Ralph Erskine (1914–2005) was a British architect and planner who lived and worked in Sweden for nearly his whole career. Born in London to socialist parents and sent to a Quaker school, he took from Quaker ideals his view of society and architecture. Shortly before the Second World War he moved to Sweden, drawn by the work of Asplund, Markelius and Lewerentz and by its welfare state. In Luleå he designed a shopping centre of 1955 described as the first purpose-built enclosed shopping centre in the world. He received the Wolf Prize in 1983 and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1987.
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The Byker Wall in Newcastle upon Tyne (1982) is a long, unbroken block of 620 maisonettes; the architects opened an office on site to build trust with residents, though fewer than a fifth of the original residents were rehoused there. Lilla Bommen in Gothenburg (1989), an 86-metre, 22-floor office tower, is known for its red-and-white colours as "the Lipstick". The Aula Magna at Stockholm University (1997) lines its hall in blond wood under a steeply sloping ceiling shaped to spread the sound.
