Striving for a new monumentality: the non-classical influence on Gunnar Asplund’s architecture

Abstract

Gunnar Asplund’s architecture is today synonymous with 1920s Classicism and Nordic Classicism. His designs for the Woodland Chapel (1918–1920) and the Stockholm City Library (1920–1928) stand as prototypical examples. However, this article contests this perception. Through an analysis of these two buildings in light of theories of form and space around the 1900s, the article argues that the chapel and the library are manifestations of the Formalism of German-speaking scholars in a Nordic setting. Alois Riegl, who challenged the classical aesthetic ideal as a universal criterion for judging the quality of art and architecture, framed much of the intellectual background that shaped the Vienna Secession. This study finds that Asplund shared the Secessionists’ belief in a revival of architecture through a purified language of form. The article places Asplund’s practice in the historical context of an early twentieth-century interest in archaeology and suggests that the Secessionists prompted Asplund to search for models in the monumental ancient cultures, e.g. in the Near East and Egypt. Finally, the article demonstrates how August Schmarsow’s theory of bodily movement through space and Riegl’s writings about shadow and shade as formal architectural qualities in Baroque architecture are reflected in Asplund’s architectural design.