Masmo

2013-02-10

Updated: 2014-01-27

After a while focusing on the the little jogging track, I thought I'd get back to my random walk through Stockholm. The button was pushed, the subway stations spun past and stopped at... Masmo.

To be honest, I had never heard of this place until I went past here going to Mångkulturellt Centrum for a brunch. Anyway, as far as I can tell, Masmo has at least two points of interest: One is the subway station. It is the first of the "cave stations"[1], that is, subway stations where the surrounding rock was covered with a layer of concrete but without anything further, save a layer of paint. (Compare, for example, with Mariatorget [b].) Husby is a cave station, so of course I'm partial to this look.

The second point of interest is Myrstuguberget [c] (bog house hill), a residential complex designed by Ralph Erskine [d] where most apartments has a wonderful view out over Lake Alby (Albysjön). Erskine's design was much more ambitious than the building that was eventually erected, both in size and in the selection of materials, and his verdict was That's totally uncultured![*][e]. I think it is kinda cool, though. When seen from the other side of Lake Alby, it looks like a second range of hills behind the first. The homeowner association has a gallery of photos taken from various places in the complex [f].