A room for children, a house. A place for collective play and learning. Mattias Åkeson’s Barnstugan refers to the state inquiry (1968-72) of the same name which led to legislation that legally enshrined the rights of children in Sweden to have access to public pre-school education and care. The artist’s work has its starting point in this particular period in history, when the idea of the collective was stronger than that of the individual. His focus however is directed at contemporary times, towards our situation today. The artist is interested in how the passage of time has affected us, as much as he is interested in how architecture and its spaces affect us.

A specific type of pre-school buildings that were designed at this time and were built in many locations in Stockholm and surrounding suburban areas – often in the middle of residential areas – originate from the same drawing board as Ingmar Bergman’s house that was located inan isolated spot at Hammars on the island of Fårö. These two building designs resemble each other so strongly that one could almost believe that there must have been something of a mix up among the design blueprints at Abramson’s architecture bureau. Or is it simply the case that the orders and specifications for these different buildings were just very similar?

/Niklas Östholm (translation: Finbar Krook Rosato)