Baronbackarna in Örebro, Sweden

The layout of Baronbackarna is organised around meandering paths, with outward-facing parking courts and inward-facing play courtyards oriented towards a larger central park containing schools and preschools. Here, too, the housewife was placed at the centre during the decade of the homemaker – a period when rising wages made it possible for a single income to support a family. From the kitchen, she had a clear view of the play courtyard, regardless of orientation.

In the competition proposal, this idea was described in the language of its time:
“The courtyard forms a shared outdoor living room for the residents. This is where the children play, where adults meet, where the father returns home from work, where the mother goes to the shop, and where the children come home from school.”

Baronbackarna marked an important step in the ambitions of Swedish social housing to eliminate overcrowding. It was a period during which Sweden moved, in little more than a decade, from one of Europe’s lowest housing standards to the foundations of a welfare society. The project also stands as an innovative example of good architecture – one that builds on proven knowledge while actively seeking new solutions to new problems.

For Sidney White, architecture was always about the life to be lived within the buildings– and, perhaps most importantly, about participating in the development of society. These ideas remain with us today.