reviving asplund

Call for proposals for an extension to the Stockholm City Library, designed by Gunnar Asplund and completed in 1928. It is one of my favorite buildings in Scandinavia, second, I think, only to Jørn Utzon's Bagsværd Church.

More info here.

The pictures are from Sveriges Arkitekter. I'm quite ashamed to say that I had not managed to take a single good picture of the building when I visited it 2 years ago. In spite of it's simplicity, the building manages to exude a dignifid presence, without resorting to the overt classicism still common at the time it was built. The library is accessed through a grand central stairway from the main road, which leads to a overscaled entrance. Once past the entrance, the main reading room slowly reveals itself as the visitor makes his way up the final flight of steps. And upon entering the reading room, the heart of the building, the visitor is surrounded by a wall of books placed on the three storey high curved stacks wrapping around the inside of the central rotunda. The experience of being in this building cannot be distilled through the static frames of a camera nor the words of a visitor. I promise myself that I'll make a trip down to Stockholm in the coming months.