At the very top of the Stockholm City Museum there is accommodation consisting of two small rooms. A family with two children lives here. The windows look out onto the building’s stairwell.
It is sometime around the turn of the century 1900 and the two rooms are occupied by the Pihlqvist family; mother Charlotta Albertina, father Olof and children Selma and Gustav. Up and down these stairs they fetch and carry, hop, skip and jump.
The tiled stove in one of the rooms contains an ingenious contraption that makes life easier in the tiny home: a brick wood-burning oven. As well as the small oven, there are two hobs for cooking. Thanks to this appliance, the room can function as a living room, kitchen and bedroom for the cramped inhabitants, whose resources are scarce.
The Pihlqvist family were fortunate to be able to rent rooms in Södra Stadshuset. They may live in overcrowded conditions but many Stockholmers live under worse circumstances.