Riksdagshuset, Stockholm

Riksdagshuset is the working home of Sweden’s parliament, a monumental complex on Helgeandsholmen. Aron Johansson designed the building in the Neoclassical style, with a Baroque Revival section occupying the façade’s central portion. Construction ran from 1897 to 1905.

Look at the broad entrance frontage: its formal mass gives you a sense of the ambition behind a building created for national government. The complex originally brought together parliamentary chambers and the Swedish National Bank: one building served the Riksdag, while the other had a semicircular plan. When Sweden changed from a bicameral to a unicameral parliament in 1971, the former bank premises were rebuilt for the new Assembly Hall.

That work took place from 1980 to 1983, and during it the Riksdag used temporary premises in Kulturhuset near Sergels torg. The building opened in 1905, replacing the older Parliament House on Riddarholmen. Parliament House has also hosted ceremonies for the Right Livelihood Award, established in 1980 to honour practical responses to urgent global challenges. The building’s story is therefore written into both its imposing exterior and its changing interior purpose.