Architecture of Sweden

At the same time, the notion of the architect was established and the profession developed, its reputation bolstered by the works of Simon de la Vallée and Nicodemus Tessin the Elder.

Testimony to the new classical ideals in architecture can be found in the Palace Theatre in Gripsholm, the Botany building in Uppsala or the high school in Härnösand.

This rapid urbanisation lead to prolific construction activity: tenement houses and public buildings such as schools, hospitals, prisons, hotels, banks, market halls, theatres and churches were built.

The German Friedrich August Stüler received the prestigious commission for building the National Museum of Fine Arts, which he designed in Renaissance Revival style.

His pupil Helgo Zettervall, followed in his footsteps with the comprehensive renovations to the cathedrals of Uppsala, Skara and Linköping, which express his interpretation of the Gothic style.

Johan Fredrik Åbom, the most prolific Swedish architect of his age, designed numerous churches and a series of Burgher houses in Neo-Renaissance style.

The Berns Salonger with its restaurant and stages is also a notable expression of the new civic pride, as immortalised in August Strindberg's novel The Red Room.

From this search they developed the National Romantic Style, which took the cultural and building precedents and merged them with ideas from the English Arts and Crafts Movement to create a very distinct Swedish architecture often in brick and wood.

The crowning achievement of the National Romantic Style is the Stockholm City Hall, designed by Ragnar Östberg and built between 1903 and 1923.

Gustaf Wickman dedicated himself to a task of a different nature, he built the entire city of Kiruna within three decades in an uninhabited wilderness.

Although the city of Kiruna caused many problems for the indigenous Sami people, disrupting reindeer herding routes and polluting the area.

[citation needed] After a rich source of iron ore was found and a railway line built, Wickman was charged with the design of the city.

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 [sv].

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.

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).