Ann Katrin Pihl Atmer — The Stockholm City Hall

Описание: Ann Katrin Pihl Atmer analyses Stockholm City Hall as a carefully staged story about the Swedish capital and the nation’s political identity. Beginning with the 1923 Midsummer Eve inauguration – timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Gustav Vasa’s entry into Stockholm – she shows how the building links municipal democracy to royal symbolism through ceremonies in the Blue Hall and the Council Chamber. The lecture reconstructs the long and conflict‑ridden design process: the move from the old town to the industrial Eldkvarn site on Kungsholmen, the first competition scheme, the heavily reworked plan with two piazzas and the decisive transformation of the tower. Ragnar Östberg gradually moved from marble to brick, opened up the tower top and crowned it with the controversial three crowns, turning a municipal building into a new national emblem. Finally, Pihl Atmer reads the Blue Hall, Council Chamber, Golden Hall and Swedish Grace‑style banquet room as a sequence in which medievalising brick, classical forms and mosaics together construct an image of Swedish history, power and civic life. The City Hall emerges as both experimental architecture and a powerful instrument of urban myth‑making.

Ann Katrin Pihl Atmer is an associate professor of art and architectural history at Stockholm University and former curator at the Museum of Architecture (ArkDes). Her research focuses on Stockholm’s built environment, including a major study of Stockholm City Hall and its architect Ragnar Östberg.

Key Topics
00:00 1923 inauguration, Gustav Vasa and the political staging of City Hall
01:56 From courthouse problem to the decision to build a new city hall on Kungsholmen
04:22 The first “maladroit” competition scheme and the redesign with twin piazzas
08:07 Slimming and reopening the tower, changing material from marble to brick and adding the three crowns
10:46 Blue Hall, Council Chamber, Golden Hall and Swedish Grace interiors as a narrative of Swedish history

The published anthology:
https://bokforlagetstolpe.com/en/book...

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