The Main Districts

There is no way one talks to you about Stockholm without evoking the enchanting old town. Gamla Stan dates back from the medieval time. The charming narrow streets, small plots, gabled-roof houses, the churches make the district the most touristy and popular neighbourhood in the city. Nevertheless, this town part evolved with time. Its several museums help us discovering the city and its history. Gamla Stan is full of sights, cafés, restaurants, bars, souvenirs and shops but the most visited site is the Royal Palace, one of the largest palaces in the world, with over 600 rooms.

North German architecture's had a strong influence in the Old Town's construction. 

Norrmalm is the central business district known as City of Stockholm, but also the place to do shopping in Stockholm. With its several shopping malls, museums, hotels, restaurants, theatres, and the biggest trailway station, Norrmalm is the new and young district of Stockholm. This borough also contains a large pedestrian shopping street, Drottninggatan, known for contains several clothing shops and large-scale classic stores. It was partly insipired by the USA's architecture.

Lärkstaden is an urban area within the city district of Östermalm in central Stockholm.

The present buildings, terrain-hugging courtyard blocks and villas, were built from 1907 to 1917 by Per Olof Hallman, in purpose of renovate the district. The masterpiece of this district is the Engelbrekt church, in the National Romantic style, which dominates the district with its spectacular high.

The stellar piazza, Karlaplan’s most famous place, circular in shape and with streets radiating out from it, was based above on the Paris’s Place Charles de Gaulle design and was the height of fashion in the closing decades of the 19th century. The wide new streets and spacious piazzas admitted light and air. Private developers built apartment blocks, with apartments to let yard blocks and overlooking narrow streets.

Gamla enskede is a district created in 1904 to provide housing for workers. Built with wood and pointed roofs, the villas represent the typical architectural type of the district. The streets were made to be such as English garden city : crooked and bent streets, not completely straight.

Hammarby Sjöstad is an urban development project. The city decided to make Hammarby Sjöstad, a former industrial zone, the first Ecocity district in Stockholm. Still on-going, the district has a very special architecture. First of all, it is developped around a lake. Most of the buildings are wooden houses. Eco-features are well integrated into the design of the whole project.

The green roofs are made for bind rainwater so that it evaporates. The street rainwater are present and locally treated then flows into the lake instead of flowing to a treatment plant. All frontage and roofing materials are free from heavy metals. Almost all the roofs are covered by solar panels, used for heating hot water during the summer months .

All this features make Hammarby Sjöstad a very special district, where the water and the ecology are first concern.