Architecture of Sweden - Modern and Postmodern

Modern and Postmodern

Modern architecture in Sweden was prefaced by a group of architects, who took up a very rigorous and stark form of Neo-classicism. Gunnar Asplund and Ivar Tengbom were two of the most well-known representatives during the 1910s and 1920s, contributing to the style which became known internationally as Swedish Grace. Asplund's most important works include the Listers District Court House in Sölvesborg, Stockholm Public Library and, in collaboration with Sigurd Lewerentz, both the (temporary) Stockholm Exhibition (1930) and the Stockholm South (Woodland) Cemetery (today a UNESCO World Heritage Site).

The Stockholm Exhibition for Industry, Arts and Crafts 1930 helped functionalism break-through in Sweden. In the forthcoming years — particularly in housing — this was to become the dominant ideology. A typical example of the strong link between functionalism and the political left is the Kvarnholmen quarter in Nacka, designed in the 1930s by the architecture department of the Consumer Cooperative which was founded in 1924 as the first collectively organised architects practice.

Despite these initiatives, housing standards in Sweden were low. After the Second World War a massive building project was undertaken to satisfy the housing shortage and improve standards. In 1965 the government announced the Million Programme — the building of a million new dwellings within ten years (with a population of 7.8 million). Entire dormitory suburbs were built within a very short time. Land in many city centre areas was purchased and replanned in a modern and functional way to make room for offices. The enormous building projects were planned and led by large architects' offices. Often the quality of buildings and their design were of secondary importance to the delivery of such large numbers of projects.

The 1973 oil crisis put an end to the Million Programme. Even before this, the programme was receiving vociferous criticism against the pattern book architecture and negative social consequences which these buildings produced.

Out of this criticism, the term Postmodern emerged in Sweden, encompassing a variety of different trends. A rich use of form developed that had not been seen since the National Romantic Style. One of the most important exponents of postmodernism in Sweden was the British-born Ralph Erskine. Today, architecture in Sweden is being defined by such architects as Gert Wingårdh, who started as a postmodernist but is known to pick up new trends (the works show influences from ecological design as well as minimalism, high-tech, expressionism, and neofunctionalism).