Gustaf Birch-Lindgren

Gustaf Birch-Lindgren was the first Swedish architect to graduate from the Royal Institute of Technology. Birch-Lindgren studied at technical and art universities in Stockholm before he started working as an architect in 1915. He followed his father as architect of the penitentiary directorate. In 1949, he established an architects’ office together with Rudolf Holmgren. He was known for his designs for hospital and prison buildings. Birch-Lindgren also built the first motel in Sweden.

His architecture is distinctively functionalistic and expedient. As an expert, he also got involved in planning hospitals in Liberia, Korea, Libya, Kuwait and Lebanon. Birch-Lindgren and Holmberg were also leading architects for building crematories. He promoted winter sports, was on the board of the Swedish Ski Association, designed ski huts, and was a pioneer of Sweden’s Igloo movement. Additionally, he published a number of textbooks. His father Gustaf Lindgren was also an architect.

The first ski jumping facility on Fiskartorpet north of Stockholm was built at the end of the 19th century. The ski jump built by Birch-Lindgren around 1930 is still standing, but was not used after 1982. Carl Florman’s ski lodge was built in 1932 at Ullsjö north of Åre. Here, actress Greta Garbo often spent time between film shootings. The ski huts in Storlien, designed by Birch-Lindgren, were built in 1932 for the later king Gustav VI Adolf as a wedding present, as well as for the director E. Bolinder. The submitted Olympic drawings are probably preliminary studies for these projects. “Högfjällsgården” – today “Danske (gården)” – is a hut from 1928 near the Högfjälls ski hotel, whose first designs were also from Birch-Lindgren. “Rämstugan” or “Rämshyttan” is a hut in the province of Dalarna. It was opened in 1920 but burned down in 2014.