Ragnar Östberg

Ragnar Östberg (* July 14, 1866 in Stockholm, † February 5, 1945 ) was a Swedish architect and professor at the Kungliga Konsthögskolan Stockholm in 1922 to 1932.

Ragnar Östberg was born in 1866 as son of a family of civil servants in Stockholm. After studying at the Institute of Technology in Stockholm from 1885 to 1889 and at the Art Academy from 1888 to 1891 he undertook a study tour to the United States. Further study trips to France, Italy, Greece, Spain and England followed in 1896 and 1899.

He began his career as an architect of villas in Stockholm and Uppland, where he combines Swedish handicraft and wood construction traditions with classical forms. Examples are the Villa Pauli in Djursholm and Villa Ekarne on the Djurgården Peninsula (both 1905), the villa donors in Stockholm (1909 ) and Elfviksudde on the island of Lidingö (1911 ).

But Östbergs main work is the Stockholm City Hall ( Stockholm City Hall ), which was built in the years 1911 to 1923 and is considered the most outstanding example of the Swedish National Romanticism in the transition to Swedish Classicism of the 1920s; a style that has been called abroad Swedish grace.

After the completion of the Town Hall there was a creative break. Östbergs late work, such as the Seehistorische Museum in Stockholm (1933-1936) or the Zorn Museum in Mora (1938 /39) are hardly influenced by the dominant in the 1930s, functionalism, but are characterized by the pursuit of classical order and the interest in the craft.