While walking along the water yesterday at about eight o’clock, the evening sun was unusually flattering and made me look at this bridge twice before realizing how a beautiful light can make such a difference on subjects that don’t always get the attention they deserve.

For the thousands of commuters rushing over it every day, Johanneshovsbron is just a functional stretch of concrete – a sterile artery connecting Södermalm to the southern suburbs of Stockholm. But when I look below the roaring traffic lanes to the edge of the peaceful waterway of Årstaviken, a completely different perspective reveals itself; an interesting collision of contexts. The massive, terracotta-tinted concrete pillars of the bridge rise out of the river like ancient columns, leaving the delicate, historic timber of Sundsta gård on the far left bank as a reminder of yesteryear.

It’s a wonderful juxtaposition that captures two entirely different eras of Swedish design: the raw, brutalist ambition of Johanneshovsbron colliding with the elegant, almost brittle, early 19th-century Empire style – known in Sweden as Karl Johansstil.