Pracownia architektury wnętrz wykład: (4h/t) 4 sem

The Pierpont Morgan Library in NYC, 1906

The Pierpont Morgan Library in NYC is one of the grandest libraries in the United States. It was designed by Charles McKim and built in 1906 to house the private library of financier J. P. Morgan and cost $1.2 million (at that time!) to build. Morgan, who was a noted collector, included in his library manuscripts and printed books, some of them in rare bindings, and his collection of prints and drawings. The library was made a museum and research library administered by a private trust in 1924 by his son, John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

New York Public Library, 1902-1911

In New York, the foreign-born population increased by 41 percent in 1910. The New York Public Library opened in 1911.

The photo on the right shows a librarian's assistant telling a story to a group of Russian children in their native language.
According to the Jean Harripersaud from the Bronx Library Center, the librarians of the New York Public Library "upheld the philosophy that the library should be accessible to all and provide library resources for all peoples of the community, and decided to stock a foreign language collection of over 100,000 books representing over twenty-five different languages to meet the reading interests of immigrants in the society. This effort was much criticized by the press and even others in the profession. This huge influx of immigrants was threatening the homogenous landscape of the society. New York was comprised primarily of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants and there was a fear of different and unfamiliar cultures and peoples. To deal with this perceived threat social scientists of the day prescribed an assimilation theory where in practice the new immigrant had to depart from his/her culture, learn English and adapt American ways and customs. In other words, become Americanized and lose his/her ethnic identity.
Librarians, way ahead of social scientists of the time, had already seen assimilation or Americanization as somewhat chauvinistic and embraced the idea that in a democracy the cultures of its resident groups enrich the society and should be preserved. They did want them to learn American ways but they aimed for what we know today as cultural pluralism preferring the 'salad bowl' to the 'melting pot' concept." (Harripersaud, 2010)
According to Dain (2000, 67), a library spokesperson stated, “it is cruel to deny reading matter to people too old or too exhausted by their labor to learn English; besides the right book in any language would introduce them to American life and ideals.”
The photo on the right shows a poster written in Hungarian advertising English classes at Tompkins Square in 1920.

http://eduscapes.com/history/contemporary/1910.htm

The organizers of the New York Public Library, wanting an imposing main branch, chose a central site available at the two-block section of Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd streets, then occupied by the no-longer-needed Croton Reservoir. Dr. John Shaw Billings, the first director of the library, created an initial design which became the basis of the new building (now known as the Schwarzman Building) on Fifth Avenue. Billings's plan called for a huge reading room on top of seven floors of bookstacks combined with a system that was designed to get books into the hands of library users as fast as possible.[7] Following a competition among the city's most prominent architects, Carrère and Hastings was selected to design and construct the building.[22] The cornerstone was laid in May 1902,[23] and the building's completion was expected to be in three years.[ In 1910, 75 miles (121 km) of shelves were installed, and it took a year to move and install the books that were in the Astor and Lenox libraries.[7]

On May 23, 1911, the main branch of the New York Public Library was officially opened in a ceremony presided over by President William Howard Taft. After a dedication ceremony, the library was open to the general public that day.[24] The library had cost $9 million to build and its collection consisted of more than 1,000,000 volumes.[25] The library structure was a Beaux-Arts design and was the largest marble structure up to that time in the United States.[26] It included two stone lions guarding the entrance were sculpted by E. C. Potter.[27] Its main reading room was contemporaneously the largest of its kind in the world at 77 feet (23.5 m) wide by 295 feet (89.9 m) long, with 50 feet (15.2 m) high ceilings.[23] It is lined with thousands of reference books on open shelves along the floor level and along the balcony. The New York Public Library instantly became one of the nation's largest libraries and a vital part of the intellectual life of America. Dr. Harry Miller Lydenberg served as director between 1934–1941.[28]

The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965.[29] Over the decades, the library system added branch libraries, and the research collection expanded until, by the 1970s, it was clear the collection eventually would outgrow the existing structure. In the 1980s the central research library added more than 125,000 square feet (12,000 m2) of space and literally miles of bookshelf space to its already vast storage capacity to make room for future acquisitions. This expansion required a major construction project in which Bryant Park, directly west of the library, was closed to the public and excavated. The new library facilities were built below ground level and the park was restored above it.

