Pop up park Humlegårdsgatan

In the middle of Stockholm’s shopping district, we have created an oasis and transformed a formerly anonymous street into a destination for socializing and hanging out. Welcome to the livingroom of the city. 

There are references to the High Line in New York and the benched landscape of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo; at least if you chose to believe what visitors to our Pop Up Park on Humlegårdsgatan say about the experience. Here, on the street’s lower 50 meters we have created a temporary street park, commissioned by the life insurance company Gamla Liv, and the City of Stockholm. We feel it’s like the living room moving out into the street, to meet Danish sand dunes and Italian sorbet.

Four similar Pop Up Parks will be created in Stockholm during the summer of 2016 with the ambition to highlight the potential of a handful of specific streets and their surrounding area.

Danish sand dunes meets Italian sorbet.

“Our analysis of Humlegårdsgatan is that it’s quite a narrow, dirty and noisy street. Despite being busy it’s quite anonymous, with little-to-no space for relaxation.

The aim with this project is to strengthen the path between the popular Stureplan and Östermalmstorg Squares, and also highlight Humlegårdsgatan as a destination with a character of its own. We wanted to brighten it up, give it air and add places to pause – rather than simply pass by. A room to live in,” says Åse Larsson, architect in charge at Tengbom.

A cluster of wooden platforms, painted in mint green and pink, actively reduces the pace on the street, where all traffic by car is forbidden during the time the park is open. The wooden furniture become urban stylized islands, with seats in different levels and in all directions. By docking them to the pavement we extend the width of the ‘outside room’ and erase the borders between street and pavement. So far, the islands have been used for both morning meditation and as a buffet stand when the park was inaugurated.

“We wanted to create a space that is easy going, democratic and filled with activity.”

– Oscar Malmerberg and Anders Brandstedt

“We’re happy to see passersby and people in the area already making the park their own, using it for their own purposes. We wanted to create a space that is easy going, democratic and filled with activity, so it’s really fulfilling our vision,” says Oscar Malmerberg and Anders Brandstedt, landscape architects at Tengbom.

The islands are filled with greenery and painted in sorbet colours – associated to the summertime. Even the floor has been painted in a pattern resembling sprinkles. Behind the concept, breathing playfulness and summer break, lies a thorough analysis of the traffic situation and the current situation, aiming to find improvements for the area. The hope is that the initiative becomes so appreciated that the Traffic Office and the City of Stockholm will see potential in more and bigger, perhaps even permanent, Pop Up Parks all over the city. Together we claim the streets.

The initiative to the park comes from Gamla Liv, which also owns the properties on both sides of the street.