull bebyggelse III(...)

4Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city6, recently published its Historical Environment Programme of modern heritage7 for residential and non-residential buildings. This paper describes the background and development of historical environment programmes in Gothenburg and aims to critically discuss the influence of renovation and energy retrofitting on the value designated to post-war housing areas. It then presents three suburban housing developments in the north-eastern part of the City which have been designated part of the Modern Historical Environment programme of Gothenburg. These three cases were selected to illustrate three different levels of renovation: one careful renovation/restoration, one medium level renovation which preserved the main character of the area and one major renovation with substantial impact on the original architectural style. The renovations were completed before, or in parallel with, the publication of the Modern Historical Environment programme. The question is how this is, or was, affected by the evaluation that heritage officials made of the areas’ cultural value.

• 8 FEMENÍAS Paula & LEGNÉR M, 2021, “How well do policies for energy efficiency and heritage values in (...)

5The starting point for discussion is the framing of contemporary housing renovation by national and international energy and climate policy and from social concern for the residents. In Gothenburg, municipal housing companies have an explicit directive to use careful renovation8; that is, they must exercise care with respect to tenants. No tenant should be forced to move due to renovations and related rent increases.

• 9 Statens bostadskommission (1912-1918) was the first Swedish national project assigned to create a “ (...)
• 10 BRUNNSTRÖM L. 2004, Det svenska folkhemsbygget: om Kooperativa förbundets arkitektkontor, Stockholm (...)

8At the beginning of the 20^th Century, a national sociopolitical programme was formulated aimed at creating good housing for all inhabitants9. At the time, Sweden’s working class had one of the lowest standards of living in Europe, with unhealthy indoor environments and a lack of individual bathrooms, hot water and central heating. Lasting from the 1930s to the 1980s10, this political programme for a “people’s home” (folkhemmet) generated investment in new construction and the management of older housing stock. The programme was implemented after WWII with large-scale construction of housing in semi-urban locations. As the pace of construction was not high enough to keep up with demand, the Million Homes Programme (miljonprogrammet) was launched in 1965 and lasted until 1975. The goal of delivering 100,000 new homes per year for ten years was accomplished by using industrialised construction methods.

• 11 SCHÖNBECK, B. 1994, Stad i förvandling. Uppbyggnadsepoker och rivningar i svenska städer från indus (...)
• 12 EJDEROTH-LINDEN, S. & LÖNNROTH, G., 2009, ”Kommunens engagemang i Hagas förnyelse”. In Varför revs (...)

9The quest for rational, modernised housing also resulted in large-scale demolition of older stock11. When the older buildings and neighbourhoods started disappearing, people reacted. The old, wooden architecture had picturesque heritage qualities linked to traditional social ways of life. In the late 1960s, resistance to these demolitions was organised and discussions on the nature of cultural heritage rose to a new level 12.

• 13 Historical Environment Act (1988:950), up to and including SFS 2018:794.
• 14 Historical Environment Ordinance (1988:1188), up to and including SFS 2017:1083.

10Swedish cultural heritage legislation has existed since 1633. Today, it takes the form of the Historical Environment Act (1988:950).13^,14 Specific heritage objects or sites are nationally listed, with protection in place for highly regarded monuments. Objects considered of outstanding or enduring historical significance are largely buildings older than eighty years.

• 15 Riksintressen för kulturmiljövård 3 kap 6 § miljöbalken: miljöbalken (1998:808). The 1960s National (...)
• 16 The Declaration of Amsterdam, 1975, Available at: https://www.icomos.org/en/and/169-the-declaration (...)
• 17 LEGNÉR M. & LEIJONHUFVUD G. 2019, “A legacy of Energy Saving: The Discussion on Heritage Values in (...)
• 18 EJDEROTH-LINDEN S. & LÖNNROTH G., 2009, ”Kommunens engagemang i Hagas förnyelse”. In Varför revs in (...)

11During the 1960s, new planning regulations were created, such as the National Environmental Interests (riksintressen, areas of national interest for cultural heritage in Sweden).15 In the mid-seventies, the European Heritage Year movement and the Amsterdam Declaration laid the foundations for later changes to the heritage legislation, the inclusion of protection for ordinary buildings and an emphasis on the need for social concern in preservation matters.16 As a result, many Swedish municipalities initiated building inventories.17 Reaction against large-scale urban renewal during mid-20^th Century urban reconstruction in Sweden was another contributing factor to the development of new preservation strategies. Sometimes, protests were used to influence legislators to extend protection beyond historical monuments.18 Applicable to various kinds of built structures, the Swedish Planning and Building Act (PBL) from 1987 is currently the most important legal instrument for heritage protection. PBL states that all alterations to existing buildings should be made with careful reference to the existing values, and prohibits the disfigurement of particularly valuable buildings.

