Eskil Sundahl studied architecture at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology until 1914 and the Royal Institute of Art until 1918. From 1916, Sundahl ran his own architectural office which he left in 1925 when he became the director of the Kooperativa Förbundets Arkitekt- och Ingenjörsbyrå (The Swedish Cooperative Union architectural and engineering office) also known as KFAI.
During Sundahls leadership KFAI became one of the largest architectural offices in Sweden, with 70 employees in 1935. Among his colleagues one can mention the architects Olof Thunström, Arthur van Schmalensee, Erik Ahlsén and Carl-Axel Acking. Sundahl stayed at KFAI until his retirement in 1958.
For KFAI, Sundahl was behind the idea that all KF-shops should follow a uniformed design. Of his works one can mention the KF-House at Slussen (1935), and the Luma factory in Södra Hammarbyhamnen (1930), both in Stockholm. He also designed furniture, including a chair of bent steel pipes with a leather seat. The chair was designed for the shop concept of KF Sko (the Cooperative Union’s shoe stores). It was produced by Svenska Möbelfabrikerna in Bodafors in 1930. The chair is a part of the collection at The Swedish National Museum of Fine Art in Stockholm.
As an architect, Sundahl started out in a neoclassicist style but later turned to create buildings in a modernistic functionalistic manner. At the Stockholm exhibition in 1930, Sundahl oversaw the school display and was one of the authors of the functionalistic manifesto Acceptera in 1931.
In 1936 Sundahl became a professor in building engineering and three years later in architecture at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Eskil Sundahl died in 1974 at the age of 83.
