Hakon Ahlberg was a Swedish architect, editor and author, best known as the official architect for the repair and restoration of Gripsholm Castle

Gripsholm Castle

Gripsholm Castle is a castle in Mariefred, Södermanland, in Sweden and is regarded as one of Sweden's finest historical monuments. It is located by lake Mälaren in south central Sweden, in the municipality of Strängnäs, about 60 km west of Stockholm....

 near the town of Mariefred

Mariefred

Mariefred is a locality situated in Strängnäs Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 3,813 inhabitants in 2005.The name is derived from that of the former Carthusian monastery here, Mariefred Charterhouse, and means "Peace of Mary"...

 in central Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. He was one of the founding members and first president of SAR, the Swedish Architects’ Association, and was well-known as an active participant in architectural debate in Sweden, and was editor-in-chief of the Swedish architectural journals Arkitekten in 1922 and Byggmästaren 1922-24. He was also president of the Swedish Academy of Fine Arts

Fine art

Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....

 1954-62.

Ahlberg studied architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology

Royal Institute of Technology

The Royal Institute of Technology is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH was founded in 1827 as Sweden's first polytechnic and is one of Scandinavia's largest institutions of higher education in technology. KTH accounts for one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education...

, completing his studies in 1914. He also undertook studies at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts

Royal Swedish Academy of Arts

The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts or Kungl. Akademien för de fria konsterna, founded in 1773 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...

 in 1914-1917, one of his most influential teachers being Ivar Tengbom

Ivar Tengbom

Ivar Justus Tengbom was a Swedish architect and one of the best-known representatives of the Swedish neo-classical architecture of the 1910s and 1920s....

.

Ahlberg's principal role in Swedish architecture

Architecture of Sweden

This article covers the architecture of Sweden from a historical perspective. As is the norm in architecture history, an architectural history of a nation naturally lends itself to a history of those monuments to the development of that nation and its institutions of power; palaces, castles, and...

 was not as a “leader of style” but as an idealistic leader, as an organiser and spokesman of the Swedish architectural profession.

As an architect he was part of the brief movement called Nordic Classicism

Nordic Classicism

Nordic Classicism was a style of architecture that briefly blossomed in the Nordic countries between 1910 and 1930....

, but with clear links with Swedish vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...

, as expressed in the simple wooden houses he designed for the Swedish Trade Union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 Confederation’s People’s Academy in Brunnsvik in 1928. He designed a number of churches (e.g. Mälarhöjdens Church, Stockholm, 1929), museums, and hospitals as well as housing. His most important works are the Arts and Crafts pavilion at the Gothenburg

Gothenburg

Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...

 exhibition in 1923, and the PUB department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 in central Stockholm from 1924. Ahlberg designed a number of hospitals, including the Sidsjön mental hospital in Sundsvall 1939-44, the Children's clinic in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 (1946-50), and the University Hospital in Maracaibo

Maracaibo

Maracaibo is a city and municipality located in northwestern Venezuela off the western coast of the Lake Maracaibo. It is the second-largest city in the country after the national capital Caracas and the capital of Zulia state...

 in Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 (1946-54).
In 1973 Ahlberg was awarded the prestigious Alvar Aalto Medal

Alvar Aalto Medal

The Alvar Aalto Medal was established in 1967 by the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Finnish Association of Architects . The Medal has been awarded intermittently since 1967 when the medal was created in honour of Alvar Aalto. The award is given in recognition of a significant contribution...

.

External links

• Swedish Association of Architects SARhttp://www.arkitekt.se/english