Matchstick Palace
Encyclopedia
The Matchstick Palace ís an office building with the address Västra Trädgårdsgatan No. 15 in Stockholm. It was commissioned by the "Match King" Ivar Kreuger
Ivar Kreuger
Ivar Kreuger was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908 Kreuger co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB which specialized in new building techniques. By aggressive investments and innovative financial instruments he built a global match...

 as the headquarters of Svenska Tändsticks AB (Swedish Match
Swedish Match
Swedish Match is a Swedish company based in Stockholm that makes snus, tobacco, cigars , Red Man Chewing Tobacco, dipping tobacco, matches and lighters. It was founded as Svenska Tändsticksaktiebolaget by Ivar Kreuger in 1917 in Jönköping...

). It was designed by architect, Ivar Tengbom
Ivar Tengbom
Ivar Justus Tengbom was a Swedish architect and one of the best-known representatives of the Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1910s and 1920s....

 and built by Kreuger & Toll
Kreuger & Toll
Kreuger & Toll was a company founded May 18, 1908 by the two Swedish engineers, Ivar Kreuger and Paul Toll, with Henrik Kreüger working as a consultant and chief engineer.-History:...

 Construction AB during 1929-31. The palace remained Swedish Match's headquarters until 1991 when it was sold to Telia
Telia
Telia may refer to:*Telia - part of the reproductive cycle of Rusts*Telia Digital-tv - a Swedish TV platform*Telia, Nepal - a village in Nepal*TeliaSonera - a Swedish/Finnish telecom operator*Telia Challenge Waxholm - Golf tournament...

, who later sold it to businessman Muhammed Al-Amoundi
Mohammed Al Amoudi
Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi (Ge'ez: ሞሓመድ አልአሙዲ, Arabic: محمد حسين العمودي; is a Saudi Arabian/Ethiopian businessman and billionaire who lives in Ethiopia and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As of 2011, his net worth has...

 for SEK 450 million..

Behind the latticework
Latticework
Latticework is a framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a network...

 and Corinthian columns
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...

 of the main portico
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls...

 is the horse shoe-shaped inner courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....

 on which the building is centred. The façades of the ground floor are dressed in marble from Kolmården
Kolmården
Kolmården is a large forest that separates the Swedish provinces of Södermanland and Östergötland, two of the country's main agricultural areas, from each other.-History:...

 and the courtyard is furnished with the sculpture Diana fountain I by Carl Milles
Carl Milles
Carl Milles was a Swedish sculptor, best known for his fountains. He was married to artist Olga Milles and brother to Ruth Milles and half brother to the architect Evert Milles...

. Inside the portico are two flight of stairs leading up to the quarters of the board of directors, where is the circle segment
Circular segment
In geometry, a circular segment is an area of a circle informally defined as an area which is "cut off" from the rest of the circle by a secant or a chord. The circle segment constitutes the part between the secant and an arc, excluding the circle's center...

-shaped board meeting room with paintings by Isaac Grünewald
Isaac Grünewald
Isaac Grünewald was a Swedish-Jewish expressionist painter born in Stockholm. He was the leading and central name in the first generation of Swedish modernists from 1910 up until his death in 1946, in other words during almost his entire career spanning four decades...

. On the opposite side of the courtyard, the first two floors are taken up by the session room. The space between the building and the park were kept void until the 1970s.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK