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Gustaf Strengell and Nordic Modernism* Kimmo Sarje

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Gustaf Strengell and Nordic Modernism* Kimmo Sarje Gustaf Strengell and Nordic Modernism* Kimmo Sarje Suffice is to say that his personal influence extended far into the North; in Finland it was particularly notable thanks to Sigurd Frosterus. We may credit the influence of van de Velde’s personality for the tremendously healthy, intel- lectual influence for that Frosterus and Gustaf Strengell had on Finnish archi- tecture. Alvar Aalto, 19571 In her inspiring book National Romanticism and Modern Architecture (2000) Barbara Miller Lane studies the development of modern architec- ture in Germany and Scandinavia as growth from National Romanticism to Modernism.2 She has good arguments to underline this kind of organic change, but there are also serious reasons to see the development in a more complex light. The role of rationalism of the turn of century as rep- resented by Gustaf Strengell and Sigurd Frosterus had a crucial effect on developments especially in Finland.3 I start with a broader introduction to Strengell’s work as architect, critic and writer to tell a different kind of narrative about Nordic Modernism, and finally to make some critical notes about Barbara Miller Lane’s inter- pretation in the end of my essay. Writing in Swedish, Strengell’s influ- ence was not limited to Finland, but instead he also had a Scandinavian audience. As a recent echo of the past, in her academic thesis Catharina Gabrielsson, a Swedish architect and critic, has paid positive attention to Strengell’s work.4 Art nouveau: Rationalism of the early 20th century Gustaf Strengell’s life’s work is a rich, though currently not so well known, chapter of the Modern Movement in Finland and Scandinavia. Born in 1878, he entered the cultural scene at the very beginning of the 20th cen- tury, declaring the principles of rational art nouveau in his astonishingly mature essay Nya skönhetsvärden (New Values of Beauty) in 1901. Strengell wanted to reform art nouveau and make the movement more “simple and The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics No. 35 (2008), pp. 93–120 Kimmo Sarje honest”, formulating a program which is here called rational art nouveau. It was an industrial, practical, and functional approach of construction and design emphasizing the role of machine production and iron, and it de- manded to abandon natural references of decoration instead of abstract and mathematical ornamentation to express the rational play of forces and masses of construction. The author was only 23 years old and still studying architecture at the Polytechnic Institute in Helsinki and practicing in the offices of Eliel Saarinen and Lars Sonck, the leading architects of Finnish National Ro- manticism. Besides Strengell’s great talent, an explanation of his literary brilliance was that he completed his Master of Arts degree in 1899 at the University of Helsinki before starting his professional studies. In his essay, Strengell called for truthfulness in materials and structures, and he stressed that machines would change the world: “The material itself was precisely that which would define the forms; … Machines reshaped the world and the introduction of iron as building material on an unpre- cedented scale provided architects with tasks that could not solved in a day.”5 Rationalism and industrialism were to provide the image of the new century just as architects such as Henry van de Velde and Victor Horta had shown. According to Strengell, priority should be given to the practical aspects of design and historical and archaeological references should be forgotten, and he formulates the principle of functionalism in the following terms in his early essay: A chair is beautiful once it serves its purpose to the utmost. It can lack any kind of ornament, as long as it is comfortable to use and constructed in such a man- ner that the functions of its various parts are clearly expressed; as long as it is well ”built” it will be beautiful.6 Strengell finished his studies in Helsinki in 1902 and founded an office together with Sigurd Frosterus (1876–1956), another talented architect and critic, and the future designer of the Stockmann department store in Helsinki.7 Both of them travelled abroad to study and practice in the offices of distinguished architects: Strengell went to London and worked in Charles Harrison Townsend’s office and Frosterus to Weimar to work with Henry van de Velde.8 The young architects put their rationalist programme in practice first by designing in 1904 a sculptural villa in Helsinki in the spirit of Joseph Maria Olbrich and Henry van de Velde, pointing out that the façades of the house contained no sign of ornamentation. At the same time, they concentrated on an architectural competition for the Helsinki railway sta- 94 Gustaf Strengell and Nordic Modernism tion. Frosterus’s innovative proposal designed with mastery bravura cul- minating the rational art nouveau style of van de Velde with locomotive metaphors was unfortunately not successful. The first price was given to the office of Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen for a castle-like railway station design with medieval references. This setback forced Frosterus and Strengell to defend their ideas of rational art nouveau, and in 1904 they published an elegant and sharply-worded manifesto entitled Arkitektur en stridskrift våra motståndare tillägnad af Gustaf Strengell och Sigurd Frosterus (“Architecture: a challenge to our opponents by Gustaf Strengell and Sigurd Frosterus”), which effectively questioned the values of National Romanticism. Strengell declares: Thus the use of archaistic forms, unless there are very strong grounds for doing so, is as absurd as wearing skins and eating with fingers, or if a gamekeeper were to shoot with a crossbow instead of his Winchester rifle. … Thus, the future architect has far more to learn from the Atlantic steamer and electric tram, from the racer and motorcar, from American office interiors and English lavatories, than he does from art forms belonging to the past. He will find a far more reli- able point of departure in these engineering products than in the Gothic or Renaissance in his endeavours to reflect the spirit of the age – it is there he will find the seeds, the beginnings, from which his new, dreamt-of style may one day germinate. … We have plenty of decorative and ‘artistic’ talent here in Finland at present. What we need is some guiding, clear and rational force. It is men we need, men who are prepared to break irrevocably with the past, to look boldly and resolutely to the future.9 Strengell’s analytical (and male-focused) thesis went without compromises to the point, but this did not mean that he was blind to the values of National Romantic architecture. On the contrary, the question was about the context. Strengell highly appreciated the historical and archaeologi- cal design of the National Museum of Finland by Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen of 1902. The ornamentation and narrative solutions of the building expressed the historical and archaeological facts of the country. That is why the museum was “a masterly attempt” and “true” according to Strengell. “It is thus on what one could almost call its ethical element, that the greatness of this building is based”, he writes.10 He understood also the carnivalesque decoration of the Pohjola (The North) House of the turn of the century “as a farfetched paraphrase on a theme suggested by the name itself”.11 Pohjola was a business building with grotesque mythological fig- ures hewn in its stone façade relief symbolizing the power of national capital and entrepreneurship. 95 Kimmo Sarje Fig. 1. Sigurd Frosterus & Gustaf Strengell: Villa Nissen, 1905, Helsinki. Photo: unknown. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. 96 Gustaf Strengell and Nordic Modernism Fig. 2. Herman Gesellius & Eliel Saarinen: Helsinki Rail- Fig. 3. Sigurd Frosterus & Gustaf Strengell: Helsinki way Station, competition entry, 1904. © Museum of Railway Station, competition entry, 1904. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. Finnish Architecture. 97 Kimmo Sarje Fig. 4. Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren, Eliel Saarinen: National Museum, Helsinki, 1910. Photo: unknown. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. 98 Gustaf Strengell and Nordic Modernism Fig. 5. Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren, Eliel Saarinen: Pohjola Insurance Company, Helsinki. 1898. Photo: Nils Erik Wickberg. © Museum of Finnish Architecture. 99 Kimmo Sarje But the aesthetic requirements of a railway station were another thing. Strengell could not accept the anachronisms of Saarinen’s office to repre- sent modern technology and transportation. “Nowadays railway stations are planned like museums and museums like churches,” he observes ironi- cally and gives a literary vision about the contemporary urban way of life as a conceptual starting point for the design of a modern railway station: A railway station in bold, mighty, elastic contours, a building of stone, glass and iron. A station hall, cobweb-light roof vaulted over the crowds, steam ris- ing like milk-white scum in pillars towards the heights. The shrill whistles and deafening din of trains shunting in and out. A flood of people rushing forwards through the barriers, staunch men, formal, business-like figures in one-coloured travel outfits, women of good bearing in outfits more notable for their cut than their colour – this, too, is a harmonious whole, this, too, is a picture.12 Strengell was convinced that Frosterus’ proposal was in keeping with the times, but unfortunately the jury was not able to accept new kinds of design and was deaf to rational arguments. However, the efforts of Frosterus and Strengell were not in vain. The results were not only great examples of ratio- nal art nouveau architecture on paper and the most radical manifesto thus far in the history of Finnish architecture, which meant the decline point of National Romanticism. Besides these contributions, the polemic and Frosterus’ proposals had a profound influence on the work of Saarinen’s of- fice, so that the built railway station in Helsinki resembles more Frosterus’ design than the original one of Gesellius, Lindgren and Saarinen.13 Unfortunately, the strong companionship of Frosterus and Strengell did not last long.
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