Showcasing Vällingby to the world: post-war suburban development, informational infrastructures, and the extrospective city

ABSTRACT

Vällingby – one of the first post-war suburbs in Stockholm – became a well-known and much visited development, a prominent place in the geographical imaginations of many planners and architects during the 1950s and 1960s. This article will consider the ways in which Vällingby was ‘showcased’ to planners and architects outside of Sweden during this period. It will demonstrate how this was achieved through three practices in particular: (1) the hosting of visitors to Vällingby; (2) the promotion of Vällingby by those governing and marketing the development; and (3) the reporting of the development in English language planning and architect journals. In so doing, the article will speak to the academic literature on policy mobilities and two important concepts within it: informational infrastructures and the extrospective city.

KEYWORDS:

• Suburbs
• post-war planning
• policy mobilities
• study tours
• exhibitions
• Stockholm

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the anonymous referees, Michael Hebbert and Stephen Ward for their useful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks also to the many people who assisted in the data collection, in Stockholm and elsewhere.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ian R. Cook is a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at Northumbria University. He is interested in policy mobilities, especially the circulation of planning ideas in the post-war era. He has written numerous articles in journals such as International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Planning Theory and Practice, and Urban Studies.

Notes

1 Deland, The Social City, 9.

2 Hall, “Scandinavian Trips” and “Return to Tradition.”

3 Ibid., 154.

4 Hall, “Return to Tradition,” 60.

5 Hall, “Scandinavian Trips,” 154.

6 See, for example, Markelius, “Stockholms Struktur” and Baumeister, “Das Zentrum von Vällingby.”

7 See, for example, Amati and Freestone, “Saint Patrick;” Healey and Upton, Crossing Borders; Parsons, “Clarence Stein's Manhattan Transfer;” and Ward, “Soviet Communism.”

8 Special issue introduced by Hein, “Exchange of Planning Ideas.”

9 See, for example, Harris and Moore, “Planning Histories” and Healey, “Circuits of Knowledge.”

10 González, “Bilbao and Barcelona,” 1403.

11 McCann and Ward, “A Multi-disciplinary Approach.”

12 Peck and Theodore, “Fast Policy” and Temenos, Baker, and Cook, “Inside Mobile Urbanism.”

13 McCann, “Expertise, Truth, and Urban.”

14 Ibid., 12.

15 McCann, “Toward a Research Agenda,” 114.

16 Cook and Ward, “Conferences, Informational Infrastructures” and Temenos, “Mobilizing Drug Policy Activism.”

17 González, “Bilbao and Barcelona;” Cook, Ward, and Ward, “A Springtime Journey,” “The International Study Tours;” Wood, “Learning Through Policy Tourism;” and Montero, “Inter-city Policing Learning.”

18 McCann, “Policy Boosterism, Policy Mobilities.”

19 Ibid.

20 See, for example, Kennedy, “Urban Policy Mobilities, Argumentation.”

21 Hall, Cities in Civilization.

22 Pass, Vällingby and Farsta; Hall, Cities in Civilization; and Hall, Stockholm.

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid., 15 and Stein, “Stockholm Builds,” 62–63.

25 Hedman, “Non-profit Municipal Housing.”

26 Markelius, “Stockholms Struktur.”

27 Ibid.

28 Parsons, “American Influence on Stockholm.”

29 Kihlberg, Vällingby och Kulturarvet.

30 See, for instance, Cook, Ward, and Ward, “A Springtime Journey,” “The International Study Tours;” and Wagner, “American Downtowns.”

31 Ward, Twentieth Century City.

32 Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, 353–362 and Nicolaides and Wiese, The Suburb Reader, 291–320.

33 See, for example, Mumford, The City in History; cf. Gans, The Levittowners.

34 See Osborn, “Large Metropolitan Areas.”

35 Parsons, “Clarence Stein’s Manhattan Transfer.”

36 Olsen, Better Places, Better Lives.

37 Dagens Nyheter, “Le Corbusier.”

38 Minutes of the Cumbernauld Development Corporation, 8 November 1956.

39 Hancock, “Flemingdon Park.”

40 Cook, Ward, and Ward, “The International Study Tours.”

41 Osborn, “Scandinavia Revisited,” 230.

42 Letter from Yngve Larsson to Clarence Stein, 13 March 1952, Cornell University Division of Rare Manuscript Collections, Ithaca, 3600/16/29.

43 Letter from Albert Mayer to Yngve Larsson, 28 September 1957, Stadsarkivet, Stockholm, SE/SEA/1233/A/13.

44 Letter from Jack Bevash to Clarence Stein, 6 July 1954, Cornell University Division of Rare Manuscript Collections, Ithaca, 3600/16/27.

45 Expressen, “Fröken Vällingby.”

46 Västerort, “Vällingby Presenteras.”

47 For instance, Västerort, “Brunett och Blondin” and Västerort, “Vällingby Presenteras.”

48 McKeever, Europe's Urban Development.

49 Företagarföreningen Vällingby Centrum, Vällingby Centre, 2.

50 Ibid., 1.

51 Markelius, “Stockholms Struktur.”

52 Kidder Smith, Sweden Builds.

53 Sidenbladh, “Stockholm” and Larsson, “Building a City.”

54 Letter from Clarence Stein to Sven Markelius, 31 May 1961, Cornell University Division of Rare Manuscript Collections, Ithaca, 3600/16/28.

55 Freestone, “Exhibition as a Lens.”

56 Gutheim, “Stockholm Architectural Exhibit.”

57 Persson, “Svensk Arkitektexpo i USA.”

58 Stockholms-Tidningen, “Stockholm till Charmoffensiv.”

59 Gutheim, “Stockholm Architectural Exhibit,” B3.

60 See, for example, McLean, “Swedish Suburb,” 10.

61 Mumford, The City in History.

62 Ibid., n.p.

63 Guerin, “Vällingby;” Rosenthal, “Three Centres;” and Terris, “Vällingby Centre.”

64 Beggs, “Operation Vällingby” and Sawyer, “Vällingby.”

65 Kidder Smith, Sweden Builds.

66 Kidder Smith, “Vällingby.”

67 Pass, Vällingby and Farsta.

68 Osborn, “Scandinavia Revisited” and Stein, “Stockholm Builds.”

69 Whittick, “Towards New Towns,” 312.

70 Ibid., 84.

71 See, for example, Terris, “Vällingby Centre.”

72 Whittick, “Towards New Towns,” 84–85.

73 Rosenthal, “Three Centres,” 312.

74 Kidder Smith, Sweden Builds, 6.

75 Kidder Smith, “Vällingby,” 174, emphasis added; cf. Guerin, “Vällingby,” 445 and Jensen, “Vällingby,” 54.

76 Ibid., 175, emphasis added.

77 Huxtable, “Western Europe Is Found.”

78 McCann, “Expertise, Truth, and Urban,” “Toward a Research Agenda,” and “Policy Boosterism, Policy Mobilities.”

79 McCann, “Policy Boosterism, Policy Mobilities.”

80 See, for instance, Vall, “Two Swedish Modernisms.”