In the three decades before 2007, the building's interior was gradually renovated.[26] On December 20, 2007, the library announced it would undertake a three-year, $50 millionrenovation of the building exterior, which has suffered damage from weathering and pollution.[30] The renovation was completed on time, and on February 2, 2011 the refurbished facade was unveiled.[31] The restoration design was overseen by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., whose previous projects include the Metropolitan Museum of Art's limestone facades and the American Museum of Natural History, made of granite.[32] These renovations were underwritten by a $100-million gift from philanthropist Stephen A. Schwarzman, whose name will be inscribed at the bottom of the columns which frame the building's entrances.[33] Today the main reading room is equipped with computers with access to library collections and the Internet and docking facilities for laptops. There are special rooms for notable authors and scholars, many of whom have done important research and writing at the Library.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library

Widener Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1915

The library was designed in Beaux-Arts style by Julian F. Abele, the first major African-American architect, and opened in 1915. It is a memorial to Harry Elkins Widener, a 1907 Harvard graduate who was a book collector and victim of the Titanic disaster. It is the primary library of Harvard University and houses 3 million of the University's nearly 16 million books, including a Gutenberg Bible.

Stockholm Municipal Library, 1920-28


Hong Qin
From, Formation and Transformation

- an analysis of Asplund's design of the Stockholm City Library

Like many of his other projects, Asplund's Stockholm City Library went through numerous modifications and alterations during the design process, which, in this case, can be divided into two parts at the point of the published version in 1922. In its formation, design ideas of the Library grew with the planning work for the quarter around the Observatory Hill and followed a more in-depth search for a formal language with operational considerations as point of departure, where American experience provided important source of inspiration. The crucial plan composition remained largely the same after 1922. Understanding of architectonic effect that Asplund acquired and developed in the previous years played an dominant role in the transformation stage of the project. One can distinguish two closely related character in Asplund's approach - balance and comprehensiveness - which can be highly exemplary for architects today.