• 19 REGION GOTLAND, 2010, Byggnadsordningen för Visby innerstad,Visby.

13Such local programmes are not protective per se, but do provide essential information on the history and characteristics of historical environments, as well as grounds for their inclusion. The programmes support officials, developers and consultants, plus the general public. Under PBL, owners are obliged to maintain the standard of their properties. Municipalities with concentrated heritage stock (like Visby on Gotland) produce more detailed building programmes, known as building ordinances (byggnadsordning)19.

• 20 ENGELBREKTSSON N., 1982, Landala – stadsdel och livsform som försvann, Gothenburg, University of Go (...)
• 21 HOLMBERG I. M., 2006, På stadens yta. Om historiseringen av Haga, Gothenburg, Makadam.

14In Gothenburg, the first official local programme for preserving the historical environment dates back to the 1960s. The city underwent one of the largest renewal schemes in Europe. The demolition of the working-class districts in Landala and Haga was met by protests from citizens’ groups and also involved local academic institutions.20, 21With the expansion of the City, plus the demolitions, initial inventories of older buildings were begun, alongside the excavation of archaeological sites. These early inventories focused on central city areas and prominent buildings from various periods before the 1950s.

• 22 LEGNÉR M. & LEIJONHUFVUD G. 2019, “A legacy of Energy Saving: The Discussion on Heritage Values in (...)
• 23 FEMENÍAS P., JEROME A., THUVANDER L., WAHLGREN P., JOHANSSON P. & ERIKSSON P. 2020, Om-renovering: (...)

15With the 1970s oil crisis, the Swedish Government acted rapidly and launched an energy-saving plan to eradicate oil dependency22. Measures were taken to improve the energy and heating systems in existing housing and make building envelopes more energy-efficient. These measures were often applied without consideration for the original architecture [fig. 1]. Windows were replaced with different types and new maintenance-free materials (such as composite boards and steel) replaced or covered wood and brick façades. Woking-class housing and timber constructions were often altered with energy efficiency measures compared to higher status brick buildings23. Notably, housing constructed after 1930, which at the time was a limit for what was considered cultural valuable building stocks, have been disfigured on a broader scale. The rapid, large-scale changes driven by these energy plans drew the attention of alert heritage officials to the vulnerability of unlisted heritage.

• 24 LÖNNROTH G. (Ed.), 1999, Kulturhistoriskt värdefull bebyggelse i Göteborg. Ett program för bevarand (...)

18Towards the end of the 20^th Century, the above political documents on heritage listings were combined into two volumes on the historical environment, focusing on what had been constructed before the 1950s24.

• 25 Financed by the Government as a part of a larger segregation prevention project: SOU, 1998:25 Tre s (...)
• 26 LINDGREN A., PETER S. & METELIUS A. R., 2017, Moderna Göteborg: Kulturhistoriskt värdefull bebyggel (...)

19In the late 1990s, the National Heritage Board initiated a national Major Cities Project (Storstadsprojektet).25 The Board wanted to explore and acknowledge the cultural and historical legacy of the country’s major 1955-1975 expansion during a period known as ‘the record years’. Under this project, inventories of buildings and environments from the late 20^th Century were taken in Sweden’s three largest cities (Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö). Gothenburg’s inventory was completed in first years of the 21^st Century. It then took almost another twenty years to summarise and analyse the documented material, which eventually resulted in a third volume of Gothenburg’s local Historical Environment programme called Modern Gothenburg (Moderna Göteborg)²⁶.

• 27 UNNERBÄCK A., 2002, Kulturhistorisk värdering av bebyggelse, Stockholm: Riksantikvarieämbetet.
• 28 RIKSANTIKVARIEÄMBETET, 2015, Plattform Kulturhistorisk värdering och urval: Grundläggande förhå (...)

21The processing of material for the programme was similar to the work conducted under earlier heritage programmes. The selection was based on addition and deduction but with one main difference: a much larger volume to study. This required a method of searching for uniqueness in what was being rationalised and typified. Apart from quantity, the modern stock also has more resilient qualities than older stock. At the time, a prevalent method for evaluating tangible heritage, the Unnerbäck Method (Unnerbäckmetoden),27 was endorsed by the National Heritage Board. This method emphasises the fact that a designated object should provide knowledge and understanding of various historical events and contexts, including alterations. Furthermore, it allows the addition of different perspectives, tangible and intangible28. Through the model, historical, social, functional and aesthetical qualities are added or subtracted, to estimate an approximate heritage value.

