Sigurd Lewerentz, architect 1885-1975

Sweden has produced two architects of international stature in the 20th century, Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. Together, Asplund and Lewerentz collaborated on the development of the Woodland Cemetery. Their buildings were profoundly personal; and while their output was not large, it covered a wide range of design, from furniture to landscape. Asplund gained immediate fame and success, inspiring others and attracting disciples, but the uncompromising and solitary Lewerentz has been recognized only recently. Janne Ahlin's is the first major study of this enigmatic figure who was an early force in the shaping of modern architecture.
Lewerentz's work is presented in over 300 black and white and full color illustrations; the drawings and watercolors are particularly revealing as he rarely wrote or talked about his projects. It includes an astonishing variety of projects simple worker's housing and aristocratic homes, factories, churches, cemeteries, office buildings, store interiors, furniture, town plans, and ingeniously designed window and door fittings that he patented and manufactured in his own factory.
Lewerentz, who was born in 1885 and died in 1975, began study at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm. Breaking away almost immediately, he founded the Klara school, gathering an independent and radical group of architects who endorsed the use of indigenous materials and forms and whose concern with direct and authentic expression paved the way for modern architecture in Sweden. Lewerentz was in fact the first Swedish architect to work actively with the newly formed Deutscher Werkbund in Germany, where he became acquainted with Le Corbusier.
The book follows his design career from such neoclassical projects as the Hälsingborg Crematorium and the Woodland Cemetery to the more expressionistic banners, program covers, signs, pavilions, motor vehicles, and touring boats for the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition. It includes his contribution to industrial design and furniture design, his lighting fixtures, and a number of other glass products.
Janne Ahlin teaches at the School of Art and Design in Stockholm and maintains an architectural office in Lund.