Peter Celsing
Encyclopedia
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
modernist
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
.
Celsing studied at the architectural school of the Royal Institute of Technology
Royal Institute of Technology
The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...
in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, and at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
Royal Swedish Academy of Arts
The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts or Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna, founded in 1773 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...
. He later became professor of architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology. After working for some time in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, he became head of the architectural office of Stockholms Spårvägar
Stockholms Spårvägar
AB Stockholms Spårvägar , was a company founded in 1915 and owned by the City of Stockholm to coordinate and operate public transportation within the City...
, the Stockholm tram and local railway authority, and built a number of suburban metro stations. He also designed several churches: in Härlanda
Härlanda
Härlanda is one of the 21 stadsdelsnämndsområden of Gothenburg Municipality in Sweden, situated to the east of the city centre. To the east of Härlanda lies Partille Municipality, and to the south Härryda Municipality...
(Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
), Almtuna (Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
) and Vällingby
Vällingby
Vällingby is a suburban district in Västerort in the north-western part of Stockholm Municipality, Sweden.Vällingby was planned in the early 1950s as a new town...
, a much-publicized modernist suburb of Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
.
Celsing often worked in a brutalist style with large exposed grey concrete surfaces, but occasionally combined this with large glass panes exposing the structure of the building from the outside, and interior details in wood. The best known examples of this are the Kulturhuset
Kulturhuset
Opened in 1974, Kulturhuset is a cultural centre to the south of Sergels Torg in central Stockholm. It is a controversial symbol for Stockholm and the growth of modernism in Sweden...
("House of Culture") at Sergels Torg
Sergels Torg
Sergels torg is the most central public square in Stockholm, Sweden, named after 18th century sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel, whose workshop was once located north of the square.- Overview :...
in central Stockholm (1966–1971), the Filmhuset, the house of the Swedish Film Institute
Swedish Film Institute
The Swedish Film Institute was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the Filmhuset building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm...
on Gärdet
Gärdet
Gärdet is a part of Stockholm east and northeast of Östermalm. Its official name is Ladugårdsgärdet. It is renowned for its large number of modernist apartments...
in Stockholm (1968–1970), and his addition to Carolina Rediviva
Carolina Rediviva
Carolina Rediviva is the main building of the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, Sweden. The building was begun in 1820 and completed in 1841. The original architect was Carl Fredrik Sundvall. Later additions to the building have been designed by Axel Johan Anderberg and Peter Celsing...
, the main building of the Uppsala University Library
Uppsala University Library
Uppsala University Library at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, consists of 12 subject libraries, one of which is housed in the old main library building, Carolina Rediviva...
(1953–1962). In Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
, Celsing also built a new wing for the Stockholm Nation building (begun in 1961), and the current Ekonomikum
Ekonomikum
Ekonomikum is a building that is part of Uppsala University.- References :...
building (completed 1976).
Kulturhuset (begun 1966, completed 1971) is from most angles dominated by its concrete structure, with the adjacent theatre building having a façade of stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
, but from the front by its glass façade and the thin lines of the concrete floors, giving the impression of a number of shelfs open towards the open place outside, Sergels torg. It is located in a part of Stockholm where the old structure of the city, the old architecture and even the topography was almost entirely replaced in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s with modernist architecture and new functions, mainly finance and large-scale retail businesses. The reaction against this development has been very strong, and many planned building and traffic projects had to be stopped from the 1970s and later as a result of the public opinion against what largely was, and continues to be, regarded as a significant loss of irreplaceable cultural values (see for instance the film documentary Staden i mitt hjärta from 1992 by Anders Wahlgren).
Moderna Museet
Moderna museet, the Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, that was first opened in 1958. Its first manager was Pontus Hultén...
(the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art) to occupy large parts of the building, but the museum dropped out of the project in 1969. As the flagship building of the city redevelopment, Kulturhuset has, perhaps unfairly, become the target of much of the anger against the whole city redevelopment project. Already in 1970, one critic, Claes Brunius, noted in Expressen
Expressen
Expressen is one of two nationwide evening tabloid newspapers in Sweden, the other being Aftonbladet. Expressen was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and slogans "it stings" or "Expressen to your rescue", always on the reader's side....
that "Stockholm is building the largest vacuum in the country". The public opinion against the project may have been strengthened by the fact that the Kulturhuset and the interconnected Stockholm City Theatre
Stockholm City Theatre
Stockholm City Theatre is Sweden's most popular theatre stage. It was created in 1956 but the first performance was delayed until 1960. It had not yet been decided at that point where in the city the theatre would lie so the Folkets hus building at Norra Bantorget, with a temporary stage, became...
were used as a temporary parliamentary building for several years, but as such the structure won the prestigious Kasper Salin Prize
Kasper Salin Prize
The Kasper Salin Prize is a prize awarded annually by the Swedish Association of Architects to a Swedish building or building project "of high architectural standard". It has been awarded since 1962 and was founded with money from a donation by the city architect of Stockholm Kasper Salin...
in 1972.
