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Gunnar Asplund

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Nationality
  
Occupation
  
Architect


Name
  
Gunnar Asplund

Role
  
Architect

Gunnar Asplund Paradise Backyard Erik Gunnar Asplund

Born
  
22 September 1885 (
1885-09-22
)
Stockholm, Sweden

Buildings
  
Villa Sturegarden, Nykoping, (1913), The Snellman House, Djursholm, (1918), Stockholm (1920) The Listers County Court House, Solvesborg, (1921), The Skandia Cinema, Stockholm (1923), Stockholm Public Library, (1928),

Projects
  
Skogskyrkogarden (1914-40), Gothenburg Courthouse Extension (1913-37)

Died
  
October 20, 1940, Stockholm, Sweden

Structures
  
Stockholm Public Library, Forest Crematorium

Similar People
  
Sigurd Lewerentz, Greta Garbo, Sven Erixson, Ivar Lo‑Johansson, Marie Under

Gunnar asplund listers h rads tingshus s lvesborgs kommun


Erik Gunnar Asplund (22 September 1885 – 20 October 1940) was a Swedish architect, mostly known as a key representative of Nordic Classicism of the 1920s, and during the last decade of his life as a major proponent of the modernist style which made its breakthrough in Sweden at the Stockholm International Exhibition (1930). Asplund was professor of architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology from 1931. His appointment was marked by a lecture, later published under the title "Our architectonic concept of space."

Contents

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Major works

Gunnar Asplund Paradise Backyard Erik Gunnar Asplund

Among Asplund's most important works is the Stockholm Public Library, constructed between 1924 and 1928, which stands as the prototypical example of the Nordic Classicism and so-called Swedish Grace movement. It was particularly influential on the proposal submitted for the competition for the design of the Viipuri Library in 1927 by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who regarded Asplund as his mentor.

Gunnar Asplund Paradise Backyard Erik Gunnar Asplund

Another important work is the extension of the Gothenburg Courthouse Extension building which Asplund started on 1913 and finished 1937 - it shows his transformation from neo-classical to functionalist architect, a transformation in parallel with other European modernists like Erich Mendelsohn.

Gunnar Asplund Gunnar Asplund Scandinavian Design

Asplund collaborated with architect Sigurd Lewerentz in the design of Skogskyrkogården, a cemetery which is a UNESCO world heritage site, created between 1914 and 1940. They were also the main architects for the temporary Stockholm International Exhibition (1930). Although temporary, the modernist, exposed-glass-and-steel-frame Entry Pavilion at the fair was internationally influential. In fact, it was influential already before its completion, having an influence on the much smaller Turku Fair in Finland, designed by Alvar Aalto and Erik Bryggman, who had travelled to Stockholm to see its construction.

Gunnar Asplund is considered perhaps the most important modernist Swedish architect and has had a major influence on later generations of Swedish and Nordic architects.

Our architectonic concept of space

The lecture "Our architectonic concept of space" was delivered in 1931 on the occasion of Asplund being appointed professor of architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. Asplund published few theoretical texts. The lecture was later regarded as an important contribution to the attitudes of Asplund, as well as others of his generation, towards the architectural problems of the time. The lecture has its background in the then well known 2-volume book by German philosopher Oswald Spengler "The decline of the West" (1918 and 1922).

References

Gunnar Asplund Wikipedia