Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
as Jugendstil, it has strong similarities to the more continental art nouveau. Following this
period, abstracted and more international modernism took hold, and Stockholm's 1930 ex-
hibition introduced modern design and the Swedish architects of the 20th century.
Stuart Harrison hosts 'The Architects' radio show on Melbourne's RRR, interviewing and
talking about design and architecture from around the world. He also designed and built a
suite at the Icehotel with artist Lucas Ihlein in 2005.
Contemporary design and architecture generally follow global trends, but the characterist-
ically Swedish interests of nature and craft are evident when cruising through blogs such
as the snappy emmas designblogg (
www.emmas.blogg.se
).
Key Architects
The transition to modernity through the early 20th century can be seen particularly in the
world of Erik Gunnar Asplund (1885-1940), Sweden's most important architect. The best
of Asplund's work is in the capital, such as Stockholm's Stadsbiblioteket (City Library;
1932) with its plutonic forms wrestling classical and modernist tendencies. A little further
out of the centre at the graceful Skogskyrkogården (Woodland Cemetery) you'll find per-
haps the greatest collection of work from the Swedish master; many of the pavilions are
collaborations with the less prolific Sigurd Lewerentz (1885-1975).
Asplund was typical of the Swedish approach. He travelled widely as a young designer,
returning to his homeland to make an architecture both of its time and true to Swedish tra-
dition. His work contrasted with the more aggressive radical modernism of France and
Germany, and set the tone for Finnish master Alvar Aalto.
Asplund and Lewerentz were profoundly influential on English-born architect Ralph Er-
skine (1914-2005), who formed a practice in Sweden in 1939. The adopted son of
Swedish architecture embodied social ideas into a layered form of modernism, typical of
the Nordic outlook. His Ortdrivaren housing project in the northern iron ore-mining city
of Kiruna dates from the early 1960s and has held up incredibly well.
Kiruna faces an uncertain future as land subsidence from the mine has prompted the
need to move the town, with all buildings to be demolished except possibly the imposing
Stadshus (Athur von Schmalensee; 1963) and the well-liked Kiruna kyrka (Gustaf Wick-
