Harads Explained

Official Name:Harads
Pushpin Map:Sweden Norrbotten#Sweden
Pushpin Label Position:top
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:Sweden
Subdivision Type3:Municipality
Subdivision Name3:Boden Municipality
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Name2:Norrbotten County
Subdivision Type1:Province
Subdivision Name1:Norrbotten
Area Footnotes:[1]
Area Total Km2:1.29
Population As Of:31 December 2010
Population Total:501
Population Density Km2:387
Timezone:CET
Utc Offset:+1
Timezone Dst:CEST
Utc Offset Dst:+2
Coordinates:66.0667°N 79°W

Harads (in Swedish pronounced as /ˈhɑ̂ːrads/)[2] is a locality situated in Boden Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden, approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, with 501 inhabitants in 2010. It is the main village in the parish of Edefors.

Among the key sites of the municipality is the Edefors church, from 1928, designed by Stockholm architect John Åkerlund (1884-1961) in an eclectic style, combining the simplified style of Nordic Classicism with more National Romantic elements. The church replaced an older church, dating from 1888, and designed clearly in the National Romantic style, which had been destroyed in a fire in 1918.

Harads is also the home of the Treehotel complex, devised by entrepreneur Kent Lindvall in 2010, with the "rooms" of the hotel built high into the canopy of a pine forest. The "rooms", each designed by a different architect, are encapsulated in their names, such as "Mirrorcube", "UFO", "Blue Cone", "Bird's Nest". Lindvall argues that the design idea of the hotel is based on the ecological principle of sustainability.[3] [4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Tätorternas landareal, folkmängd och invånare per km2 2005 och 2010 . 14 December 2011 . . Swedish . https://web.archive.org/web/20120127055525/http://www.scb.se/Statistik/MI/MI0810/2010A01/Tatorternami0810tab1_4.xls . 27 January 2012 . live . 10 January 2012 .
  2. Book: Svenska ortnamn med uttalsuppgifter. Jöran Sahlgren. Gösta Bergman. sv. 1979. 10.
  3. http://machineagechronicle.com/2011/04/feel-free-in-a-tree/ "Feel free in a tree", Machine Age Chronicle, April 7th, 2011.
  4. Web site: 50 of the world's most unusual hotels . Telegraph.