Ahlberg established his own office in 1917.[citation needed] He was best known as the official architect for the repair and restoration of Gripsholm Castle, near the town of Mariefred, in central Sweden. He was one of the founding members and first president of the Swedish Architects' Association and was known as an active participant in architectural debates. He was editor-in-chief of the Swedish architectural journals Arkitekten in 1922 and Byggmästaren, 1922–24. He was also president of the Swedish Academy of Fine Arts 1954–62.[2]
Ahlberg's principal role in Swedish architecture was not as a "leader of style" but as an idealistic leader, as an organiser and spokesman of the Swedish architectural profession.[3]
As an architect, he was part of the brief movement called Nordic Classicism, but with clear links with Swedish vernacular architecture, as expressed in the simple wooden houses he designed for the Swedish trade union-run folk high schoolBrunnsvik folkhögskola) in Ludvika parish, during 1928. He designed a number of churches (e.g., Mälarhöjden church, Stockholm, 1929), museums, and residences. His most important works are the Arts and Crafts pavilion of the Gothenburg exhibition in 1923 and the PUB department store in central Stockholm, from 1924. Ahlberg also designed several hospitals, including the Sidsjön mental hospital in Sundsvall 1939–44, the Children's clinic in Oslo, Norway (1946–50), and the University Hospital in Maracaibo, Venezuela (1946–54).[4]
