NowStockholm

Architecture

Architecture in Stockholm

Stockholm's public architecture is dominated by one generation that worked between the wars and got the city's libraries, halls and cemeteries. What came after is quieter, and what came recently is finally tall.

• Norra Tornen

  ·

  Completed 2020

  Reinier de Graaf

  Two residential towers at Hagastaden, north of the centre. Reinier de Graaf assembled them from precast concrete units so the balconies push out as staggered boxes and the elevations read as pixels rather than a flat plane. The aggregate is left exposed and unpainted, which keeps the reference to 1960s concrete housing explicit. They are the first towers of this height the city has allowed near the centre in decades.

• Moderna Museet

  ·

  Completed 1998

  Rafael Moneo

  The modern art museum on the island of Skeppsholmen. Rafael Moneo kept the volumes low so the naval buildings around it stay dominant, then lit the galleries through pyramidal lanterns that read as a row of small roofs. The plan runs as a spine of rooms with the entrance turned away from the water. It is a museum built to be seen from above rather than approached frontally.

• Woodland Crematorium

  ·

  Completed 1940

  Gunnar Asplund

  The crematorium at the Woodland Cemetery in Enskede. Gunnar Asplund set a portico open on all sides at the top of a long grass rise, so the approach is a walk up an empty slope rather than an arrival at a facade. Three chapels stand behind it, each a different size and lit from a different side. The landscape does most of the architecture, which was the premise of the competition entry he and Sigurd Lewerentz won.

• Stockholm Public Library

  ·

  Completed 1928

  Gunnar Asplund

  The city library at Observatorielunden. Gunnar Asplund set a cylinder on a square base and lined the drum with open shelves rising the full height, so the room is defined by the books rather than by structure. The entrance stair climbs through the base and arrives at the centre of that drum. It is the point where Nordic classicism turns into something else without announcing it.

• Stockholm City Hall

  ·

  Completed 1923

  Ragnar Östberg

  The city hall on Kungsholmen, at the head of Riddarfjärden. Ragnar Östberg built it in dark brick with a tower carrying three crowns and set two halls of opposite character inside: a covered courtyard called the Blue Hall, which was never painted blue, and a gold mosaic chamber above it. The waterfront terrace is treated as the main facade. It was completed as national romanticism was ending, and it is the last large building of that argument.