Introduction
Like many of Asplund’s other projects the Stockholm City Library (1920-1928) (fig. 1) went through numerous modifications and alterations during the design process. Unlike most of his major projects, the design work of the Library was assigned to him without a normally required competition. This arrangement provided Asplund the opportunity to develop his design in a more relaxed manner. Compared with the projects of Gothenburg Courthouse extension (1913-1937) and Woodland Cemetery (1915-1940) - both covered a considerably longer time - the Library building was relatively free of pre-existing site restrictions. Therefore a detailed analysis of its design progress would probably best help us understand Asplund’s design ideas of the period.
Hakon Ahlberg said in 1925: "He (Asplund) fully realises that a beautifully designed plan is the first condition for a beautiful structure. In the most important task he has attempted up to now, the project for Stockholm Stadsbibliotek (The Stockholm Public Library), the profound study of the plan-problem stands out as chief feature, the plan being treated not merely as a practical but also as an aesthetic problem."
Ahlberg’s statement contains two interesting hypotheses - the aesthetic value of forms and the possible connection between beautiful forms and good functions. Both are too complicated to discuss here. However, since these two issues seemed to be two of the most common topics among architects of Asplund’s time, they were probably also two of Asplund’s major concerns in design.
Clarity of forms is apparent for the built version and most of the versions produced along the design process. The 1922 published version is a perfect example of such clarity of forms; and, it also reached the highest degree of formal strictness. The combination of spherical and cubic forms was a frequent motif, which can be found in both Asplund’s earlier projects and those of his contemporaries. A strict, symmetrical variation of this motif can be seen as a product of the search for innate aesthetic value of forms in the context of Classical Revival.
The way to and away from the 1922 published version represents the processes of formation and transformation of the design. First of all, Asplund’s approach was far from purely formal. In Uno Ĺhrén’s words: "Only those, who like me, have worked with Asplund, know how objectively flexible and unbiased he tackle every assignment. It is therefore noticeable to see how in the end his final design relatively seldom becomes an adequate expression for those objective, purely functional intentions."
Asplund’s own notes, sketches and the volume and communication study show that his point of departure was also practical and operational. Considerations for the library administration and the program requirement played an important role from the very beginning. He came to the solution of the 1922 published version only gradually - through the planning proposal 1919, the volume and communication study and at least two other alternatives.
After the 1922 publish version, Asplund abandoned the perforated dome in favour of a cylindrical shaft for the central lending hall. At least three alternatives of facade treatment were produced before the built version. Asplund tested in these alternatives how far he could go toward either extremes of the amount and complexity of ornamentation.
Prostyle porticoes were removed, whereas the 1924 alternative (more fully developed as late as 23 February 1925) was full of classicized ornamentation, especially for the interior. By this time, the excavation work for the foundation had already started. In the last minute, Asplund came up with the built version. In a equally intensive but more consistent way, spatial arrangement had gone through similar trials through out the design process.
The architecture of the Library occupies a unique position in Asplund’s entire oeuvre. It is the last and most important of his work that were built before his sudden conversion to functionalism in the late 1920s. It is also the last and most strict one along the line of Woodland Chapel (1918-1920) and Lister County Courthouse (1917-1921), whose plan composition is symmetrical - notably a rare feature in Asplund’s work. A close investigation of the different proposals or versions of proposals Asplund produced during the design process reveals many more connecting points and shared concepts with his other projects and those of his contemporaries.
Asplund’s time, very much like our own, was a time of rapid change and new inventions; it was a time of confusion and chaos as well. Towards the end of last century, after a new round of revivals of earlier styles, Isak Gustaf Clason (1856-1930) changed the course of architectural development in Sweden and started what may be called National Realism. When Asplund’s Library proposal was published in 1922, Gustaf Clason wrote an introductory article on the design of Adelsnäs Manor by his father I. G. Clason in the same issue of Byggmästaren. Among a number of other things, the article explained the arrangement around the main entrance, the layout of major spaces, and the concentration and integration of the service section to the main body of the building (fig. 2) Asplund’s name was among the three assistant architects mentioned in the end of the article.
It is interesting to compare the style and structure of Gustaf Clason’s article with that of Asplund’s on his Library design sex years later. The objective and somehow almost indifferent tone in both articles are strikingly alike.
The Adelsnäs project encountered an unusually wide array of challenges and was supported by a patron with rare artistic enthusiasm. Clason’s innovative plan disposition and carefully planned dialogue between the building and its setting certainly left deep impression on his young assistant. It was probably this Clasonesque, almost encyclopaedic way of thinking and conceiving architecture that laid the most profound foundation for Asplund’s future development.
Parallel to his involvement in the Adelsnäs project, Asplund was also engaged in the free academy of Klara School (1910-11) where revolting students from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts invited four leading architects as their instructors. They were Ragnar Östberg, Carl Westman, Ivar Tengbom and Carl Bergsten.
Tengbom and Bergsten were to be more directly involved in Asplund’s Library project some years later. However, it was Ragnar Östberg and Carl Westman who were the foremost advocators for a return to the national characteristics in architecture. Eventually their early work didn’t differ too much from that of Clason. However, Westman’s building for the Medical Society (1906) marked the beginning of a new tendency of simplification of facade treatment and a shift of emphasis from sculptural effect to contrast of material and texture. Both Östberg’s Östermalm Secondary School (1906-10) and Asplund’s Karlshamn Secondary School (1912) were examples of this line of development.
Another important ingredient in the Östberg/Westman tradition is, as the name National Romantic implies, the romanticism in their design. They sought inspirations in the less pretentious vernacular architectures, foreign and domestic alike, and medieval castles. Under the influence of medievalism, design concept was extended and more attention was paid to the urban structure. Östberg’s Stockholm City Hall (1913-1923) represents the highest achievement of the movement, where he succeeded in creating a dramatic dialogue between the building and its surroundings (fig. 3) and evoking an outdoor feelings in an indoor space (fig. 4) . Even though the City Hall project was still in its seminal stage at the time of Klara School, its influence was felt in many of Asplund’s subsequent work. In the Library project, Asplund took one step further and sought to combine Östberg’s vivid vernacular and mediaevalism with the more monumental classical tradition as to form a balanced unity. This is obvious in both his 1919 planning proposal for the quarter around the Observatory Hill (fig. 12) and the final built version (fig. 28)
The significance of the Klara school can be further explained by two of the programmes Asplund helped formulate: a courthouse in small city and a public library in Stockholm. Both became important commissions for him in the 1920s.
Asplund’s passion for and understanding of architecture were to take a great leap forward as a result of his trip to southern Europe in 1913-14. Many important features in his work later have direct bearings from the impressions gained during the trip, Italy in particular. The first thing Asplund took impression of was no architectural but the settings that buildings resided in - the sky and the landscape. As Elias Cornell points out: previous travellers following the same route had looked for the origins of architecture, but only among the stones of buildings. They wrote less about the interaction in the same place where the architects of classical antiquity had once found it, namely in partnership with what was built on the ground or the ground itself and the sky which is stretched above it - timeless, simple and vast. The title of Cornell’s article - The sky as a vault - is a direct citation from one of Asplund’s diary entry in Tunis. More than once he mentioned the effect of the sky on architecture and human activities. In the cylindrical central lending hall we are going to see what Asplund meant by the sky as a vault.
It seems that Asplund developed a strong appreciation of processional approach during the trip: ways leading to temples on top of hills, steps to crypt or underground washing place, open street filled with people and activities, double stairs lit by concealed courtyard behind a wall, path lined with family tombs in Pompeii. Consequently, processional sequence became a strong and recurrent element in many of Asplund's work. This can be best illustrated by his Woodland Chapel (1918-1920), where a series of spaces of varying size and nature precede the domed chapel chamber(fig. 5)
.10
In the Library project, one witnesses constant change of the size and shape of the main processional doorway that connects the outside street to the central lending hall. These changes are caused by the evolution of visual and functional intentions. Double stairs from a private palace in Palermo (fig. 6)
, so vividly described in the diary, can well have inspired his own double stairs that embrace the circular lending hall.
Connection between this trip and the Library design in term of decorative details is not difficult to established either. Asplund’s sketch pad is full of records of such details. At least one of them was directly used in the Library project, that is a skeleton figure (fig. 7) he saw in the Terme Museum with inscription that reads "Gnothi Seauton" (know yourself).

