and series of spaces appealing to the eye. Hallman's design was a sharp break with the contemporary narrow, dark, and often filthy backyards. In contrast to them, the involved architects — including Björn Hedwall, Paul Hedqvist, and Sven Wallander — carefully detailed the façades and gables facing the interior with simple classical ornaments and warm red and yellow colours. Of the 2.500 flats in the area, many included novelties such as warm and cold water, WC, and even bath tubes, but most of them were small — half of them was a single room with a kitchen or even less. Atlas The area next to the Sankt Eriksbron bridge was until the turn of century 1900 a heavily industrial district. The Atlas Area, east of the bridge and named after industrial company Atlas AB whose workshops used to occupy the area, presents features unique to Stockholm. The plan for the area was passed in 1926 and construction works immediately followed. In contrast to the newly built Röda Bergen, much of which was built by HSB, the builders at Atlas were private entrepreneurs. While this resulted in a much criticized high exploitation, the city building committee in 1926 concluded the area could boast an intelligible order and a regularity the neighbouring Rörstrand Area still couldn't present notwithstanding recent redesign attempts. The most striking feature of Atlas is the level difference between the surrounding streets and the area itself. Like at Röda Bergen, the buildings delimiting Atlas form a coherent wall where the exterior façades are six floors tall while the interior façades are nine floors tall. The buildings inside the area are 5–6 floors, concealing the dark narrow backyards while separated by widened streets with plantations. The difference in level was solved by mean of monumental flights of stairs resulting in the tall porticoes leading into the area. The flats in Atlas were small — 1–2 rooms and a kitchen — and dark — a result of exploitation and the wide building volumes — but featured modernities such as central heating and bathrooms. The reduced classical ornamentation and the perpendicular plan has, however, given the area a monumentality which is characteristic for the National Romantic Swedish architecture of the 1920s. The contrast between the heavily trafficked surroundings streets and the calm interior of Atlas, brilliantly exposed through the large porticoes, still makes Atlas a popular area. Notes References Districts of Stockholm