TV tower: Kaknastornet

17th June 2016

To Stockholm for meetings with colleagues on the 2-IMMERSE research project, and to dinner on the 28th floor of the television tower known as Kaknastornet. This truly splendid example of 1960s brutalism is 155 metres tall and remains a major hub for satellite services. They say the views from the restaurant are spectacular, but last night pretty much all we could see was the dense mist that was shrouding the building. The building itself, however, is more than enough of a treat.

A shot of Kaknastornet by Jonas Bergsten, released into the public domain via Wikimedia.

Designed by architects Hans Borgstrom (page in Swedish) and Bengt Lindroos, it was begun in 1963, although this photograph of it under construction is probably from 1966.

I am a sucker both for bold concrete architecture and for the technology of television, and there is something hugely satisfying, for me at least, at seeing the two so spectacularly combined. And there is more historical transmission tech in this short news report (in Swedish) marking the opening of the tower – along with a sense of the restaurant that hardly seems to have changed in the past 50 years (and which remains a splendid place to eat).

Lead image: photograph by Holger.Ellgard shared under a CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.