Background

Wallenbergian donation and the City Library Committee
On behalf of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Otto Printzsköld announced in a letter dated March 30th, 1918 to the Stockholm City Council that the Foundation was to donate one million Swedish crowns for the construction of a public library in Stockholm under the conditions:
- that the City Council set aside the now available funds of 575,000 kr from the Forsgren Foundation for the construction of the City Library,

- that the City Council grant a parcel of land of such nature that the library can be built independently and that there shall be room for possible future expansions, and

- that the City of Stockholm bear all the costs of the required design work.
The generous donation of the Wallenbergs was accepted with gratitude. Also in response, the City Council set up a City Library Committee consisting of five members and three deputies in June 1918. However, the Committee was not finally formed until early the following year. Initially, the engaged architect was Carl Westman, who somehow declined to take the post. Asplund was appointed as a member in Westman’s place on December 2nd, 1918.
By 1918, Asplund was emerging as a competent architect. He had won a number of competitions, of which the international competition for Stockholm South Cemetery (together with Lewerentz) earned him much respect and attention. He was now editor for the architectural section of the magazine Teknisk tidskrift, taught building ornament in the Royal Institute of Technology and was appointed non-stipendiary architect to the Royal Board of Public Buildings.11

pre-studies of public library and the trip to American

In the beginning Asplund was given the assignment of preparing the programme for a design competition of the Library. This gradually led to the commissions of the planning of the whole quarter around the Observatory Hill containing the City Library, the Stockholm School of Economics and the Law Faculty of the Stockholm University, and later the design of the City Library itself.
Since the concept of public libraries was new in Sweden at that time, members of the Committee were sent to other countries to study the issue. In May 1920 the City Council sponsored Asplund and the chief librarian Fredrik Hjelmqvist a trip to the US to study the library establishment there.12 In their joint account after the trip Asplund reflects: Libraries are the meeting place between people and books. The layout of the plan must make it easy for the people to reach the books and for the books to reach the people. And the one who arranges this meeting is the personnel in the library. Thereby they constitute the three major components of the operation of a library: the books, the public and the personnel.13 He was also very impressed by the Americans: In America one gets an overwhelming impression of the extraordinary, almost scientific care with which the libraries are designed. It is a continuously evolving development towards better result. Experiences of earlier libraries are studied and utilised in every new one.14
His analysis of plan solutions were rather pedagogic, eloquent and practical. Here again he resorted to the American experiences though he was most likely familiar with many of the ideas prior to the trip:
For plan solutions a committee appointed by the American Library Association have put forward certain rules, of which the following are the most important:

- Each library building shall be designed literally speaking with considerations to the activity that will take place in it and the society that the building will serve;

- The interior arrangement must be designed before the exterior is handled;

- The planning shall make it possible for future expansion and development;

- A library must be carefully designed for economic administration;

- Public spaces must be designed for sufficient supervision with smallest possible number of service people;

- Proper arrangement shall not be sacrificed for any architectonic effect;

- There must be sufficient natural lighting in all parts of the building. The windows should go all the way up to the ceiling.15

Consequently he compared six types of composition: (1) rectangular, (2) T or L shaped, (3) larger volume encompassing a central courtyard, (4) Greek cross, (5) rectangular with two lighting courtyards, and (6) rectangular with four lighting courtyards. For the first four types he commented:
Locations in the above mentioned plan types (the first four types) are all more or less split. The need of more concentration is increasingly obvious, and with the introduction of electrical lighting, which does not have the damaging effect on books, such concentrations are made possible. People have come up with a relatively compact building volume with 2 or 4 lighting courtyards for smaller locations.16
As for the "good types" he gave two examples - for the former, Indianapolis Public Library, and for the later, Detroit Public Library (fig.8) . Here reveals one of the important sources of inspiration.
It certainly will do Asplund injustice by exaggerating the role of American predecessors. This was in the autumn of 1920. Asplund's design work started at least one year ago. Therefore, let us begin from the beginning.

