Career
After qualifying as an architect, Erskine began work with the design team for Welwyn Garden City under the leadership of Louis de Soissons. He studied town planning and this interest broadened his approach to architecture, in particular, about how buildings related physically and socially to their setting. In 1936, he became an associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
Before the outbreak of World War II, Erskine travelled to Sweden. He was attracted by his admiration for the work of the Functionalist Swedish architects Gunnar Asplund, Sven Markelius, and Sigurd Lewerentz and by the country's adoption of the social welfare model. In Sweden, the political will was reflected in the national architecture, and these two factors coincided with his own humanist beliefs. He would go on to make an important contribution to the architectural landscape of both his adopted country and to that of England.
In Sweden, England, and Canada, he was responsible for the design of numerous innovative buildings reflecting his particular ideology. They include:
Gyttorp, Nora Municipality, Sweden, 1945 to 1955, housing project for a factory town.
Ski hotel at Borgafjäll (1948–50)
Shopping, the first purpose-built enclosed shopping centre in the world in Luleå, Sweden opened in October 1955 in the small town of Luleå in the far north of Sweden. (By the above definition "Shopping" in Luleå was actually the first shopping centre in the world, and Southdale in Minnesota, United States came second in October 1956.)
The Brittgården residential area at Tibro, Sweden, 1956 to 1959
Svappavaara, Kiruna Municipality, Sweden, 1962, a housing project for a copper mine above the Arctic Circle (this project influenced the design of the northern town of Fermont, Quebec).
Esperanza terraced housing area, Landskrona, Scania, Sweden, around 1968. Built up 1969-70.
Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, 1969.
Resolute, Nunavut
Eaglestone grid square, at Milton Keynes, from 1972 to 1976.
The Byker redevelopment, at Newcastle upon Tyne, from 1969 to 1982.
The Nya Bruket area in Sandviken, Sweden, 1973 to 1978.
The Stockholm University Library (opened in 1983), as well as several other buildings on the university campus including:
Aula Magna, the university's main auditorium
Ekerö centrum (Tappström) in Ekerö Municipality outside Stockholm, 1983 to 1989.
Vasaterminalen bus terminal in Stockholm, together with Bengt Ahlqvist and Anders Tengbom
The London Ark, Hammersmith, London, 1990.
Greenwich Millennium Village, London, from 2000 to 2005.
Erskine was best known in Great Britain for his Byker Wall housing scheme in Newcastle upon Tyne and The London Ark, a commercial project in Hammersmith, London. However, it was his attainment in designing the winning scheme in a 1997 competition to develop the Millennium Community at Greenwich (Greenwich Millennium Village), London, that brought his work to the attention of his fellow countrymen. This recognition came late in a long and productive career.