• 29 LINDGREN A., PETER S. & METELIUS A. R., 2017, Moderna Göteborg: Kulturhistoriskt värdefull bebyggel (...)

24Modern Gothenburg highlights Skolspåret´s structure, architectural expression and social ambitions of the time29. The rationale for the heritage designation highlights the unusually careful design of an otherwise rather typical structure. Despite some changes, the architectural expression is well-preserved, with particular attention to detail, artistic embellishment and façade profiling.

• 30 Swedish Government. Prop 1997/98:165.
• 31 OHLANDER M., 2001, K-märkningen och människorna på Skolspåret. En etnologisk undersökning i Hjällbo(...)

25In 1999, The County Administrative Board gave Hjällbo a heritage subsidy. This was used to renovate the canopied pathway. The same year, the Board initiated a project called Metropolitan Architecture and Heritage and Hjällbo was designated one of four areas of national concern for social investment.30 The recognition of Hjällbo’s heritage value was in sharp contrast to its negative depiction during national investigations.31 Skolspåret’s owners were inspired by the positive media attention given to the heritage subsidy and saw an opportunity to garner heritage recognition, support social development and regain tenants’ confidence.

• 32 In Sweden, a monument listing may only be implemented if approved by the owner.

26The early 2000s saw advanced discussions on listing Skolspåret as a national monument. Ultimately, there was no listing as the owner wanted to avoid future heritage restrictions.32 Nevertheless, the owner was keen on the contemporary development and the planned structural renovation of the area was carefully implemented. The balcony fronts were reconstructed using the original moulds and most of the original design was generally preserved [fig. 4]. However, instead of the hardwood window-frames being renovated, they were all replaced with new aluminium-framed windows.

• 33 LINDGREN A. Peter S & METELIUS A. R., 2017, Moderna Göteborg: Kulturhistoriskt värdefull bebyggelse (...)

28The area’s designation was made based on its careful architectural design using simple pre-fabricated elements creatively for variety.33 Artistic ambitions are found in the façade details and gable decoration. The staircases of the gallery blocks are part-glass and part-concrete. When illuminated at night, these staircases make the blocks widely visible in the surrounding area, giving it a distinctive silhouette. A pathway leading through the whole area is lined with larger sculptures. There are glimpses of a spectacular view down the valley, with the Göta älv river leading to Gothenburg centre.

• 34 FEMENÍAS P. & LINDÉN A. L., 2012, ”Sweden: Integrated strategies to overcome market barriers”. In E (...)

29In 1996, Gårdsten was one of the most socially vulnerable residential areas in Sweden. It was characterised by health problems, unemployment and a low occupancy rate34. Established in 1997, Gårdstensbostäder, the municipal housing company was tasked with regenerating and developing the Gårdsten district. A demonstration project for sustainable renovation was initiated in 1998 to boost this regeneration. It was conducted in collaboration with Chalmers University and funded by the European Demonstration Programme SHINE, plus local development funds. The architect was Christer Nordström Architects. The Solar House transformation concept combined energy efficiency, solar energy and social ambitions. To support social interaction, greenhouses and common laundry facilities were built on the ground floor.

• 35 FEMENÍAS P., 2019, “The Role of the Architect in Sustainable Housing Transformation. Four Swedish C (...)

31The energy renovation has only partly affected the area’s characteristics [fig 7 and 8]. For example, exposed gable façades were externally insulated while others were left untouched35. The original idea of courtyard formations has remained, alongside the robust but unique structure. The area has kept its profile of illuminated glazed stairwells at night-time. The pathways under the pillar buildings were filled with new greenhouses. One argument for filling the pathways was that they formed unpleasant wind tunnels. However, while the wind tunnel problem was a problem on highest part of the plateau, the greenhouse project was unfortunately executed only on the lower pathways and consequently not solving the wind tunnel problem.

• 36 LINDGREN A., PETER S. & METELIUS A. R., 2017, Moderna Göteborg: Kulturhistoriskt värdefull bebyggel (...)

