Stockholm Public Library, 1920-28

Nordic Classicism was a style of architecture that briefly blossomed in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) between 1910 and 1930. Image File history File links Original upload at Swedish Wikipedia by Andreas Ribbefjord. ... Image File history File links Original upload at Swedish Wikipedia by Andreas Ribbefjord. ... Architectural style is a way of classifying architecture largely by morphological characteristics - in terms of form, techniques, materials, etc. ... Overview map of the region. ...

Until historians ‘rediscovered’ the period during the 1980s (marked by several scholarly studies and public exhibitions), Nordic Classicism was regarded as a mere “interlude” between two far more well-known architectural movements, National Romanticism or Jugend (often seen as equivalent or parallel to Art Nouveau) and Functionalism (aka Modernism). The Röhss Museum The National Romantic Style was a Nordic architectural style that was part of the national romantic movement during the late 19th and early 20th century. ... Alfons Mucha, lithographed poster Dancel (1898). ... Poster by Alfons Mucha Art Nouveau /art nuvo/, Anglicised /ˈɑːt nuːvÉ™u/ (French for new art) is a style in art, architecture and design that peaked in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century. ... Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. ... Modern architecture is a broad term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament, that first arose around 1900. ...

The development of Nordic Classicism

Beckomberga Hospital (1927-1935) by Carl Westman

The development of Nordic Classicism was no isolated phenomenon, but took off from classical traditions already existing in the Nordic countries, but also from new ideas being pursued in German-speaking culture. Nishant is gay! Nordic Classicism can thus be characterised as a combination of direct and indirect influences from vernacular architecture (Nordic, Italian and German), and Neoclassicism, but also the early stirrings of Modernism from the Deutscher Werkbund – especially their exhibition of 1914 - and by the mid-1920s the Esprit Nouveau emerging from the theories of Le Corbusier. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x678, 173 KB) Beckomberga sjukhus (Psychiatric hospital) (c. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1000x678, 173 KB) Beckomberga sjukhus (Psychiatric hospital) (c. ... Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Neoclassicism (sometimes rendered as Neo-Classicism or Neo-classicism) is the name given to quite distinct movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture. ... The Deutscher Werkbund (German Work Federation) was a German association of architects, designers and industrialists, an important precursor to the Bauhaus. ... Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, widely known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887–August 27, 1965), was a Swiss architect famous for his contributions to what is now called modernism, or the International Style. ...

The 'modernist' influence went beyond mere aesthetics: the urbanization of the nations tied to modern building techniques and the introduction of regulations both in building and town planning, and moreover, the rise of social forces that resulted in the change in political ideology towards the Left, resultiing in the Social Democratic state, and new programmes for public buildings such as hospitals (e.g. the Beckomberga Hospital (1927-1935) by Carl Westman) and schools (e.g. the Fridhemsplan school (1925-27) by Georg A. Nilsson). But while Nordic classicism was employed for a number of important public buildings, it was also applied as a model for low-cost housing (e.g. the Käpylä Garden Town, Helsinki (1920-25) by Martti Välikangas) and domestic architecture generally (e.g. an affordable sense of style for the nouveau-riche). Beckomberga hospital during final stages of construction (c. ...

1930 is usually considered the end point of Nordic Classicism because that was the year of the Stockholm Exhibition, designed mostly by Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz, when a more purist Modernism was unveiled as a model for a modern society. However, key buildings continued to be built in the classical style after that, noteably Östberg's Maritime Museum, Stockholm (1931-34).

Architects associated with Nordic Classicism

Listers District Court House (1917-1921), by Gunnar Asplund

Certain architects had reached the culmination of their careers already with the National Romantic style but their latter works were in the Nordic Classicism style (e.g. Carl Westman), the career of others culminated with Nordic Classicism (e.g. Ivar Tengbom and Ragnar Östberg), while others then went on achieve far greater significance as Modernist architects (e.g. Arne Jacobsen, Alvar Aalto, and Sven Markelius). The two figures who achieved great significance in both periods, however, were Swedish architects Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. Carl Westman The Stockholm Courthouse Ernst Carl Westman (February 20, 1866 - 1936) was a Swedish architect and interior designer. ... The Stockholm Concert Hall, 2002 The Stockholm Concert Hall, from a 1926 postcard Ivar Justus Tengbom (7 April 1878 – 1968) was a Swedish architect and one of the best-known representatives of the Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1910s and 1920s. ... Ragnar Östberg (1866-1945) was a Swedish architect who is most famous for designing Stockholm City Hall. ... Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark, as seen from the west. ... Finlandia Hall. ... Sven Markelius (1889–1972), was one of the most important modernist Swedish architects. ... Stockholm Public Library The extension of the Gothenburg Courthouse Erik Gunnar Asplund (22 September 1885 – 20 October 1940) was a Swedish architect, mostly known as a representative of Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1920s, and during the last decade of his life as a major proponent of the modernist... Chapel of Resurrection Church of St Mark Sigurd Lewerentz (b. ...

