Villa Snellman
At first glance Asplund’s villa in Djursholm looks like a simple manor house, but everything is slightly off: the upper-floor windows do not sit directly above those below, and one wing is set at an angle. This is Nordic Classicism playing with tradition.
The villa was built in 1917–1918 for the bank director Anders Snellman. Asplund took the 18th-century Swedish manor house as his starting point, with a symmetrical façade and a mansard roof, but broke its rules in small, almost imperceptible ways. The upper-floor windows are offset from those on the ground floor, so the whole house feels alive and slightly restless.
Villa Snellman is regarded as a key work of Nordic Classicism, the style often called Swedish Grace. Architects such as Asplund, Lewerentz, Ivar Tengbom and Sven Markelius combined classical forms with a personal, sometimes ironic freedom. The lessons of the villa can be seen in Asplund’s City Library, and later in his path towards functionalism.