English abstract and contents: Stockholm City Hall. Ancient times and current times (Stockholms stadshus. Forntid och samtid) (original) (raw)

1998, History of Architecture and the Built Environment (Master’s thesis), Department of Art History, Uppsala University (129 pages), Spring Term

The focus of this study in the history of architecture and the built environment is the Stockholm City Hall and its practical functions and symbolic programme. The study also centres on the City Hall’s inauguration festival on the Midsummer’s Eve in 1923 as a manifestation of the building’s functions and symbols at the intersection of ancient times and current times as well as of the Swedish capital Stockholm and the Kingdom of Sweden. In the City Hall, the practical function of the building coincided with some of the theoretical ideals of society at the turn of the century. In this building, which was erected for the Stockholm City Council as well as for its administration and entertainment, socio-political and socio-aesthetic ideas met. In the creative act of the architect Ragnar Östberg, the consensus politics and the aesthetic milieu taken as a whole became an indivisible unity and a programmatic part. As a result, the Stockholm City Hall was shaped into a symbol of the ancient town and its rulers, but also into a manifestation of contemporary society and its new-born democracy. These aspects of the building are essential in the present Master’s thesis: ‘Stockholm City Hall. Ancient times and current times’. The main aim is to describe the process before and under the construction and, when completed, to analyse the building in relation to the cultural-historical context in answering such questions as: Why was the Stockholm City Hall built? Why did the Stockholm City Hall get specifically this form? In the chapter ‘Society’, 50 years of committees, political regulations and resolutions are introduced – all in relation to the Stockholm Law Courts and the Stockholm City Hall. In the chapter entitled ‘The architect’, Ragnar Östberg (1866–1945) is introduced. The chapter deals with his progress as a student, with his scholarship travels in Sweden, USA and Europe, and with his period in assisting the architect Isak Gustaf Clason with the designs for the Nordic Museum in Stockholm (opened in 1907). In the chapter ‘The building’, the competition entries for the Stockholm Law Court and, when changing over around 1908, the Stockholm City Hall are presented, as well as the final fabric by Östberg. The ideas in contemporary society and impressions of the architect are discussed as sources of inspiration, which are reflected in the building: the Stockholm City Hall. During the last years, this Master’s thesis in the History of Architecture and the Built Environment has, for instance, been quoted in an extensive monograph in Art History about the Stockholm City Hall (published in 2011). Most recently, it has been referred to in a PhD thesis in Architecture at the University of Bologna, Italy, about the architect Ragnar Östberg (published in 2015).