Nordic Classicism

Nordic Classicism was a style of architecture that briefly blossomed in the Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) between 1910 and 1930.

Until a resurgence of interest for the period during the 1980s (marked by several scholarly studies and public exhibitions), Nordic Classicism was regarded as a mere interlude between two far more well-known architectural movements, National Romanticism or Jugendstil (often seen as equivalent or parallel to Art Nouveau) and Functionalism (aka Modernism).

The development of Nordic Classicism was no isolated phenomenon, but took off from classical traditions already existing in the Nordic countries, and from new ideas being pursued in German-speaking cultures. Nordic Classicism can thus be characterised as a combination of direct and indirect influences from vernacular architecture (Nordic, Italian and German) and Neoclassicism, but also the early stirrings of Modernism from the Deutscher Werkbund – especially their exhibition of 1914 - and by the mid-1920s the Esprit Nouveau emerging from the theories of Le Corbusier.

The modernist influence went beyond mere aesthetics: urbanisation tied to modern building techniques and the introduction of regulations both in building and town planning, and moreover, to the rise of social forces that resulted in a change in political ideology toward the Left, resulting in the Nordic welfare state, and new programmes for public buildings such as hospitals (e.g. the Beckomberga Hospital in western (1927-1935) by Carl Westman) and schools (e.g. the Fridhemsplan school, Stockholm, (1925–27) by Georg A. Nilsson). But while Nordic classicism was employed for a number of important public buildings, it was also applied as a model for low-cost housing (e.g. the Puu-Käpylä Garden Town, Helsinki (1920–25) by Martti Välikangas) and domestic architecture in general (e.g. an affordable sense of style for the nouveau-riche).

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