eneborg's egnahem, workers' housing, helsingborg, skåne, sweden 1911-1918. architect: sigurd lewerentz (1885-1975)

planning: torsten stubelius from 1907-1911, with sigurd lewerentz from 1911-1914.

so many things are just right in lewerentz' early workers' housing in eneborg - the sense of scale, the simplicity, the dark clinker-burnt brickwork - but the part that moved me the most was the tiny staircases leading to the first floor flats.

when you enter, they speak to you first of the severe economy of social housing, but if you stay for just a moment you realise that they are the work of a poet, and of a very particular kind too; one who will make poetry of the given, who does not need to add anything for effect.

the stairs wind around a central brick pillar to which lewerentz added a narrow opening on the ground floor, ending in a tiny three centred brick arch. similar arches span from the pillar to the walls of the stairwell and their geometry, slightly more complex than the semicircular arch one would expect, gives them an almost hand-drawn quality.

it all receives the reflected light of a single window above and that's it. I wouldn't blame anyone for not noticing, this is as quiet as architecture gets, but it made me very happy.

the lewerentz set.

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