01. Order returns
In the first decade of the 20th century a new classicism emerges in Germany, as a reaction against Art Nouveau. It is more pared-back and geometric than 19th-century Historicism, and through architects such as Heinrich Tessenow it reaches the Nordic countries.
In Sweden it appears during the 1910s, alongside late National Romanticism. The models are often Swedish: the simple, symmetrical manor houses of the 18th century and the Gustavian style. Carl Bergsten's Lilljevalchs Konsthall on Djurgården from 1916 shows its clean, harmonious form.
One road there runs through the age of greatness. Around 1910 architects often look to the Carolean Baroque – the closed, symmetrical manor houses of the 17th century, with high hipped roofs and large multi-paned windows.
The line to the Swedish Grace of the 1920s is fluid. You can see the 1910s as the prelude of this classicism – and the 1920s as its maturity.
02. How to spot it
- 1.Symmetrical, simple volumes
- 2.Smooth rendered façades with few, well-placed details
- 3.High hipped or gable roofs
- 4.Models in 18th-century manor houses
- 5.Classical portals and columns – but sparingly
03. The giveaway
The manor-house feel. If a villa or public building from the 1910s looks like a light, symmetrical 18th-century manor, it is 1910s Neoclassicism.
Read the façade
04. Architects and builders
- Carl Bergsten
- Gunnar Asplund
- Sigurd Lewerentz
- Ivar Tengbom
05. Where to see it
- Lilljevalchs Konsthall, Djurgården, Stockholm1916
- Villa Snellman, DjursholmGunnar Asplund
06. Often confused with
Swedish Grace. Two phases of the same classicism. The 1920s version is lighter, more elegant and more playful in its details.
Sources
- lex.dk (Den Store Danske): "Sverige – arkitektur – 1850 til i dag"
- Henrik O. Andersson m.fl.: Nordisk klassicism 1910–30 (Helsingfors, 1984)
- Swedish Wikipedia: "Tjugotalsklassicism"
- Eva Eriksson: "Arkitekturen i Stockholm kring sekelskiftet 1900 – form, idéer och influenser", i Heikki Ranta (red.): Internationellt, nationellt, lokalt (Länsstyrelsen Gotlands län, 2005)