Design in progress

the genesis
In the very early stage, the design ideas of the Library were much interwoven with the planning work of the quarter around the Observatory Hill with emphases on communication and urban design. Focus of attention was shifted to the Library building only in time to come when the planning scheme gradually took form.
Early freehand sketches of plans and perspectives for the planning of the quarter around the Observatory Hill show that the famous circular space which was to characterise the Library design already made its appearance here, although in a less dominant manner. There were also designs without the circular space and/or only semi-circular (fig. 9) . Influences from Palladio, Ledoux or Bindesböll were yet to observe. Instead, it would be reasonable to believe that inspirations more came from Lallerstedt or Tengbom since co-operation were close between Asplund and these two appointed architects for the Law Faculty and the Stockholm School of Economics respectively.
The prime concern was understandably the placement of the Library in an urban context. Asplund particularly saw to it that the top of the Observatory Hill with Lallerstedt's Law Faculty be visible from the corner of the quarter bordered by Sveavägen and Odengatan (fig. 10) . In an undated plan, Asplund even included the intersecting part of the two streets to form a kind of piazza character.
These sketches also show that Asplund already began to study the ways of combining a circular space with the rest of the building. He almost exhausted the possibilities: symmetric, asymmetric; placed centrally, frontally or at the corner; with wings being arrayed around, twisted, stretched or bent, etc. As for the interior of this circular space, radiating lines indicate how bookshelves were thought to be placed.
Moreover, there is not much evidence of reference to Palladio's Villa Rotonda except for freehand perspective sketch of the Library design (fig. 11) donated to the Swedish Museum of Architecture by Maria Quiding. According to Hans Quiding this is one of Asplund's earliest sketch.17 Bearing in mind Asplund's ability to assimilate design ideas of others, it is not totally impossible to imagine this line of thinking existed during the design process in the early days. However, it was by no means dominant.
Vernacular classicism in the spirit of Östberg’s Stockholm City Hall is unmistakable in the proposal he presented to the City Planning Committee in December 1919 (fig. 12) . Here the Library was placed along Sveavägen with the main entrance facing and recessed from Odengatan to the north. While the Library building was by and large classical with its monumental flight of frontal steps and tetrastyle in antis entrance, the rest of the buildings were medievalistic, using minimal angles and forming large courtyards. A narrow path squeezed by two blocks of buildings rose from Sveavägen up towards the Observatory on the crest of the hill. The symmetry of the Library building was further damped by connecting the far end of the west wing to Tengbom’s School of Economics. This feature was reminiscent of Asplund’s 1915 proposal for the arrangement of Gustaf Adolf Square in Gothenburg (fig. 13) . The layout of this planning proposal also anticipated the Royal Chancellery competition entry two years later by Asplund and Ryberg (fig. 14) .

an early volume and communication study

In order to further dismantle the stress on the kind of classical influence of Boullee, Ledoux or Palladio in the early stage, I would like to discuss another well developed but not officially presented design, in which volumes of different rooms and the communication among these room were carefully studied (fig. 15) .
A square vestibule chamfered at each corner is placed centrally and diagonally in relation to other rooms. Stairs (not indicated how) are supposed to lead to the offices, classrooms for small study groups, researchers’ reading rooms etc. above. An exhibition hall and a cloakroom together with an open meeting room are placed on both sides of the stair lobby. Further beyond is a passage hall serving as a connecting point to the major spaces - the central lending hall with pure literature, the scientific and technical literature room and the big reading room with reference literature, at the far end of which is the magazine room. The main floor is 3 meters above the street level with a general ceiling height of 4.5 meters.
Book galleries had been used so often that Asplund could possibly oversee this feature in the many libraries he visited or studied. However, his attitude was rather pragmatic in this particular study. On the second page below the scheme of the main floor and a long list of its rooms with area size, he wrote: floor height, ca. 4.5m; even inclusive the installation of free galleries in the two book rooms (lending rooms). Galleries are nevertheless not necessary when the book store is so easily accessible (immediately under the bigger lending room). Note here the lending hall is called lending rooms, indicating that Asplund’s idea of the Library then was of less monumental nature and the lending service was divided into separate rooms.
Obviously, Asplund was trying to solve the communication problem with the help of the staired vestibule and the passage hall. This is not wholly satisfactory as the passage hall, which in fact occupies one corner of the dominating square space of the central lending hall, lacks the clarity necessary for a public building and the number of openings (three inlets and one outlet) connected to the passage hall makes it difficult to perform efficient supervision. This is what Asplund substantially improved in later versions.
This volume and communication study reminds us of the rules set up by the American Library Association and mentioned in the Travel Accounts - e.g. library should be designed with considerations to the activity it is to host and the public it is to serve, and the interior should take precedence over the exterior. However, formal issues were not totally neglected here. Asplund seemed to believe that a symmetric form was more suitable for the Library as a public institution.18

It doesn't matter too much whether this design was made before or after the American trip. Similarities in the way of thinking are probably more coincidental than recipient.19 To point out the fact that here the interior (often functional) considerations took priority over exterior (inevitably stylistic) ones is important in order to understand the overwhelmingly simplified facade treatment later in the design process. Functionalistic (not functionalism) thinking had existed long before the breakthrough of the Functionalism as a style. It is worth noticing that the Swedish word ändamĺlsenlighet, meaning suitability or purposefulness, appeared with high frequency in books and magazine articles on applied art in Sweden in the first three decades of this century.

