Stockholm Town Hall, 1911–23 (architect: Ragnar Östberg), view from Riddarholmen. Photograph: Arild Vågen, Creative Commons

Enskilda Banken, Stockholm, at Kungsträdgårdgatan, 1912–15 (architect: Ivar Tengbom). Photograph: Holger Ellgard, Creative Commons

Liljevalch Kosthall, 1913–16 (architect: Carl Bergsten), situation in 2008. Photograph: Holger Ellgaard, Creative Commons

Villa Snellman, 1917–18 (architect: Gunnar Asplund), view from the west. Photograph: Holger Ellgaard, Creative Commons

Woodland Chapel, 1918–20 (architect: Gunnar Asplund). Photograph: Peter Guthrie, Creative Commons

Chapel of the Resurrection, 1926 (architect: Sigurd Lewerentz). Photograph: Josep Maria Torra, Creative Commons

Woodland Cemetery with the Holy Cross near the portico of the Holy Cross Chapel, 1933–40 (architects: Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz). Photograph: Håkan Svensson Xauxa, Creative Commons

Lister Courthouse, Solvesborg, 1917–21 (architect: Gunnar Asplund), main front with sunken entrance. Photograph: Anders Bengtsson, with kind permission

Stockholm City Library, 1918–25 (architect: Gunnar Asplund). Photograph: Peter Guthrie, Creative Commons

Stockholm City Library, 1918–25 (architect: Gunnar Asplund), detail of the reading room. Photograph: Peter Guthrie, Creative Commons

Concert Hall, Stockholm, 1923–26 (architect: Ivar Tengbom), main façade. Photograph: MnGyver, Creative Commons

Svenska Tändsticksbolaget (Swedish Matches, Inc.), headquarters, 1926–28 (architect: Ivar Tengbom), main entrance. Photograph: Holger Ellgaard, Creative Common

Svenska Tändsticksbolaget (Swedish Matches, Inc.), headquarters, 1926–28 (architect: Ivar Tengbom). Photograph: Hassan Bagheri, with kind permission

Concert Hall, Helsingborg, 1925–32 (architect: Sven Markelius). Photograph: Creative Commons

Swedish Grace

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Nordisk Klassicism (Nordic classicism) made its appearance in the architecture of Scandinavia and Finland around the First World War and lasted until the end of the 1920s. This classicism has been a meaningful and consistent phase in the development of Nordic architecture. In Nordic classicism the concepts of wood and stone building are closely related, and those of concrete materials are near to traditional stone building. The architects of the Nordic countries were strongly affected by ideas of the Deutscher Werkbund, and in Sweden the classicism of Heinrich Tessenow attracted even more attention.

TRADITION AND MODERNITY
Swedish architecture of this period differs in scale and monumentality from the representative neo-classicism that manifested itself in other European countries. In Sweden, architects did not strive after the abstract ideas of the neo-classical, but tried to reduce formal language and exploit the effects of materials and surface by means of unity and economy of contrast—a more traditional type of classicism. The key words were form, material, and colour. Important factors were the plastering technique and new plastering materials, including coloured plasters. While reddish-yellow toned plaster once dominated Swedish buildings, now green, grey, deep red, and pink were possible, although blue was still rare. In addition, lime plaster was replaced by plaster containing cement, which was thinner and stronger. A thin wash of coloured plaster over brickwork revealed the texture of the brick beneath. Another technique to enhance surface texture was the application of a thicker coat of plaster, creating a surface that seemed to shift. All the opportunities for effective treatment of smooth wall surfaces were employed. At the same time cement and concrete were developed for decorative and ornamental effects.

The Swedish attitude to the classical idiom produced sophisticated, elegant, slightly mannered architecture that was particularly admired abroad. For the first time since the era of father and son Tessin in the seventeenth century, Sweden stepped into the international arena of architecture. Since the English critic Morton Shand introduced the term in his description of the Swedish pavilion at the Paris Exhibition of 1925, this modern classicism of Sweden was labelled ‘Swedish Grace.’

