#nordic architecture

[thewolfnessphotography]

Kallio Church

Helsinki. Finland

[metropolitanmodernist]

Night view of the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition site, illuminated by electric lighting and neon signs. Photographer: Gustav W:son Cronquist.

In view: Sigurd Lewerentz's advertising mast / reklammasten, and Gunnar Asplund's Paradiset, the main restaurant / huvudrestaurangen.

Image: ArkDes Collections // SU30: in colour

[eek-a-tron]

Odin's Keep Axe House at the Midgard vikingsenter.

[concerningwolves]

Ignore what I said about viking/medieval era nordic architecture; I was typing quickly before I went running off in pursuit of a bear exhibit. The special interest itself is absolutely in Viking history, but when the occasion is right I also get very very excited about the styles of buildings that were ubiquitous across much of Scandinavia until at least the 1900s.

If you were here a year ago, you may remember me special interest-ing (SpInning out, one might say) about rosemaling in Cappelenstugu – a guesthouse built by a wealthy farmer where almost the entirety of the inside is painted with an art form called rosemaling. I'm truly delighted to report that wealthy farmers in Sweden were also this extra!

So, today I'm leaving familiar special interest territory and taking you guys to the Delsbo Farmstead, built circa 1850.

[ID in Alt text]

Okay, three houses painted red. Doesn't seem quite so extravagant. But wait – you can't see the doors in this picture.

[Images description: two pictures of two wooden doors. The first door is painted dark red with a large white diamond pattern carved into its entire surface. The second door is carved with v-shaped stripes painted in alternating red and white. /End ID]

And that's just the doors. Inside, every single wall is painted with murals. The entrance hallway has simple, almost geometric, repeated floral patterns almost from ceiling to floor.

The front room has different paintings on each wall. Some are trees painted in the same geometric kind of style, or men riding horses. There's also this one, which I think is a portrayal of the famer's family sitting at the table. Or maybe it's meant to be the contemporary royal family. There wasn't an explanation anywhere, alas.

In the other downstairs room there are more wonderful little scenes painted onto the walls! I can't quite tell what's going on in them. That one on the left closest to the window looks like it might show a guy wrestling with a stubborn donkey, (or maybe playing with a very large dog....?) Whatever the case, nature and rural life is definitely the presiding theme of these paintings.

[Image description in alt text]

I think what I love so much is that in the grand scheme of wealth, this farmer is a long, long way away from the kind of rich person shenanigans we expect today. He was still a farmer, still working for a living, and probably faced the same financial uncertainty that anyone who works the land faces. He was, in a nutshell, Just Some Guy. Yet he was just some guy who, in the 19th century, decided that he wanted to use a chunk of his money to make his home beautiful – and we're celebrating that choice centuries later!

(And no, we don't know whether said choice was originally made from vanity, artistic appreciation, or a desire to flex some cash, but the point is it's something we can still appreciate. People like nice things. This has never changed and never will).

[vibrating violently] I am so normal about viking and medieval nordic architecture look how normal I'm being [oscillates off this plane of existence]

[thinkingofbluethunder]

Morning winter sun in a cottage in Sweden.

[kurott]

Helsinki,Finland

December 2024

[fascinatingeurope]

🇩🇰 The Entrance to Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen - a vintage photochrom print from the 1890s. Digitally enhanced to compensate for fading.

[fashionlandscapeblog]

Nordic — Office of Architecture

Nanchang Wave, China, 2019

[artstationable]

Terraform Studios • "Kodan Architecture Explorations designed for Guild Wars 2: Janthir Wilds"

Design Studio

artstation instagram terraformstudios

More from «Artstation» here

[thewolfnessphotography]

Helsinki. Finland

[metropolitanmodernist]

Interior of the park restaurant / parkrestaurangen Lilla Paris at the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition. Architect: Erik Gunnar Asplund. Photographer: Gustav W:son Cronquist.

Background: The mural "Rapid" by the avant-garde artist Otto G. Carlsund.

Image: ArkDes Collections // SU30: in colour

[tea-tuesday]

travel tales: oodi library in helsinki, finland

[elderscrollsconceptart]

Nordic Door Column

Concept art for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Art by Adam Adamowicz

[gluten-free-lap-dances]

Gamla Stan // Stockholm 08.2018

[thinkingofbluethunder]

Evening sky over Småland, Sweden

[kurott]

c.2025

Pietarsaari, Finalnd