One of his last buildings is the Bank of Sweden building at Brunkebergstorg in Stockholm, the design of which is dominated by the use of cubes, squares, spheres and circles, all intended to give the impression of stability. It makes use of thick slabs of roughly hewn dark granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
in the façade, thus borrowing from the renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
tradition of using rustication
Rustication (architecture)
thumb|upright|Two different styles of rustication in the [[Palazzo Medici-Riccardi]] in [[Florence]].In classical architecture rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar...
to give the impression of solidity and particularly from the 19th century neo-renaissance
Neo-Renaissance
Renaissance Revival is an all-encompassing designation that covers many 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes...
practice of using rustication in bank buildings for this purpose. The Bank of Sweden had since 1907 been located to a semi-circular building on Helgeandsholmen
Helgeandsholmen
Helgeandsholmen is a small island in central Stockholm, Sweden. It is located north of Stadsholmen, and east of Strömsborg, with which, together with Riddarholmen, it forms Gamla stan, the old town of Stockholm...
, but moved to Celsing's building in 1976. (The older building was combined with the adjacent Riksdag
Parliament of Sweden
The Riksdag is the national legislative assembly of Sweden. The riksdag is a unicameral assembly with 349 members , who are elected on a proportional basis to serve fixed terms of four years...
building as a new parliamentary building, where the parliament returned after its years in exile in Celsing's Kulturhuset.)
Peter Celsing's son, Johan Celsing, has become noted as an architect of public buildings since the 1990s, and one of his buildings won the Kasper Salin Prize in 1999.
Buildings
- Härlanda Church, Göteborg
- St Tomas Church, VällingbyVällingbyVällingby is a suburban district in Västerort in the north-western part of Stockholm Municipality, Sweden.Vällingby was planned in the early 1950s as a new town...
- Boliden Church, BolidenBolidenBoliden is a locality situated in Skellefteå Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden with 1,515 inhabitants in 2005. It lies 28,5 kilometers from Skellefteå City....
- Nacksta Church, SundsvallSundsvall-External links:* - Official site from Nordisk Familjebok - Sundsvalls tourist information bureau. - The alternative guide to Sundsvall. - Blog with photos from Sundsvall....
- KulturhusetKulturhusetOpened in 1974, Kulturhuset is a cultural centre to the south of Sergels Torg in central Stockholm. It is a controversial symbol for Stockholm and the growth of modernism in Sweden...
, StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... - Bank of Sweden Building, StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
- Villa Klockberga, private property in LovönLovönLovön is an island located in the Swedish Lake Mälaren in Ekerö Municipality of Stockholm County. It was a municipality of its own until 1952, when it was joined with Ekerö Municipality. Lovön's greatest attraction is Drottningholm Palace and its many public gardens, which were built on the island...
, outside StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... - Villa Friis, private property in LovönLovönLovön is an island located in the Swedish Lake Mälaren in Ekerö Municipality of Stockholm County. It was a municipality of its own until 1952, when it was joined with Ekerö Municipality. Lovön's greatest attraction is Drottningholm Palace and its many public gardens, which were built on the island...
, outside StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
. - FilmhusetFilmhusetFilmhuset may refer to:* Filmhuset building in Stockholm, the house of the Swedish Film Institute* Filmhuset AS, a Norwegian film production company....
in Gärdet, StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... - Olaus Petri Church, StockholmStockholmStockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
- Almtuna Church in UppsalaUppsala- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
- Extension of university library Carolina RedivivaCarolina RedivivaCarolina Rediviva is the main building of the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, Sweden. The building was begun in 1820 and completed in 1841. The original architect was Carl Fredrik Sundvall. Later additions to the building have been designed by Axel Johan Anderberg and Peter Celsing...
, UppsalaUppsala- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med... - EkonomikumEkonomikumEkonomikum is a building that is part of Uppsala University.- References :...
, UppsalaUppsala- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
External links
- The Bank of Sweden building, with images and a brief biography of the architect
- History of Kulturhuset, by Beate Sydhoff, former director of Kulturhuset (in Swedish)
- Filmhuset, main page and Filmhuset, history
- History of the Stockholm Nation buildings, Uppsala (in Swedish)
- Ekonomikum, formerly known as Humanistiskt-samhällsvetenskapligt centrum, Uppsala UniversityUppsala UniversityUppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
(in Swedish)