Swedish Grace is proof of how tradition and modernity together can create a refined yet interesting architecture. The tendency towards mannerism can be traced primarily to the work on the interiors of Ragnar Östberg’s Stockholms Stadshus (1912–23). In international architectural history Östberg is regarded as an architect of the national romantic style, but he was of vital importance to the development of Swedish Nordic classicism. The monumental Stockholm City Hall, situated on the shores of Lake Mälar, combines the rustic with the elegant. The exterior’s dark red brick contrasts with the copper surfaces of the building’s roofs and spires. The high tower rises from a granite base to a brick column, lifting a copper lantern with gilded crowns. Inside, classical influences are clearly evident, particularly in furniture and such interior spaces as the Golden Hall and the Prince’s Gallery with its double colonnade. Östberg employed many young architects, artists, and artisans to create his Gesamtkunstwerk. He had a decisive effect on his young collaborators, Gunnar Asplund, Ivar Tengbom, and Sigurd Lewerentz. These architects came into prominence in the period of Swedish Grace.

THE BEGINNING OF MODERN NEO-CLASSICISM
Ivar Tengbom introduced the neo-classical movement in his monumental Enskilda Banken (1912–15), at the Kungsträdgården in Stockholm. He abandoned the heavy brick architecture of national romanticism and gave this building a mannerist tendency in the contrast between the rusticated basement, the smoothly rendered walls, and the sculptures around the doors. Since freestanding columns were forbidden at Kungsträdgården, Tengbom projected four ovular engaged columns at the façade and crowned them with sculptures by Carl Milles. Behind the closed exterior is a strikingly light and airy interior with a central, arcaded hall that refers to Florentine courtyards. The interior also shows the architect’s adoption of Josef Hoffmann’s classical tendencies. Tengbom followed his master Carl Westman in expressing the connection between construction and form, but he worked with a more modern type of building and a different building technique, revealing a more sophisticated attitude.

Sophistication also characterizes Liljevalch Konsthall (1913–16), a design by Carl Bergsten commissioned by the sawmill magnate Carl Fredrik Liljevalch. The poor soil condition of Stockholm’s Djursgården compelled him to use reinforced concrete. This material motivated the application of a simple, classical relationship between pillars and beams. On the exterior, the building’s concrete frame is closed with brickwork, of which the structure is still visible through the thin red grout of the plaster. The building has classical forms, and a compact plan with several exhibition spaces. The high sculpture hall, which is lit by clerestory windows, has a side arcade that functions as a gathering lobby. The flight of stairs in the sculpture hall and the portico of the garden façade reflect the influence of the German architect Heinrich Tessenow, who was highly appreciated in Sweden. The elegant rationalism of this art gallery came to typify much of the 1920s classical architecture.

ASPLUND AND LEWERENTZ
Gunnar Asplund was seen as one of the central figures of Nordic classicism in Sweden. He created many influential but widely divergent designs. Villa Snellman (1917–18) at Djursholm, a suburban district of Stockholm, is exemplary for his interest in the composition of the façade. The pattern of fenestration provides calmness in the austere grey-rendered walls, while the subtle small ornaments above the white painted doors and windows have a strong influence on the plain façade. The two-and-a-half-storey villa has a remarkable L-shape floor plan: a main wing and a lower service wing skewed at an angle of six degrees. The exterior spells calm order, but the plan of the interior is complex and irregular, with mannerist features. Villa Snellman is often compared with Ahxner House (1911), designed by Asplund’s good friend Lewerentz; and indeed there are certain similarities, though as many differences.