”preliminary outline of sketch”
The classical undertone visible in early sketches began to surface and ultimately won prevalence some time around the American trip. Asplund left definitely the free organic way of his National Romantic period (by way of Vernacular Classicism) and move towards a more rigid geometrical classicism, not unlike that of Ledoux, Boullee or Palladio. More direct inspirations probably came from Danish classicists like C. F. Hansen and Bindesböll and Sweden’s own N. Tessin the younger.20
Two similar designs preceded the 1922 published version: the first with a circular central lending hall, and the second an octagonal one with the name ”preliminary outline of sketch” (figs. 16) .21 A number of important features in the 1922 published version already took form in these two alternatives.
In the ”preliminary outline”, the layout along the main processional doorway reveals what might have been in Asplund’s mind in his volume and communication study discussed above. As in the planning proposal of 1919, the main entrance of the ”preliminary outline” faces Odengatan with a conspicuous flight of steps. But now there is no in antis or columns; the actual entrance is a narrow, four-blade rotation door. The passage hall, thrusting into the lending hall, becomes a narrow corridor and has only one inlet and one outlet (thereby greatly improves both the directional effect and the effectiveness of flow supervision). There are neither columns along the passage nor steps at the far end of the passage as indicated in the first alternative. Another signal difference between the two pre-published alternatives is the shape of the main processional passage: walls confining the passage are skewed in the first alternative, while these are straight in the ”preliminary outline”.
Arrangement of the vestibule in the ”preliminary outline” is strictly symmetric, a step further toward Classicism as compared with the first alternative. The room is surrounded by a double layer of columns integrated with a pair of stairs. The stairs start exactly in front of the passage way, further increasing the tension around the spot. On one side of the vestibule lies the information service, and the cloakroom on the other. The vestibule is situated at the same level as the central lending hall, while it is a few steps below in the first alternative. This arrangement in both alternatives is in stark contrast to the 1922 published version, where long sequence of stairs is used.
In the lending hall, book galleries only hinted in the first alternative are explicitly employed in the ”preliminary outline”. Possibly only two tiers of book galleries are intended - one on the main floor and the other on the book gallery above, which is connected to the main floor by a pair of narrow stairs. Two large reading rooms with scientific and technical literature occupy the whole of the east and west wings, accessible only via the central lending hall. Supervision is maximized by placing the lending desk in the centre of two regulating axes with an opening at each end. The entrance from the vestibule is pushed right in front to the lending desk.

the published version 1922

Asplund’s design dated December 29th, 1921 was published in the 1922 issue of the Swedish architectural magazine Byggmästaren (figs. 18)
. This design together with Ivar Tengbom’s comments and the American Travel Account was also included in the official report of the City Library Committee presented in the same year.
The published version in 1922 is a continuation of the classical development and Classicism reached it peak here. This is evidenced by the three almost identical prostyle entrances. This design is purely formative since the two side porticoes are quite inconsistent with the function they serve.
Plan composition is slightly simplified. The Baroque play of perspective is employed again to further emphasise the main processional doorway. A most dramatic change is the employment of a long stairs for the main processional doorway. The large flight of steps outside the main entrance is eliminated. Instead, the main entrance vestibule is placed on the ground floor. In the vestibule two doors penetrate the massive side walls and lead to the information service and the newspaper reading-room beyond on the right, and the children’s literature reading-rooms via a cloakroom on the left. Both the newspaper reading room and the children’s literature division have their own formal entrances as well.
One of the key issues for the Library design has always been the communication to the secondary rooms, e.g. the exhibition hall, the classrooms for small study groups, the auditorium and the rooms for the administration. The 1922 published version provided the thitherto most monumental yet well functioning solution. The long stairs leading to the central lending hall consists of three flights of steps. On the first landing platform, two side stairs run to the administration locations and classrooms for small study groups on the top floor. The stairs also connect the reserved book stores from outside the circular shaft. The first steps of the wrapping stairs are discernible from the main entrance down in the vestibule and their graceful curvatures reveal themselves as one ascends the first flight of the main processional stair. The whole arrangement is like a tree branching out as it grows.22
One can speculate that the experience Asplund gained from planning the quarter around the Observatory Hill is applied in the interior of the Library. Long narrow path first appeared in his 1919 planning proposal. A model made in this period (fig. 21) shows that it possibly was used both inside and outside the Library. This tendency of integrating and interchanging the roles of urban and architectural design is best illustrated by his interior project of Scandia Cinema.
As early as September 1921, Ivar Tengbom was officially asked to make a review of the forthcoming Library proposal, which he duly submitted on January 23rd, 1922. As not surprise for a successful practising architect and outstanding educator, Tengbom’s review showed true understanding of the problems and merits of the proposal. It was accurate and touched all essential points in the design - the simplicity and clarity of the general disposition and comprehensiveness of the proposal as a whole, thoughtful arrangements proper for the existing site conditions, strong internal spatial effect and originality of the stair design, and, contrast between the rational treatment of the facade and the use of conspicuous columns as to accentuate the building’s public nature in an otherwise nearly unmanageable situation. Tengbom concluded his review with these words: As a whole, I find this proposal beautifully composed and reflects a determined will and clear understanding.
Now Asplund’s Library design and related planning work came into collision with the guideline set forth by the City Planning Commission. In 1923, Carl Bergsten published a supportive article in the year’s Byggmästaren (fig. 22) , criticizing the single-mindedness of the Commission and comparing its interference with the arbitrarily planned railway line between St. Petersburg and Moscow by the Tsar.

