The Crown Prince of Malmö

Malmö’s first skyscraper (and one of Sweden’s earliest) was built in 1964 and namned Kronprinsen (The Crown Prince). It stands 27 floors tall and features 700 apartments which can house as many as 3 000 people. The cost of building it was a staggering 90 million SEK (approx. $12 000 000). Standing at the top of the building, on the visitors terrace, one could see all the way over to Copenhagen on clear days. Using the binoculars placed there for viewing pleasure, you could probably also see right into the famous SAS-hotel designed by Arne Jacobsen.

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Swedish Googie design

I recently discovered a Swedish website that featured abandoned and disused places, buildings and what not. One of the locations was one of those old motel / restaurant / bar establishment thingies that was a common sight along the Swedish highways up to the 1980s. The interesting thing about this place is the design. It looks like nothing I have seen before, at least not in Sweden and I was delighted to find out that even a small country like Sweden got a touch of the famous Googie design that was very common in California, USA in the 1950s and 1960s. You can also clearly see it was inspired by the American model of combining roadside motels and diners together.

The place is called Brännebrona Wärdshus och Motell (Brännnebrona Diner and Motel) and I guess it is located near Brännebrona on one of the main roads. It is no longer in use and probably haven’t seen a customer for a decade or so, although I hear they are trying to find a new buyer for the place to fix it up (numerous people have tried and failed). I guess the location is not that great.

If nothing interesting happens I assume they will level the place to the ground in a near future. Would be better to leave it as a museum or roadside architecture for people to enjoy and remember a past time, when things were a bit simpler and happier. (Via)

Ultra Swank – Your one stop blog for retro living, style and design

Ultra Swank takes you back in time into the kitsch, chic and swank living of the 50s, 60s and the 70s. We mainly focus on the design, architecture and the lifestyle of the happy-go-lucky and space-age-living mentality of that era – but also on the music and movies that takes you back to happier times. Ultra Swank is run by Chris, a Swede born in the wrong decade that currently resides in Barcelona. Read more

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