ABSTRACT
The Gondolen restaurant, which opened in 1935, is suspended high above the entrance of the port of Stockholm. Offering magnificent views over the archipelago, it was part of a project that completely altered the urban landscape of the district known as Slussen. A public lift was built on the south side of Slussen. It had a small cafe at the top and a bridge that connected it to Mosebacke near the Katarina church on the Sodermalm heights. The Katarina lift, the open-air pedestrian bridge and the Gondolen restaurant, as an ensemble, were like sculptures in the urban space. The lift can also be seen as a parallel to the contemporary transparent lifts, also with displayed machinery, that Gunnar Asplund designed for the Gothenburg Law Courts and for the State Laboratory in Solna. The Gondolen, which was open to the general public, was connected to a staff restaurant of the on the top floor of the Cooperative Union’s new extension.
