Gunnar Asplund

Sweden (1885 – 1940)

Gunnar Asplund is mostly known as a representative of Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1920s, and during the last decade of his life as a major proponent of the modernist style, which got its breakthrough in Sweden at the 1930 Stockholm exposition. Asplund designed furniture for the Stockholm City Hall in 1921 and the furniture and other detail elements for his own Stockholm City Library in 1928. His work is clearly a part of the modern movement in Sweden, but his use of carvings, decorative details and color suggest the influence of neo- classic and romantic Scandinavian revival. Cassina still produce some of his furniture designs. His later works include chapels and cemeteries of great simplicity, one of his best work in this field is the Woodland Crematorium (1940) in Stockholm.