Helsingborg Concert Hall

Helsingborg Concert Hall, Helsingborg
Jsdo1980, CC BY 3.0

Markelius’s concert hall in Helsingborg was one of the first public functionalist buildings in Sweden. It is a white, smooth building with a tall concert hall and a glazed foyer. The building showed that the new architecture was also suited to the houses of culture.

In 1925 Helsingborg held an architectural competition for a concert hall, which Sven Markelius won. He revised the design as functionalism made its breakthrough, and the building was erected in 1930–1932. It was inaugurated in 1932, two years after the Stockholm Exhibition, where Markelius had been one of the leading architects. The concert hall became one of the first large public buildings in Sweden in the new style.

The building consists of a tall concert hall and lower parts for the foyer and other rooms. The façades are smooth and white, and the foyer has large windows facing the city. The hall is long and narrow and designed with care for the acoustics. Form follows function, and decoration has almost entirely disappeared. Markelius also designed the details, such as railings, lamps and doors.

The concert hall is still the home of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. It has been renovated and extended but has retained much of its character. The building is one of the most important examples of early Swedish functionalism and shows how the new architecture could be used for the public spaces of culture.