Stockholm Public Library
A cylinder on a cube. Asplund first designed a dome but removed it and let the pure geometry stand. Inside the rotunda the books stand on three levels along the wall, encircling the borrower. The library is a major work of Nordic Classicism, built just before Asplund’s turn to functionalism.
In the early 20th century Stockholm had no large public library open to all, and the city commissioned Gunnar Asplund to design one. He began work on it around 1918, and after study trips to American libraries, among others, the design took shape. The first design had a dome over the central space, but as work progressed the forms were pared down until only a pure cylinder on a low cube remained. Construction began in 1924, and the library opened in 1928. It was the first in Sweden where borrowers could go up to the shelves themselves and choose books, instead of ordering them at a desk. The building was rendered in a warm, orange-tinged hue and placed at the foot of Observatory Hill, where the park forms a green backdrop behind the building.
Visitors enter through a tall, narrow doorway into a dark staircase with black walls, where reliefs by Ivar Johnsson with motifs from the Iliad accompany them on the way up. The staircase leads straight into the rotunda, a bright, lofty room where the books stand on three levels along the curved wall. The upper part of the wall is white and roughly plastered, and light enters through tall windows at the top of the cylinder. Around the rotunda, in the wings of the cube, lie smaller reading rooms, including ones for children and for periodicals. Asplund designed almost everything in the building, from tables and chairs to lamps, handles and signs. The contrast between the dark entrance and the bright rotunda is the building’s great experience.
The fourth wing, which closed the cube, was added only a few years after the opening. In the latter part of the 20th century the library became cramped, and an international architectural competition for an extension was held in the 2000s, but the project was halted after criticism, partly about how it would affect the setting around the building. Instead the library has been renovated in stages with respect for Asplund’s interiors. The building is regarded as a major work of Nordic Classicism and is studied by architects from all over the world for its simple geometry and its care for detail. Just two years after the opening, Asplund showed at the Stockholm Exhibition that he had left classicism behind, and the library therefore stands as the end point of an era in Swedish architecture.