Last Thursday before yoga class, I had wandered the campus of the Royal Institute of Technology. Having some spare time I decided to try and enter the new Architect School building. It was locked, but two students told me that Open House Stockholm would have an open day there on Saturday, and also in the decommissioned Reactor R1, which was the first nuclear reactor built in Sweden. That got my attention, I had wanted to see the place ever since I first heard about it ten years ago. I marked my calendar, and thought it could be fun to try to do some dance photos down there. My dance friend Jacqueline Sogell was keen to join me, so we decided to meet up just before 10:00 when it was opening.
We were in the first elevator down with urban tourists, and quickly took a picture before the space filled up with people. There was a big bright lamp just to the left which put Jacqueline in the spotlight. You can see the old reactor space to the right of her. In the background are the scientists’ old offices. They now have video projections in some of the windows.There are two ways to get down to the reactor space. Elevators, and a set of stairs. We are here 25 meters below ground deep in the bedrock.It was really fun to explore this hidden part of KTH with so much history in the walls.We headed down to the reactor hall again for some more photos. Here I have photoshopped away a piece of the railing.It was a fun game of trying to find spots with good lighting, to make Jacqueline stand out against the background.Back at the first spot again. While here we met Leif Handberg who is in charge of the old reactor space, and he told us about the history.We took the stairs up, and just outside the second entrance shot this picture.Jacqueline Sogell
Our next stop was the Architect School building, which also had open house.
We stopped in front of it, and took some pictures capturing movement.There is a little pit surrounded by rusty metal and glass, with creative concrete benches.I really like the rusty colour palette. As we were photographing here Jacqueline suddenly said “We got an audience!”. I turned around and saw a couple of people looking over the railing.It was more than just a couple of people. The Stockholm Open House guided tour had arrived, so we decided to join them.The staircase in the architect building.Jacqueline spinning around in the staircase.We got to the top, and then headed back down again for a last set of photos.Jacqueline SogellJacqueline SogellJacqueline Sogell. Last photo of the day.
Many thanks to Jacqueline for a fun photoshoot, and to Akademiska Hus, Open House Stockholm and Leif Handberg for letting us visit this historic location. Ps, the blog post name is pronounced “Science and Art are one”, a play on the motto of the Royal Institute of Technology — Science and Art, and the name of the reactor R1.
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