Sweden: Ragnar Östberg, Gunnar Asplund, Carl Westman, Sigurd Lewerentz, Carl Bergsten, Sigfrid Ericson, Torben Grut, Ragnar Hjorth, Cyrillus Johansson, Erik Lallerstedt, Gunnar Leche, Sven Markelius, Gunnar Morssing, George Nilsson, Ture Ryberg, Albin Stark, Eskil Sundahl, Lars Israel Wahlman, Sven Wallander, Hakon Ahlberg and Ivar Tengbom; Ragnar Östberg (1866-1945) was a Swedish architect who is most famous for designing Stockholm City Hall. ... Stockholm Public Library The extension of the Gothenburg Courthouse Erik Gunnar Asplund (22 September 1885 – 20 October 1940) was a Swedish architect, mostly known as a representative of Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1920s, and during the last decade of his life as a major proponent of the modernist... Carl Westman The Stockholm Courthouse Ernst Carl Westman (February 20, 1866 - 1936) was a Swedish architect and interior designer. ... Chapel of Resurrection Church of St Mark Sigurd Lewerentz (b. ... Sven Markelius (1889–1972), was one of the most important modernist Swedish architects. ... The Stockholm Concert Hall, 2002 The Stockholm Concert Hall, from a 1926 postcard Ivar Justus Tengbom (7 April 1878 – 1968) was a Swedish architect and one of the best-known representatives of the Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1910s and 1920s. ...

Denmark: Kay Fisker, Hack Kampmann, Kaj Gottlob, Ivar Bentsen, Povl Baumann, Poul Holsøe, Edvard Thomsen, Thomas Havning, Holger Jacobsen, Kaare Klint, Arne Jacobsen, Carl Petersen, Aage Rafn, Steen Eiler Rasmussen, Sven Risom, and Frits Schlegel; Hack Kampmann Hack Kampmann, Architect, b. ... Kaare Klint (December 15, 1888 — March 28, 1954) was a Danish architect and furniture designer. ... Radisson SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark, as seen from the west. ... Steen Eiler Rasmussen (1898-1990) was a Danish architect and town-planner, professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and a prolific writer of books and essays. ...

Norway: Lars Backer, Lorentz Ree, Sverre Pedersen, Nicolai Beer, Finn Berner, Harald Hals, Herman Munthe-Kaas, Gudolf Blakstad, Finn Bryn, Jens Dunker and Johan Ellefsen. Lars Thalian Backer (1892 - 1930) was a Norwegian architect. ... Herman Munthe-Kaas (1890-1977) was a Norwegian architect primarily known for his Functionalist building designs. ... Gudolf Blakstad (born May 19, 1893 in Gjerpen, near Skien - died November 22, 1985 in Oslo), was a Norwegian architect. ...

Finland: Gunnar Taucher, Uno Ullberg, Martti Välikangas, J.S. Sirén, Alvar Aalto, Pauli Blomstedt, Elsi Borg, Erik Bryggman, Hilding Eklund, Heikki Siikonen, and Oiva Kallio. Finlandia Hall. ...

Though these architects are listed by country, during this period there was an intense cultural exchange between the Nordic countries (many working in one or more of the other Nordic countries), but also considerable development in the architect’s sphere of activity, from consultant to the bourgeoisie to town planner concerned with infrastructure, dwelling and public services. As Swedish historian Henrik O. Anderson (1982: 23), has put it, this was an architecture of democracy, not radical avant-gardism. Furthermore, with the exception of Finland, the other Nordic countries had avoided getting involved in the First World War, allowing for continued development. Overview map of the region. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

Historical precedent

The interest in Nordic Classicism arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the height of postmodernism, especially in its most classical form, when critics, historians and architecture teachers were looking for historical precedents for the architecture of such architects as Michael Graves, Leon Krier and Robert Stern. Nordic classicism provided that precedent, especially with such seminal buildings as Gunnar Asplund’s Scandia Cinema in Stockholm (1924), Listers District Courthouse (1917-21), Villa Snellman in Stockholm (1917-18) and Stockholm Public Library (1920-28), as well as the landscape and buildings of the Skogskyrkogården Cemetry, Stockholm (1918-1930) by both Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. Andy Warhols iconic Marilyn Monroe // Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and historians, as it connotes to many the hotly debated idea that the modern historical period has passed. ... Portland Public Service Building Michael Graves (b. ... Leon Krier (born 1946) is an architect and urban planner from Luxembourg. ...   (IPA: ; UN/LOCODE: SE STO) is the capital of Sweden, and consequently the site of its Government and Parliament as well as the residence of the Swedish head of state, King Carl XVI Gustaf. ...