”the poor City Library in Stockholm”

Between the published version in 1922 and the built one, there are at least three known alternatives of facade treatment. We know very little about the true causes behind these changes and eventually the big step toward simplification apart from economic and constructional reasons.23
The three alternatives were produced in close successions. Two of them are dated, 29 Sept. 1924 respective 15 April 1925; the third and undated one is also entitled ”the poor City Library in Stockholm” (figs 23) . Like in the built version, all three use cylindrical drum with 20 high clerestory windows for the central lending hall instead of the perforated dome employed in the 1922 published version. According to Asplund himself, ”ordinary rooflight construction with secondary matt glass panes gives a dull, grey light, with no sunlight; and as it was practically impossible to get direct, clear light with roof windows, this device was abandoned and instead, windows were placed in the external cylindrical wall.”24
In the September 1924 alternative, the porticoes are replaced by three identical doorcases deeply projecting out and heavily framed with long narrow balconies atop. This arrangement was possibly conceived as early as the two pre-published alternatives. The architrave that is also supporting the balcony above is sparsely decorated. The only other ornament is the strange oversized voluted brackets, which make the whole composition quite off-balance and uncomfortable.
All the windows are cut into small panels by densely spaced, subdivisive window bars. The row of windows on the ground floor are much smaller and without architrave. There was no functional justification for this arrangement; instead, it is entirely formative and reminiscent of the similar tradition of medieval castles or renaissance residential. Gently sloping roofs with dentil and profiled cornice cover the four wings of the Library. The top edge of the cylindrical drum is decorated with a band of profiles with names of famous persons in the world of knowledge.
Out of all alternatives, this one most resembles some of the megalomania designs of Ledoux’s barrieres in Paris for the Ferme Generale at the end of 18th century. This design was further developed and resulted in a set of more complete schemes dated 23 February 1925.
In the April 1925 alternative both the architrave and doorframe are substantially slimmed, leaving space to reinstate two columns of windows on either side. The balconies are replaced by three different groups of sculpture, of which the one over the main entrance is most imposing - a classical figure driving a four-horse carriage. The voluted brackets are greatly downsized, virtually merging into and forming part of the architrave.
The roof over the four wings becomes a flat one and is topped by a thin ring of shallow trace, almost invisible in reality. Frieze bands are placed under the windows of the main floor and the central lending hall. A band of relieved frieze with classical figures is placed at the top of the drum.
”The poor City Library in Stockholm” was probably produced under either of the two circumstances: one is earlier when Asplund started to investigate facade treatment other than that of the published one; the other is at a late stage when the Library project called for a simpler and more economic solution. I would also suggest that it might have been influenced by Osvald Almquist’s debate article published in the 1924 issue of Byggmästaren, critisizing the verdict of a design competition of street lamp post.25
The facade is deprived of all ornamentations and has only one monumental doorcase with thin overhang for the main entrance. The doorcase occupies three bays like that in the September 1924 alternative. This feature suggests that the ”poor Library” alternative was drafted before February 1925. The unnecessarily large space it spans over can be interpreted as a leftover of the tetrastyle porticoes removed from earlier proposals. There are no subdividing window bars so that the windows have fewer and larger panels. Neither is there any architrave framing the windows.

