Contemporary European Architecture: The Stockholm Public Library: Artistic Functionalism

11/21/12

The Stockholm Public Library: Artistic Functionalism

By: Arif Javed

Few buildings that I have studied are as perplexing to me as the Stockholm Public Library by Gunnar Asplund. The project was completed in 1928, and is essentially done in what could be classified as a neoclassical style. It is a monumental project, with a clear parti of a circle inscribed in a square. The project is perplexing to me because on paper it sounds rather odd: a symmetrical, monumental orange library with a central drum and rectangular geometry aside from that. However, I have fallen in love with Asplund’s library because once I studied it I realized that it a strong and pure embodiment of architectural ideals. As I learned more and more about the ideas that shaped the building I began to appreciate the purity of the geometry, the functionalism of the plan, the simplicity of the way he used the Classical language, the beauty of the path, and most of all the underlying artistic thoughts behind the project.

My last blog post brought up the ideas of the language of a piece of architecture as well as whether or not that building is communicative of the concept that the architect wanted the space to embody. I don’t think Asplund could have used the classical language in a more effective way than he did in the library: the stark exterior is only marked by a band of classical ornament that solidifies the language into one that suggests the solemn, scholarly nature of the buildings function. This lack of ornament emphasizes the classical geometries that Asplund chose as the skin for his monument to the search for knowledge. Though the language is classical, the ideas behind the geometry ring of contemporary lessons: the main space is immediately apparent from any view of the building and it is simple to read the function of the interior spaces simply from looking at the exterior. The lay out of the plan is also more contemporary than classic in conception; it is a purely functionalist lay out that works in a very open and free manner. However, a perhaps more beautiful aspect of the plan is that it facilitates the occupants quest for knowledge and books due to its lay out.

The nature of the genius of Gunnar Asplund is shown by this lay out; it is clear that Asplund thought of the beauty of the functional lay out to be a form of art. Asplund drew no division lines between the artistic and the architectural; his attention to practicality was also his aesthetic of simplicity and clarity. Asplund the artist can also be seen in the more experiential qualities of the interior of the space. Asplund’s lay out and design carefully formed the procession from the ground floor lobby space to the main cylindrical space. The occupants enter in a small, black marble clad lobby space and are then directed up a relatively narrow staircase. However, this succession of smaller spaces artfully sets up the grand entry into the cylindrical lending room due to the sudden and beautiful widening of the space into the main space. Asplund considered this procession to be something akin to the viewer walking into a metaphorical brain (the cylinder) and searching for knowledge.
The way Asplund worked with absolutely no distinction between the artistic nature of the building and the architectural functions is true genius in my opinion. It is shown in every aspect of the building, from its exterior geometry to the path dictated by the lay out of the interior. In creating a library that not only houses knowledge but actively facilitates the quest for it Asplund truly managed to find beauty in the functional and make function beautiful.