In regards to architectural style, there were several precedents or reasons which account for the rise of Nordic Classicism. Firstly, there was the existing classical tradition, borne from the architecture of Absolutism, that is, the classical architectural symbols of power of the Swedish and Danish monarchies, down to the vernacular, for instance in terms of considerations for symmetry, detailing and proportion. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Throughout the 19th century there were a number of factors contributing to a more simplified classicism. The teachings of J.N.L Durand at the École Polytechnique in Paris at the beginning of the 19th century had attempted to rationalise the language and building techniques of classicism, while allowing for simple additive compositions. Durand’s teachings spread, entering German culture in the form of Romantic Classicism with the work of Friedrich Gilly and Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Scholars were also uncovering the remnants of Pompeii, and discovering the use of bright colour in Roman architecture – an aspect that had more or less been forgotten in the Renaissance, but also rediscovering Greece and Egypt. These asepcts were incorporated into Neoclassicism and continued into Nordic Classicism (e.g. The Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen, 1839-48, by M.G. Bindesbøll, incoporates Egyptian motifs as does Asplund's Stockholm Public Library). Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (Paris, September 18, 1760 – Thiais, December 31, 1834) was a French and author, teacher and architect. ... The Arms of the École Polytechnique The cadets of Polytechnique rushed to the defense of Paris against the foreign armies in 1814. ... Friedrich David Gilly (1772 - 1800) was a German architect born in Pomerania, known as a prodigy and the teacher of the young Karl Friedrich Schinkel. ... The Old Museum in Berlin Karl Friedrich Schinkel (March 13, 1781 - October 9, 1841) was a German architect and painter. ... A computer-generated depiction of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 which buried Pompeii, from the BBCs Pompeii: The Last Day. ... Raphael was famous for depicting illustrious figures of the Classical past with the features of his Renaissance contemporaries. ... Bertel Thorvaldsen, portrait by Karl Begas, c. ... Copenhagen (IPA: , rhyming with pagan (the way the Danes themselves pronounce the name of the capital in English), or , with a as in spa; Danish   IPA: ) is the capital of Denmark and the countrys largest city (metropolitan population 1,211,542 (2006)), at present made up of 16 municipalities. ...

There are also 'circles of reaction' to consider. Art Nouveau and National Romanticism had little impact in Denmark, while in Sweden, Norway and Finland there were also strong National Romantic reactions. Neoclassicsim had arrived in Finland via St.Petersburg as a universal language but by the end of the 19th century came to represent an alien presence, Russia. Thus when there were stirrings of political independence in Finland as well as Norway, a rugged, national romantic architecture – a local variation of Art Nouveau – playing on the nationalistic myths, took hold. Nordic classicism was then a counter-reaction to that style and eclecticism generally; a movement towards universalism, internationalism and simplification. Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and...

Many of the architects who practiced in the Nordic Classical style made pilgrimages to northern Italy, to study Italian vernacular architecture. With close cultural links at that time between the Nordic countries and Germany, another important source comes from German critics of the Art Nouveau, in particular Hermann Muthesius – who had been a promoter of the English Arts and Crafts movement and founded the Deutscher Werkbund in 1907 - and Paul Schultze-Naumburg, as well as the latter’s student Heinrich Tessenow, and Peter Behrens. Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius (April 20, 1861 - October 29, 1927), known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within Germany and for his subsequent influence on early pioneers of German architectural... Artichoke wallpaper, by John Henry Dearle for William Morris & Co. ... he licks jacks balls then massages his mums feet ... Peter Behrens (April 14, 1868–February 27, 1940) was a German architect and designer. ...

In turn, the thinking in Nordic Classicism became one basis for the development of Modernism in the Nordic Countries. The idea that there would have been a continuity between vernacular and modernism has been seen as counter to received historical opinion about the rise of Modernism, beginning with Le Corbusier, beginning with his 5 Points for Architecture, which are seen as overturning 5 basic principles of Classicism. A demonstation in real time of the move from Nordic Classicism to a pure Functionalism is demonstrated by Alvar Aalto's design for the Viipuri Library (1927-35), which went through a profound transformation from the original architectural competition proposal in 1927 (owing much to Gunnar Asplund) to the severely functionalist building, completed eight years later in a purist modernist style, influenced by Le Corbusier. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, widely known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887–August 27, 1965), was a Swiss architect famous for his contributions to what is now called modernism, or the International Style. ... Auditorium of the Viipuri Municipal Library in the 1930s. ...

References

• Classical Tradition and the Modern Movement. The 2nd International Alvar Aalto Symposium, Helsinki, Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1985. ISBN 951-9229-38-8 [The published proceedings of a conference; with essays by, amongst others, Elias Cornell, Kenneth Frampton, David Watkin, Demetri Porphyrios, Kirmo Mikkola, and Göran Schildt]
• Nordic Classicism 1910-1930. Helsinki, Museum of Finnish Architecture, 1982. ISBN 951-9229-21-3 [Exhibition book, including essays by Simo Paavilainen, Christian Norberg-Schulz, Henrik O. Anderson and Kenneth Frampton]
• Paolo Angeletti and Gaia Remiddi, Alvar Aalto e il Classicismo Nordico, Roma, Università degli Studi di Roma ‘La Sapienza’ . Dipartimento di Architettura e Analisi della Città, 1998.
• L. Balslev Jørgensen and Demetri Porphyrios, "Neoclassical Architecture in Copenhagen and Athens", London, Architectural Design, vol 57, no. 3/4, 1987.