Some reflections

There is no clear explanation for the short classical revival around 1920's in Sweden. Nordic Classicism, a co-operative effort in book form by architectural museums from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, tries to shed some light on this cross Scandinavian phenomenon. The notion that it is a serious attempt to establish a new language seems quite plausible for Sweden’s part in view of the National Romantic Movement preceding the Classical Revival; and, there is something in the term "doricist sensibility" coined by Demetri Porphyrios and used by Kenneth Frampton, though it doesn't tell us too much otherwise. Causes are given from many angles - external (international influences), internal (domestic, vernacular etc.), technical, social, economical and not least political.
However, the wide-spectrum analysis reveals the lack of confidence among historians to provide an accurate description of the phenomenon. The issue thus remains enigmatic. Parallels can be drawn with the sudden rise and equally sudden decline of the so called "post-modernism" in the Anglo-Saxon countries 60 years later.
Nevertheless, the classical elements in the designs by prominent Swedish architects at this time are obvious; so are the liberal sensibilities by which these elements are handled.26 In retrospect said Asplund:
All new development in art have borrowed old forms from the beginning. And what is essential in the ”Neo-classicism” is not in the superficial stylistic elements. In fact there is a general striving [to move] away from all that is temporary, arbitrary, romantic in the somewhat older architecture. A striving to make buildings clear and simple in form. A striving toward rationalizing, a firm reaction against the earlier hunt of motifs. That these strivings took on the form of neo-antiquity is due to that the Classicism fitted the new preferences. But the prime [concern] was always the striving for form. The new architecture borrowed neo-classical elements, but neo-classicism didn’t created the new architecture! 27
At least for Asplund the Neo-classicism was not an end by itself. Meanwhile, the Lister County Courthouse is an important deviation: it shares at least one very important feature with the Stockholm City Library - a circular central space and the stairs embracing this space.
Circular space wrapped by stairs is an ancient motif. More rigid variations were developed by classical architects long before Asplund’s time. We don’t know when and why it struck Asplund. The idea can be traced as early back as a freehand concept sketch of Lister County Courthouse (fig. 26) dated from 19 November 1917. It also appears in sketches and drawings for the Courthouse extension in Gothenburg around 1920 (fig. 27) . The idea was apparently dropped in that project and possibly thereafter transferred to the Library design.
Plan solutions developed around this motif are topologically equivalent to the second ”good type” mentioned in the American travel account and epitomized in the Detroit Public Library. What is elementary for mathematicians could have been a thrill for Asplund. The discovery that his ideal motif could best serve the practical/operational requirement must have been such a delight that Asplund stuck to it through out the rest of the project.
A small project in size, the Woodland Chapel (1918-20) is of great significance, which provided at least two lessons for subsequent projects. First, the ”Pantheon” in it failed to create in reality the spatial feeling Asplund intended. He therefore tried raising the dome or roof in later designs. As the in interior space covered by a raised dome no longer resembled a perfect globe, he was inclined to use flat roof which was easier and more economic to construct.28 Second, Asplund expected a lighter interior of the Chapel. This requirement became more imperative in the Library design. However, it was possibly only a partial reason that Asplund abandoned the dome of the 1922 published version in favour of a high cylindrical shaft with high clerestory windows.29
Upon its completion, the Library design was attacked from two directions. However, the most severe criticism came from the younger, more progressive generation of architects as is reflected in Uno Ĺhrén’s famous comment: the City Library gives me the impression of a tragedy in the unsettled struggle between different perceptions of form, [which are] exponents for different living attitudes. This building stands on the border, not between two minor fashion trends, as some people may suggest, but between two phases of fundamental difference in mentality.30 After more than seventy years, we may see better now. Neither is classicism deadly dead, nor did the new style (whatever its name may be) deeply rooted in the new mentality generate perfect solution for its own problems. Ĺhrén was right in saying the Library building stands on the border. Whereas the struggle remains unresolved, one may well wonder if standing on the border is just the right thing to do. Here the strength of Asplund's design reveals itself. As Hakon Ahlberg rightly points out: it is evidence for [the fact] that such character as symmetry and formal order in architecture by no means should always exclude purposefulness.31 In other words being functional.

Conclusion

From Asplund’s first engaged work in the City Library Committee to the completion of its construction, the Stockholm City Library project spanned over a period of ten years. Asplund started his design unbiased of any stylistic preference, taking only the urban context and sheer operational requirement as point of departure. The design was also based on extensive studies of built libraries world-wide, where the experience of American predecessors provided important source of inspiration at an early stage. Generic preoccupation with pure forms conveyed by the then prevailing Classical Revival resulted in the strict geometric plan composition. Multitude of alternatives were generated, all in service of perfecting the design for both the interior and exterior. From that point on, search for new expression with socio-economic and constructional justification took over. There stood Asplund with much hesitation at the threshold of the new era of Functionalism, in which he shall continue to play a leading role for his fellow architects in the region.
On the other hand, Asplund was never immune to the influence of others. At least there is no sign indicating that he became so during the period around the Library project. The balanced and comprehensive approach had their root in the traditions developed by such predecessors like Clason, Östberg and Westman. Contemporary ideas advocated by members of his own generation or younger were also keenly observed. However, Asplund’s view and understanding of the changes of mood and method in his profession were to a large extent personal and occasionally unique. Moreover, he was unusually aware of the complexity of the job of an architect and strove to harmonize the contradicting factors in his design. No matter how successful (arguably unsuccessful) the Stockholm City Library may be, the architect did succeed in fusing common sense and artistic intuition into one and the same thing whose name is yet to be invented. In that sense, Asplund stood on higher grounds than many of his more known contemporaries abroad.