Two projects by Erik Gunnar Asplund
Event details
| Date | 27.02.2022 › 05.03.2022 |
| Speaker | Luca Ortelli |
| Location | |
| Category | Exhibitions |
| Event Language | French |
Stativet Och Tumstocken, an emergency housing area.
In spite of its neutrality, Sweden was in a very difficult situation during the First World War. The economic difficulties and the large number 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 temporary dwellings on two plots of land called Stativet and Tumstocken in the southern part of the capital.
The emergency quarter is a small village with streets, a square, gardens and a playground. Despite the frugal and temporary nature of the district, Asplund designed the communal spaces with great care: they are enclosed by palisades and, in the southern part, by a thick wall housing services (dry toilets, wood and waste depots, communal laundry rooms).
In order to save money and speed up the construction, Asplund adopted a wooden construction system and did not change the topography 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 clear refusal of the geometries and alignments foreseen by the 1866 urban plan, which projected an extension in an uninterrupted checkerboard.
Two types of dwelling (mono-oriented or crossing) are available in 8 variants for 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 number of types, Asplund adds chromatic variations to the façade in red, green and yellow tones.
The neighbourhood has an assumed theatricality, which 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 district had the same right as others to benefit from decent and dignified architecture.
Sölvesborg District Court.
The courthouse in Lister County in Sölvesborg was planned and built between 1917 and 1921. Located at the end of the road to the railway station, the building houses the courtroom 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.
The composition is characterised by the collision of two volumes: a cylinder corresponding to the courtroom and a parallelepiped containing all the other functions. The main facade, crowned by the pediment-shaped gable roof, had a ground floor in the original project, pierced only by the large access door, producing a monumental effect. The rear facade, on the other hand, is characterised by a more sober style that is decidedly close to vernacular architecture.
The organisation of the plan illustrates the combination of "conflicting" geometric figures and the ability to control the spatial result. The entrance hall presents the visitor with a convex surface in the centre of which is the door to the main room. The latter is one of the first realised examples of Asplund's research into spatial definition 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 impression of great massiveness. Such is the case with the entrance threshold, whose monumental massiveness is achieved by the quite prosaic introduction of toilets in the illusory thickness of the wall. A similar effect is produced by the double flights of stairs developing around the drum of the courtroom, anticipating the distributive solution later used in the Stockholm City Library. The circular room also presents one of the architect's favourite themes: the construction of geometrically simple spaces connoted by a clever staging of a kind of dematerialisation. Such an effect is achieved here through the gradation between tectonic and atectonic elements. The formal exuberance of the balusters and the jagged cornice act as a counterweight to the absence of any linguistic connotations of the ceiling pierced by an abstract luminous disc. The model presented in the exhibition highlights all the subtleties of this part of the building.
Finishing of the exhibition on 04 March 2022 on the occasion of the honorary lecture of Prof. Luca Ortelli.
17:15, Foyer SG.
In spite of its neutrality, Sweden was in a very difficult situation during the First World War. The economic difficulties and the large number 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 temporary dwellings on two plots of land called Stativet and Tumstocken in the southern part of the capital.
The emergency quarter is a small village with streets, a square, gardens and a playground. Despite the frugal and temporary nature of the district, Asplund designed the communal spaces with great care: they are enclosed by palisades and, in the southern part, by a thick wall housing services (dry toilets, wood and waste depots, communal laundry rooms).
In order to save money and speed up the construction, Asplund adopted a wooden construction system and did not change the topography 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 clear refusal of the geometries and alignments foreseen by the 1866 urban plan, which projected an extension in an uninterrupted checkerboard.
Two types of dwelling (mono-oriented or crossing) are available in 8 variants for 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 number of types, Asplund adds chromatic variations to the façade in red, green and yellow tones.
The neighbourhood has an assumed theatricality, which 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 district had the same right as others to benefit from decent and dignified architecture.
Sölvesborg District Court.
The courthouse in Lister County in Sölvesborg was planned and built between 1917 and 1921. Located at the end of the road to the railway station, the building houses the courtroom 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.
The composition is characterised by the collision of two volumes: a cylinder corresponding to the courtroom and a parallelepiped containing all the other functions. The main facade, crowned by the pediment-shaped gable roof, had a ground floor in the original project, pierced only by the large access door, producing a monumental effect. The rear facade, on the other hand, is characterised by a more sober style that is decidedly close to vernacular architecture.
The organisation of the plan illustrates the combination of "conflicting" geometric figures and the ability to control the spatial result. The entrance hall presents the visitor with a convex surface in the centre of which is the door to the main room. The latter is one of the first realised examples of Asplund's research into spatial definition 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 impression of great massiveness. Such is the case with the entrance threshold, whose monumental massiveness is achieved by the quite prosaic introduction of toilets in the illusory thickness of the wall. A similar effect is produced by the double flights of stairs developing around the drum of the courtroom, anticipating the distributive solution later used in the Stockholm City Library. The circular room also presents one of the architect's favourite themes: the construction of geometrically simple spaces connoted by a clever staging of a kind of dematerialisation. Such an effect is achieved here through the gradation between tectonic and atectonic elements. The formal exuberance of the balusters and the jagged cornice act as a counterweight to the absence of any linguistic connotations of the ceiling pierced by an abstract luminous disc. The model presented in the exhibition highlights all the subtleties of this part of the building.
Finishing of the exhibition on 04 March 2022 on the occasion of the honorary lecture of Prof. Luca Ortelli.
17:15, Foyer SG.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Luca Ortelli & Capucine Legrand
Contact
- Capucine Legrand / [email protected]