Forest Cemetery (in Swedish Skogskyrkogården) located in Stockholm , Sweden , whose design by architect Erik Gunnar Asplund reflects the development of architecture from the Swedish National Romantic style towards Functionalism. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1994 by UNESCO .
Summary
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- 1 Description
- 2 Architectural work
- 3 Recognition and legal figure of protection
- 4 Sources
Description
The cemetery is adapted to the nature of the forest . Located on the site where some old gravel quarries were covered with pines and trees , the project splendidly fuses landscape and architecture and takes advantage of the irregularities of the place to create a landscape that is delicately adapted to its function. The natural landscape provides an environment of tranquil beauty that has had a profound influence on the design of cemeteries around the world .
The cemetery has around 50,000 graves . In addition, it has forest areas called “Forest of Remembrance”, where it is buried anonymously; Around these forests you can leave flowers , light candles and meditate. In Sweden it is customary to bury the remains after being cremated.
Architectural work
In 1915 an international competition was held for the design of a new cemetery in Enskede , in the southern part of Stockholm. The winning design is that of the young Swedish architects Erik Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. The name of his proposal, ‘Tallum’, derives from the term pine, (in Swedish ‘Tall’).
In 1918 Gunnar Asplund travels to Denmark and is impressed by the landscapes and vernacular Nordic architecture. The proposal of the initial cemetery is modified by an intense romantic naturalism that makes the existing, the Nordic forest, the dominant experience. Asplund and Lewerenz do not take cultured architecture or a landscape approach as a basis, but instead turn to the Nordic vernacular archetypes of ancient medieval burials.
The cemetery project evolves in parallel with Asplund’s architectural career, from the first romantic proposal of 1915 that places the main chapel in a picturesque location on the crest of the mount, to that of 1922 where a straight path crosses the atrium of the main chapel , located on the axis of the entrance in a strictly classical way, to the 1932 solution with a more naturalistic asymmetric layout and modern influences.
The part between the entrance and the Chapel is freed from vegetation and is modeled with extensive areas of lawn. In this proposal, the famous grass-covered hill reflected in the 1935 solution is given definitive form, which includes the Crematorium of the Forest, which is a complex made up of three chapels that are accessed by a long wall that culminates in the presence of a large cross. of stone.
The Forest Crematorium was opened shortly before the architect Gunnar Asplund’s death in 1940 .