From drafting table to student union building : A comparative analysis of Erik and Tore Ahlsén’s planned and realized student union building in Uppsala 1955–1968

This essay examines the architects Erik and Tore Ahlsén’s winning student union building proposal Local from 1955 and compares it with the student union building completed in 1968. The analysis also includes an unrealized building in Odinslund, and how the building plans changed over time between 1955 and 1966. The focus is on what distinguishes the winning proposal from the final building based on questions of style and function. In this way, the study aims to broaden the understanding of the building and site history of the student union building and what expected use the buildings convey. Since the study largely deals with archival material, critical archival studies are one of the methodological starting points of the paper. By processing and analyzing, among other things, plan descriptions, drawings and board minutes, the role of the client, the architects ideas and other actors statements can be clarified and presented. The analysis follows a chronological order from 1955 to 1968, with the dating of the materials forming two nodes in the analysis. In addition, the buildings site and location are analyzed, as well as the buildings technology, materials and floor plans, which leads to a discussion between the intended plans and the implemented design.