In 1914 Asplund won, in collaboration with Sigurd Lewerentz, the first prize in the international competition for a cemetery in South Stockholm (1914–40) on a site of former gravel pits overgrown with pine trees. They created Skogskyrkogården (Woodland Cemetery), a new type of cemetery that had a profound influence on cemetery design. Skogskyrkogården has been a Unesco World Heritage site since 1994. Under its slender, dark pine trees you’ll find the intimate Skogskapellet (1918–20). This Woodland Chapel, one of Asplund’s most memorable works, is strongly influenced by the rustic classical building Liselund on the Danish island of Møn. Lewerentz’ main task was the layout of the cemetery. A long path leads from the entrance through a pastoral landscape, complete with a large pond and a meditation hill, to a large, detached granite cross. This cross stands next to the abstract portico of the crematorium and the chapels of the Holy Cross, Faith, and Hope—a later work of Asplund (1933–40). At the end of the Way of Seven Wells, Lewerentz built the Chapel of the Resurrection (1926). A detached column portico forms the crosswise entrance to the tall narrow chapel, which has a slender Greek aedicula and only one window facing south. This severe building must be counted as the most sophisticated work of Swedish classical creations of the 1920s.

Another design of Asplund that became an icon of Swedish Grace is Lister Härads Tingshus (1917–21) in the small town of Sölvesborg. This District Courthouse is situated on axis with the main railway station, at the end of an ascending avenue. The broad gable of the main façade, rendered pale and decorated with classical motifs, gives the courthouse a certain grandeur. The semicircular entrance, set in a solemn sunken arch, has its counterpart in the station house. This original eighteenth-century motif returned en vogue in the 1920s. Lister Courthouse follows the basic layout of the courthouse at Nyköping, designed by Asplund’s former teacher Carl Westman, although the two buildings are very different. Asplund gave his building elementary geometrical forms, such as the purely circular courtroom, which is the core of the rectangular building volume, and forms a projecting apse at the backside of the building.

The monumental Stockholms Stadsbibliotek (1918–28) is a landmark in the city and gives the visitor an extraordinary experience of space upon entering. The library was the last classical work of Asplund. When he was invited to investigate a program for a city library, he visited libraries in Germany, England, and the United States, and came to the idea of a central hall surrounded by reading rooms. His first sketch, made in 1918, was based on Palladio’s Villa Rotonda, but the design of 1922 is closer to the final building. As designing progressed the building became increasingly abstract and simplified. The floor plan of the library demonstrates an interaction between square and circle. The majestic drum forms the central lending hall, furnished with bookcases on three superposed galleries and lit by clerestory windows and an enormous chandelier. The square building that surrounds the hall houses reading rooms, a children’s library, and a bookshop. The smoothly rendered, red façades of the building have only two decorative elements: large Egyptian portals that seem to be borrowed from Copenhagen’s Thorvaldsen Museum and a double frieze with classical motifs and hieroglyphics above the rustication that covers the exterior up to reading room level. The interior is refined and includes such features as scenes from Homer’s Iliad, which decorate the sidewalls of the vestibule.

TENGBOM AND MARKELIUS
Characteristic of Nordic classicism is Tengbom’s Konserthus in Stockholm (1923–26). The building is an impressive light-blue plastered cube, which seems weightless despite its large volume. The high, massive colonnade that is applied to the front gives the impression of an independent element. Tengbom won the 1920 competition in part because of the interesting interior: the great concert hall looks like a courtyard, with slender columns under a weightless floating blue ceiling and set against the false perspective of the stage’s back wall. The interior shows many artistic contributions, and the foyer and staircase make clear why this type of design is called Swedish Grace.

A similar elegance can be seen in Tengbom’s Svenska Tändsticksaktiebolaget (1926–28), the headquarters of the Swedish Match Company in Stockholm. The complex is built at the stately Västra Trädgårdsgatan and replaces a seventeenth-century palace. Tengbom preserved the distinguished unity of the street by designing a building with a restrained character. He actually divided the site into three houses with courtyards to provide the offices with daylight: thin striping in the red-washed brick façade indicates the three different parts of the building. The portico in the centre leads to a semicircular courtyard, a cour d’honneur, with granite columns. In the back wall of the courtyard five high, narrow windows indicate the most magnificent room of the building, a session hall, which extends upwards in two stories and is embellished with precious intarsias. Ivar Kreuger, the client, wanted an office that symbolised his economic power and international prestige, and Tengbom created a building that was the culmination of luxury architecture of the 1920s.

