Gunnar Asplund

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Stockholm Public Library

The extension of the Gothenburg City Hall

Erik Gunnar Asplund (22 September 1885 – 20 October 1940) was a Swedish architect, mostly known as a representative of Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1920s, and during the last decade of his life as a major proponent of the modernist style which got its breakthrough in Sweden at the 1930 Stockholm exposition. His major works include the Stockholm Public Library and Skogskyrkogården, a cemetery which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Skogskyrkogården was created between 1917 and 1920 by Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. Another important work is the extension of the Gothenburg City Hall building which Asplund started on 1917 and finished 1937 - it shows his transformation from neo-classical to modernist architect.

Gunnar Asplund is considered perhaps the most important modernist Swedish architect and has had a major influence on later generations of Swedish and also Nordic architects ^[1].