On the morning of Sunday 3 September 1967, Sweden enacted one of the most ambitious infrastructural and socio-technical transformations in its history: the shift from left- to right-hand traffic, also known as Dagen H or Högertrafikomläggningen (lit. “the right-hand traffic reorganisation”). The event mobilized an unprecedented range of design, planning, and communication strategies—spanning urban spaces, rural roads, signage systems, vehicle components, and public transport networks, as well as the collective psyche of an entire nation—including the popular song Håll dej till höger, Svensson. This proposal considers Dagen H as more than a logistical feat; it suggests to read the event as a design experiment at the scale of the nation, a performative reprogramming of public space grounded in the values of the folkhemmet (the Social Democratic welfare state policy, 1932–1976). Within this framework, mobility is not treated as a neutral flow but as a spatial, political, and symbolic construct—designed, rehearsed, and performed. This contribution aims at rethinking infrastructures of movement beyond engineering rationality, by framing Högertrafikomläggningen as a prototype of spatial transformation where architecture, planning, and communication merged into a coordinated national choreography. Particular attention is given to the often-overlooked design aspects: temporary signage, gloves and decals, public education campaigns, redesigned intersections and bus stops, tramline conversions, bus adaptations, and reconfiguration of road markings and signage. These elements suggest an expanded field of architectural agency—one that inhabits the in-between spaces of infrastructure, design, governance, and daily life. Drawing on archival material, visual culture, and the rhetoric of modernity in mid-20th-century Sweden, the text questions how design mediates large-scale behavioural change and reflects on the temporality and adaptability of infrastructural systems.
Bibliography
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