Sigurd Lewerentz—Pure Aesthetics
Concept and photography by Karin Björkquist and Sébastien Corbari
Park Books, October 2021
Hardcover | 7-3/4 x 10-3/4 inches | 352 pages | 235 illustrations | English | ISBN: 9783038602439 | $75.00
PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
St Mark’s Church in Björkhagen, one of Stockholm’s southern districts, is one of Sigurd Lewerentz’s (1885–1975) key designs. But unlike Lewerentz’s other famous church, St Peter’s in Klippan, no book has been published to date that constitutes a fitting tribute to this masterpiece of brick brutalism.
This opulent new building monograph now fills this gap. Some two hundred new color photographs and explanatory plans, alongside essays by distinguished authorities on Lewerentz’s architecture, turn this book into a visual feast. It demonstrates the exquisitely atmospheric St Mark’s Church both as a stand-alone object and in the context of its surrounding urban landscape. Moreover, it picks out many details, such as the floor coverings, furnishings, lamps, banisters, the altar, and other liturgical features. The essays explore aspects of materiality and topics such as the church’s special acoustics and atmosphere in an attempt to reveal the secret of Sigurd Lewerentz’s church designs.
Karin Björkquist is a Stockholm-based photographer with a focus on interior architecture and portraits. Sébastien Corbari is an architect with AIX Arkitekter in Stockholm and also works as a photographer.
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dDAB COMMENTARY:
Apparently 2021 is the year of Sigurd Lewerentz. A monograph exhibition on the Swedish architect who died in 1975 opened at ArkDes in October; thankfully, for those of us who cannot make it to Stockholm between now and August of next year, ArkDes and Park Books published an impressive companion catalog, also called Sigurd Lewerentz: Architect of Death and Life. That 712-page book, with new photographs of Lewerentz's projects, essays on his architecture, and hundreds of pages culled from ArkDes's exhaustive archive on the architect, is one of my favorite books of 2021. So is Sigurd Lewerentz—Pure Aesthetics, which was also published in 2021 by Park Books but is focused on a singular work: St. Mark's Church, built in Björkhagen, Stockholm, in 1960.
The book by photographer Karin Björkquist and architect Sébastien Corbari developed, in part, out of the latter's Instagram account devoted to Lewerentz, which started in 2016 before St. Mark's was due to be closed for a lengthy renovation. "He felt," the pair shares in their brief introduction, "that there was too much to look at and much to examine" in a building that they saw as a turning point in Lewerentz's career but had not yet been documented in detail. Furthermore they felt "it was essential to capture the character of the church," one that is strongly influenced by its surroundings and the changing seasons. So Pure Aesthetics ( it takes its name from a phrase Lewerentz used to describe the church's billowing brick vaults) is a "personal documentation" of St. Mark's through the authors' photographs — or, as the put it, "through the way in which we use the camera."
The book is structured architectonically, meaning each of the seventeen numbered sections focuses on a particular part of the church (see first spread, below). It starts with "Parish Building," which basically equates with the church in its context, and then slowly makes its way inside, but not before examining the entrance, rear yards, and courtyard. Readers don't "go inside" St. Mark's until section No. 6, "Church," which the authors beautifully call "the grand inhalation." Words accompanying the photos are few: one column of text for each of the seventeen sections, by freelance writer Petter Eklund. His words describe one's experience of the spaces, readying people for the photos that follow; but the authors let the photos stand on their own, free of any captions, be they on the page or in the back matter. This omission, combined with the lack of any labels on the floor plans in the back of the book, may make it hard for some readers to orient themselves in the building. ("Where exactly is the Crown Room [No. 11] and Parish Office [No. 14]?") But they are aligned with the decision to present the church personally rather than academically or technically.
The contributions of Björkquist and Corbari make up the bulk of the book — and they comprise the parts that make it one of my favorites this year and a fitting DAM Architectural Book Award winner — but they are not alone. Their photos are interspersed with essays by a diverse handful of contributors: Maria Aron Berg, a vicar in the parish of Skarpnäck; Stephen Bates, founding partner of Sergison Bates architects; Auburn University professor Matthew Hall; Beate Hølmebakk, founding partner of studio manthey kula; and German-American architect Hansjörg Göritz. All of the texts, photographs, and drawings are printed on a crisp yet lightweight white paper that beautifully presents the color photos and makes the text easy to read. The design by Henrik Nygren retains white space around the borders, meaning the outside of the book has clean edges not muddied by full-bleed photographs. Lastly, the simple, thick-chipboard covers are wrapped by a jacket that folds open to reveal on the inverse side a selection of drawings from ArkDes's collection. Subtly hidden, these drawings are one of many pieces in a carefully developed and beautifully executed book.