32The third case, the “Stacken” collective house is one of nine multi-residential tower blocks built with a star-shaped floorplan in the northern part of a suburb called Bergsjön. The “star houses” were designed by GAKO office through architect Lars Ågren (1921-2006) and built in 1967-196836. The construction method was novel and rationalised: the central stairwell was built first and then apartments were added all around it, forming a star shape. The blocks are laid out like a beaded ribbon in a north-south direction from the tram station, following a sloping edge to the north and with a small green area to the south [fig. 9]. Each tower block has 35 apartments, with five identical three-bedroom apartments on each floor. The star-shaped floorplan permits views and sunlight from different directions. The façades are made of profiled concrete elements.

• 37 Stacken collective living homepage.
• 38 SCHALK M. & MATTSON H. 2019, ”The group BiG (Bo i Gemenskap): Living and working in community”, In (...)

33In the mid-1970s the housing market had become saturated and many apartments in the suburbs lay vacant. The last block in the row of star houses was converted into collective housing in 1980; the first of its kind in Sweden. It was called Stacken37 and drew its inspiration from ideas about collective living, driven by architects and debaters in a Swedish group Bo I Gemenskap (BIG).38 Ågren, the original architect for the area, was one of the initiators of the conversion and led the project on behalf of the municipal housing company. The design process involved the users and laid the ground for a functioning working community. The collective facilities included a kitchen and dining area, workshop premises and a day-care centre. The dining room became the heart of the collective house. In 2000, Stacken was sold to the tenants who formed a rental cooperative to manage the building. Today, Stacken consists of individual households, plus smaller communities hosted in larger apartments created by fusing several apartments.

• 39 NORWOOD Z., THEOBOLDT I. & ARCHER D-E. 2016, “Step-by-step deep retrofit and building integrated fa (...)

34Driven by political objectives and personal ambitions, one tenant (employed at the time as a project assistant at Chalmers University of Technology) began a renovation project in 2016 to turn Stacken into an energy-efficient passive housing block. The retrofitting package included balanced ventilation with heat recovery, façade and attic insulation, new windows and electricity-generating Photovoltaic solar panels over the entire façade39 [fig. 10]. The story goes that the low cost of solar cells made it economically viable to cover the entire façade to the north as well. The total cost of the energy renovation was estimated at EUR 400,000 and was partly funded by the Swedish Energy Agency as a research and demonstration project.

• 40 Interview with Stacken tenants, January 2021.

35The passive house project was supported in a majority vote by members of the housing collective, but a smaller group of tenants felt that regard for aesthetics and historic values had been overridden.40 The initiator of the renovation project believed that cultural preservation hinders sustainable development. Also, the Stacken’s community has faced challenges due to this major renovation. For safety reasons, the dining room, which was central to the community, is no longer in use. A fire escape and external stairs removed prior to the renovation have not been replaced. A lot of money was invested in completing the energy renovation, so, replacing the external stairs was not a priority.

• 41 OHLANDER M., 2001, K-märkningen och människorna på Skolspåret. En etnologisk undersökning i Hjällbo(...)

42Skolspåret and the Solar Houses in Gårdsten show how to use modern heritage as a starting point for renovations and transformations. An ethnographic study was conducted after the renovation of Skolspåret41 to capture tenants’ perception of the heritage values and results of the careful renovation. The study concluded that architecture and design have little relevance to the well-being of residents but that other, more practical values (such as safety and a clean area) are more important. Nevertheless, the fact that Skolspåret was considered important and attractive by others was established as a positive value among residents. Moreover, at the time, the whole process resulted in residents having an increased interest in architecture.

• 42 United Nations. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
• 43 UNESCO, 2018, Culture for the 2030 Agenda.
• 44 Swedish Government, Politik för en Gestaltad Livsmiljö.
• 45 New European Bauhaus 2021.

43Culture as a vehicle for sustainable development is an aspect that has been emphasised in recent national and international agendas. The “Global Sustainability Goals” align urbanisation, environmental protection, and energy savings with social and cultural goals42. UNESCO defines culture as a key driver of change43. The updated Swedish architectural policy44 envisions well-designed built environments as necessary if there is to be real change towards an improved society. This relates to such thing as design for health, wellbeing, and integration. Recently, the European Commission launched its New European Bauhaus programme. This seeks to combine ambitions for energy renovation and a transition to a circular economy through design. EC President Von der Leyen has declared that Europe needs not only environmental or economic projects but also a new cultural project45.

• 46 See Lyktan lyser igen.

44The contribution and impact of Gothenburg’s Modern Historical Environment programme are yet to be evaluated but there are already a few examples of the programme leading to change. The demolition of two modern monuments has been prevented46 and the development of plans for a few suburban areas has been adjusted to include modern heritage values.