Ingeborg Waern Bugge & Kjerstin Göransson-Ljungman | Stockholm, Sweden
The building + background
At Polhemsgatan on Kungsholmen in Stockholm, Sweden, Fredrik Eens minne – hem för ensamstående mödrar (In memory of Fredik Een – home for single mothers) is situated. It was built 1933-35 by the two women architects Ingeborg Waern Bugge and Kjerstin Göransson-Ljungman, to order by the social democrat and women’s activist Anna Lindhagen. It was the second housing project for single mothers in 1930’s Stockholm, which made it a pioneer project.
The building is an early example of collective housing, a typology that started and developed during the 20th century. The idea is to have your own apartment or room, and share spaces like kitchen, laundry room or social spaces. There are several examples of collective housing projects in Sweden, mostly in the bigger cities.
The building was made for single mothers, who could leave their children at the daycare on the top floor, when leaving for work during the day. Today, the building consists of housing and daycare.
The architects
Ingeborg Waern Bugge (1899-1991) was the first woman architect in Sweden. 1919 she was admitted as a special student at the architecture programme KTH, Stockholm, since women were not allowed there yet, and in 1922 she graduated. She was active in Sweden and she designed several housing projects and school buildings, as well as renovations of churches.
Kjerstin Göransson-Ljungman (1901-1971) was a Swedish architect, painter and writer. She studied architecture at KTH, 1924-1928, where she founded the student association Kvinnliga Teknologers Sammanslutning (Women Technologists’ Association) in 1927. Although doing some architectural work, she was mostly occupied by painting and writing. She published several books.
The two architects started their own office in 1929. One of their bigger interests were the womens’ domestic working conditions, and criticised for example the small kitchen areas that were presented at the Stockholm fair in 1930. 1936 they published the book Bostad och hushållsorganisation : studie över ett aktuellt rationaliseringsproblem (Residential and household organisation: study of a current rationalisation issue). That same year they ended their collaboration, and Waern Bugge kept the office.
The social concepts
When studying this building, we found that the most interesting thing about this building, according to us, is the social concept that marks this building. With our models we wanted to investigate the ideas that have shaped this building. Three social concepts are investigated through our three models.