St Mark’s Church
Lewerentz refused to cut a single brick: every brick is whole, and the wide mortar joints absorb the differences. The church interior is dark, with brick vaults that billow between steel beams. The church is regarded as one of the masterpieces of Swedish post-war architecture.
The Church of Sweden’s new parishes in Stockholm’s growing suburbs needed churches, and in 1955–1956 a competition was held for a church in Björkhagen. Sigurd Lewerentz, then about seventy and for a long time occupied with work other than churches, won. Construction lasted from 1958 to 1960, and Lewerentz followed the work on site almost daily. He did not want any brick to be cut, so the walls had to be adapted to the bricks rather than the other way round. The dark brick was laid with wide joints that took up all the differences in size. The team of bricklayers worked under Lewerentz’s meticulous supervision, and he drew and altered details throughout the construction. The church was built for a local parish but soon became known far beyond Stockholm.
The complex consists of the church and a parish building, which together stand at the edge of a birch grove. Everything is built of the same dark brick: walls, floor, altar and vaults. The church interior is almost square and very dim, with few, small windows that let in narrow slivers of light. The ceiling consists of low brick vaults that billow between steel beams, so that the roof seems to undulate. Light also comes from lamps hanging low in the room. The font and the altar are simple and heavy. Lewerentz designed the furnishings himself, and the details are few but carefully worked out. The acoustics and the darkness make the room still, and the eye needs a moment to adjust before the texture of the walls emerges.
St Mark’s Church received one of the first Kasper Salin Prizes, Sweden’s foremost architecture award, an early recognition for the ageing architect. A few years later Lewerentz designed St Peter’s Church in Klippan, where he took his ideas even further. The church has changed very little since it was built, and it is still used by the parish. In recent years it has become a place of pilgrimage for architects from all over the world, who see it as one of the 20th century’s finest examples of how a simple material can carry a powerful spatial expression. The church stands in contrast to the suburban architecture of its time, and it shows a different path from the bright functionalism that dominated Swedish building in the same period.