The first important work of Sven Markelius, the concert hall in Hälsingborg (1925–32), indicated the break-up with Nordic classicism in Sweden. His first sketch (1918) for a concert hall was in a national romantic style, while his winning competition proposal (1926–28) had an excessively neo-classical character, with Schinkelian volumes and Pompeian interiors. But his confrontation with the new European architecture of the time induced him to a complete reworking of the project, in favour of the whole-hearted acceptance of Functionalism, which lies beyond the scope of this virtual tour. After the breakthrough of Functionalism in 1930, Nordic Classicism was long thought of as a mere interlude or even a disturbance between Art Nouveau and Functionalism. But since the revival of interest in the 1980s, scholars recognize its important role in the development of modern architecture.

Mieke Sipkes Nouwens
[Leiden University, Institute of Cultural Disciplines]
Netherlands

Selected Bibliography
- Ahlberg, Hakon. Swedish Architecture of the Twentieth Century. London: Benn, 1925.
- Ahlin, Janne. Sigurd Lewerentz, Architect, 1885–1975. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 1985
- Anderssson, Henrik O., & Bedoire, Fredric. Svensk arkitektur: Ritningar 1640–1970/Swedish Architecture: Drawings 1640–1970. Stockholm: Byggförlaget, 1976.
- Blundell Jones, Peter. Gunnar Asplund. London: Phaidon, 2006.
- Caldenby, Claes; Lindvall, Jöran, & Wang, Wilfried, eds. 20^th Century Architecture Sweden. Munich-New York: Prestel, 1998.
- Cornell, Elias. Ragnar Ostberg: Svensk arkitekt. Stockholm: Byggmästarens Förlag, 1965.
- Cornell, Elias. Stockholm Townhall. Stockholm: Byggförlaget, 1992.
- Donnelly, Marian C. Architecture in the Scandinavian Countries. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.
- Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: A Critical History. Third ed., New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992.
- Miller Lane, Barbara. National Romanticism and Modern Architecture in Germany and the Scandinavian Countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
- Lund, Nils-Ole. Nordic Architecture. Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 2008.
- Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Nightlands: Nordic Building. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
- Östberg, Ragnar. The Stockholm Town Hall. Stockholm: Norsted, 1929.
- Paavilainen, Simo, ed. Nordisk Klassicism—Nordic Classicism 1910–1930. Helsinki: Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1982.
- Pevsner, Nikolaus. An Outline of European Architecture. Revised. ed., London: Thames and Hudson, 2009.
- Rasmussen, Steen Eiler. Nordische Baukunst: Beispiele und Gedanken zur Baukunst unserer Zeit in Dänemark und Schweden. Berlin: Wasmuth, 1940.
- Sipkes Nouwens, Mieke. Fascinatie, Inspiratie en Invloed: De betekenis van de bouwkunst in Scandinavië en Finland voor de Nederlandse architectuur tussen 1900–1940. Unpublished master’s thesis, Leiden University, 2008.
- Svedberg, Olle. Arkitekternas århundrade: Europas arkitektur 1800-talet. Stockholm: Arkitektur Forlag, 1988.
- Tengbom, Anders, ed. Tengboms: Ett arkitektkontors utveckling sedan 1905. Stockholm: Tengbom gruppen, 1991.
- Wærn, Rasmus, ed. Guide till Sveriges arkitektur, byggnadekonst under 1000 år. Stockholm: Arkitektur Forlag AB, 2001.
- Wrede, Stuart. The Architecture of Gunnar Asplund. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1980.

Periodicals for Swedish architects of the Period
- Arkitektur (1901– ; from 1922 onwards Byggmästaren: Tidskrift för arkitektur och byggnadsteknik), Stockholm
- Arkitekten: Tidsskrift for bygningsvæsen (1900– ), Copenhagen
- Wasmuths Monatshefte für Baukunst (1914–42), Berlin

Selected Weblinks
Arkitekurmuseet / Museum of Architecture Stockholm
http://www.arkitekturmuseet.se
Erik Gunnar Asplund Arkitekturstitelses Websida: The EGA Architecture Foundation
http://www.erikgunnarasplund.com
Liljevalchs Konsthall
http://www.liljevalchs.se/arkitektur/