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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
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SUMMARY:Two projects by Erik Gunnar Asplund
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20220227
DTSTAMP:20260408T025920Z
UID:277aee74ecfc18d31477fa40f2a80041bf886d8a0f17f816d165d980
CATEGORIES:Exhibitions
DESCRIPTION:Luca Ortelli\nStativet Och Tumstocken\, an emergency housing a
 rea.\n\nIn spite of its neutrality\, Sweden was in a very difficult situat
 ion during the First World War. The economic difficulties and the large nu
 mber of homeless people in the city of Stockholm prompted the municipality
  to promote the construction of 2\,500 emergency housing units. In 1917\, 
 Erik Gunnar Asplund was commissioned to build a complex of about 160 tempo
 rary dwellings on two plots of land called Stativet and Tumstocken in the 
 southern part of the capital.\nThe emergency quarter is a small village wi
 th streets\, a square\, gardens and a playground. Despite the frugal and t
 emporary nature of the district\, Asplund designed the communal spaces wit
 h great care: they are enclosed by palisades and\, in the southern part\, 
 by a thick wall housing services (dry toilets\, wood and waste depots\, co
 mmunal laundry rooms).\nIn order to save money and speed up the constructi
 on\, Asplund adopted a wooden construction system and did not change the t
 opography of the site. As a result\, the northern bar deforms and bends in
  reaction to the presence of rocky outcrops. The project thus affirms a cl
 ear refusal of the geometries and alignments foreseen by the 1866 urban pl
 an\, which projected an extension in an uninterrupted checkerboard.\nTwo t
 ypes of dwelling (mono-oriented or crossing) are available in 8 variants f
 or the 22 housing blocks. In order to build a place with a strong domestic
  identity and to reduce the repetitive effect determined by a limited numb
 er of types\, Asplund adds chromatic variations to the façade in red\, gr
 een and yellow tones.\nThe neighbourhood has an assumed theatricality\, wh
 ich will be criticised for being too sentimental. On the contrary\, it is 
 appropriate to salute the humanity and compassion that animated the young 
 architect\, who was convinced that the disadvantaged inhabitants of the di
 strict had the same right as others to benefit from decent and dignified a
 rchitecture.\n\nSölvesborg District Court.\n\nThe courthouse in Lister Co
 unty in Sölvesborg was planned and built between 1917 and 1921. Located a
 t the end of the road to the railway station\, the building houses the cou
 rtroom and its annexes on the ground floor\, the judge's flat on the first
  floor\, and a police station with two prison cells on the lower floor.\nT
 he composition is characterised by the collision of two volumes: a cylinde
 r corresponding to the courtroom and a parallelepiped containing all the o
 ther functions. The main facade\, crowned by the pediment-shaped gable roo
 f\, had a ground floor in the original project\, pierced only by the large
  access door\, producing a monumental effect. The rear facade\, on the oth
 er hand\, is characterised by a more sober style that is decidedly close t
 o vernacular architecture.\nThe organisation of the plan illustrates the c
 ombination of "conflicting" geometric figures and the ability to control t
 he spatial result. The entrance hall presents the visitor with a convex su
 rface in the centre of which is the door to the main room. The latter is o
 ne of the first realised examples of Asplund's research into spatial defin
 ition in relation to daylighting. The circular room has zenithal lighting 
 and a single light socket at the front. This single window\, surmounted by
  an oculus and located in an eccentric position\, has an overhang that is 
 only visible from the outside\, a likely reminder of the early courtrooms\
 , commonly located in castle towers. Indeed\, in the public spaces of the 
 building\, Asplund uses a series of tricks to produce the theatrical impre
 ssion of great massiveness. Such is the case with the entrance threshold\,
  whose monumental massiveness is achieved by the quite prosaic introductio
 n of toilets in the illusory thickness of the wall. A similar effect is pr
 oduced by the double flights of stairs developing around the drum of the c
 ourtroom\, anticipating the distributive solution later used in the Stockh
 olm City Library. The circular room also presents one of the architect's f
 avourite themes: the construction of geometrically simple spaces connoted 
 by a clever staging of a kind of dematerialisation. Such an effect is achi
 eved here through the gradation between tectonic and atectonic elements. T
 he formal exuberance of the balusters and the jagged cornice act as a coun
 terweight to the absence of any linguistic connotations of the ceiling pie
 rced by an abstract luminous disc. The model presented in the exhibition h
 ighlights all the subtleties of this part of the building.\n\nFinishing of
  the exhibition on 04 March 2022 on the occasion of the honorary lecture o
 f Prof. Luca Ortelli.\n17:15\, Foyer SG.\n\n\n\n\n 
LOCATION:Foyer SG https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SG%20294.22
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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