Books + Buildings

Summer House M by Mikael Bergquist https://thisispaper.com/Mikael-Bergquist-Summer-House-M

Dear friends, for the next three weeks OfHouses will be guest curated by the Swedish architect and educator Mikael Bergquist. Mikael Bergquist is an architect living and working in Stockholm. He was educated at KTH, Stockholm and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. Mikael started his own office in 1996, and works in a wide range of projects from private commissions, renovations and transformations to new commercial projects. Mikael teaches a Master studio at KTH and was a lecturer and critic at various architectural schools in Europe, as well as a curator for various exhibitions. He has written on Swedish architecture in particular on the Austrian/Swedish architect Josef Frank, his latest book being “Josef Frank: Villa Carlsten” (Park Books, 2019). Mikael participated in the “Alternative Histories” exhibition in London, 2019. Mikael Bergquist prepared for OfHouses a very consistent selection of old forgotten houses, for which he wrote this short introduction: “Less or More? Working in the periphery of Europe, as I do in Stockholm, gives you a certain freedom. Sweden has always been on the side of the current trends and movements in architecture and giving them a personal interpretation. At times it has to do with misunderstandings and at others on economical restrains. As an architect I constantly find myself drawn to people and projects on the side with a certain ambiguity. In my own work I am both interested in reduction and being inclusive and rich - sometimes in the same projects. The projects selected for OfHouses all have a certain ambiguity. They are houses I like very much and have looked at various times during the years. Some of them being almost ”normal” at first glance and others more experimental. Some of the houses are built in wood but in a pragmatic use of the material without romantic connotations. The houses looks very optimistic in their appearance and some of them almost humorous. They feel realistic and grounded in their own period, but at the same time do not abandon tradition altogether. The houses selected have integrity. I think they all are - to a certain point - appreciated by the general public, without being populist or speculative in their designs.” (Cover: Mikael Bergquist Arkitektkontor /// Vacation House at the lake Båven /// Båven, Södermanland, Sweden /// 2006. Cover photo: © Åke E:son Lindman.)

Erik Korshagen, Korshagehus, architect’s own summerhouse, 1960

Atelier Brancusi

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CARLO MOLLINO, Teatro Regio di Torino, Turin, Italy, 1965-73

© mikael bergquist - design museum - stockholm, sweden