Riks - a telephone booth

In 1933 the company Oslo Telefonanlegg set up a public design contest to make a standardized telephonebooth that was not to cost more than 1000 NOK and was sturdy and easy to assemble. Among 93 contributions, the arcitect Georg Fredrik Fasting won the contest, with his booth called "Riks". It was red and functional, made in iron and glass.

The need for phonebooths was raised in a time when a telephone was expensive and hard to get, and cellphones did not yet exist. During the 1970-80's there was over 6000 of these booths, all over Norway. But when the private phones got more and more comon, and the cellphone got very popular in the 1990's, the need for phonebooths decreased as well. And because of vandalism and low profit, there is almost no booths left at small places in Norway today.

In June 2007 the government signed an agreement with the phonecompany, to save the remaining 100 of the last 420 red phonebooths in Norway.

The booth in the picture is placed at Ruseløkkveien in Oslo.

Photo: by Stormel