The National Romantic architecture (Romanticism) is a Nordic architectural style that was part of the National Romantic movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a form of Art Nouveau.
The building is composed of two buildings that were built between 1900-1902. It is a five-storey commercial and residential complex, which was designed by the architects Emil Blichfeldt (1849-1908) and Geoffrey Tvede (1863-1947). With its copper spiers and its large round bay window facing Store Kongensgade, we are dealing with a both varied and wonderful piece of National Romantic architecture with many details.
It's not really a unified style as such, it takes widely different forms depending on which Nordic country you are visiting. Here in Norway we tended to be inspired by our old wooden architecture when we built our national romantic buildings, meaning it ended up looking like this:
(Both built in Dragon Style, a sub-group of the national romantic style.)
Older Norwegian suburbs are filled with this style but it is rarely seen in a urban setting.
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It is also common to find historicism/other archiectural style buildings that incorparate details and features of our past architectural legalcy and are thus considered to be part of the national romantic movement, but again these buildings do not really form a unified style as such. This is such a building:
Another example of this in Oslo is the DFDS building or Karl Johans Gate 1. It was built in 1917-1917 to a design by Norwegian architect Magnus Poulsson. Style wise it combines elements of (neo-)baroque with traditional Nordic architecture and ornamentation.
The Stockholm Court House (Swedish: Stockholms rådhus) is situated on Kungsholmen in Central Stockholm, Sweden. The building is connected to the Stockholm Police House through an underground pedestrian walkway. The Stockholm District Court is situated in the building.
The building was designed in the National Romantic style, and was constructed between 1909 and 1915. The architecture was influenced by the Castles of the Vasa era, and it bears a resemblance to Vadstena Castle.
A fire ravaged the third floor of the south/left wing of the building in June 2008. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Court_House)
Another neo-baroque and national romantic fusion in Oslo is this large villa in Kristinelundveien 22 at Oslo west. It was built in 1916 in a design by architect Einar Engelstad. It was commissioned by Gottfred Mauritz Bryde, a Norwegian shipping magnate that operated a regular route between Norway and the West Indies at the time.
^ interesting, looks like another case of art-deco stylistic features stumbled upon by "coincidence", without a plan (like in the case of Charles Rennie Macintosh). I love these unexpected occurences of styles that don't exist yet.
It have little in common with original baroque from Italy, but it have a lot in common with neo-baroque from the Nordics. This style was known for chubby columns, small and checkered windows, and the use of roughly cut stone to provide contrasts. It's always referred to as Neo-Baroque in Norwegian sources.
Villa Grande located at Bygdøy in Oslo, Norway. Construction of the building was started in 1917 as the private residence of Sam Eyde, the founder of both Hydro and Elkem. Christian Morgenstierne and Arne Eide were hired as the architects. Eyde sold the incomplete building after one year. It was then taken over by a skipping magnate named H. Østervold that completed the building in 1921. It changed names a couple of times before it was donated to the state in 1928. Vidkun Quisling used it as his private home during the Quisling regime and it modern times it have been redeveloped into housing the Norwegian Center for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities.
The Telegraph building in Oslo, Norway. It was designed by Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson after they had won a public competition in 1916. The building was partially completed in 1922 and moved into the same year, but it would take until 1924 before it was fully completed. Construction cost was 13 million nok at the time and it was largest office building ever built in Oslo and the overall third largest building in Norway upon completion. It is built in Nordic Neo-baroque style with ornamentation details inspired by traditional Norwegian sagas.
Helsingborg Crematorium in Helsingborg, Sweden. The building was drawn by Ragnar Östberg and was completed in 1929, although some extensions were made in the '60s with Helge Zimdal as the architect.
Havnelageret, Oslo, Norway. It was built as a dockside warehouse in 1916 to 1921 at the cost of 9.3 million nok, and it was the largest concrete building in Europe and the largest building full stop in the Nordic upon completion. Architect Bredo Henrik Berntsen was behind the design which was in Nordic Neo-Baroque style.
This is very interesting, it's one of those buildings that make the transition to from Art Nouveau / revival styles to Art Deco. Thank you for all the stuff you post around here btw.
The Hydropower Laboratory building in Trondheim, Norway. It was completed in 1917 with Bredo Greve as the architect. The turbines to the Solbergfoss power plant above was built here.
The Norwegian America Line building (Norske Amerikalinjens Gård), Oslo, Norway. It was completed in 1919 with Andreas Bjercke and Georg Eliassen as the architects.
Løvenvold Cinema, Ålesund, Norway. It was built as a cinema and a office building by the municipality of Ålesund between 1919 and 1923 to the sum of 650.000 NOK. It was drawn by Øivin Berg Grimnes who was the public city architect at the time.
I spent the last week in Västerås, Sweden visiting my girlfriends family. Although I think Västerås mostly come across as a patch-work with not much interesting to see and it seemingly seems to be run by someone with a hatred for urban cities judging by the amount of big box stores that are located in its outskirts, there is at least one building in the city that I find very fascinating and attractive. And since it was built in Nordic National Romantic style then I thought I would make the effort to present it here too.
So here it is: Ottarkontoret in Västerås, Sweden. The building is sometimes referred to as Asea-tornet too (the Asea tower). It was built between 1916 and 1919 with Erik Hahr as the architect. Hahr was the city architect in Västerås between 1909 and 1935. It was built as the head office for ASEA who later merged with Swiss Brown, Boveri & Cie to form ABB, whom the building now functions as the Swedish headquarter of. Ottarkontoret is built right next to Västerås central bus terminal and train station, and both function as a gate to and a monument of the great industrial past of the city.
Såheim hydroelectric power station in Rjukan, Norway. It was constructed in 1914-1915 by Norsk Hydro with Thorvald Astrup and Olaf Nordhagen as the architects. The Rjukan Line had to be tunneled underneath the building to make space for it. This, along with the rest of the Rjukan industrial settlement and the other nearby power station, have been become UNESCO site and I think that's actually the first Nordic Neo-baroque/National Romantic style buildings to become world heritage sites.
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