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Sörensenska huset — ett traditionsrikt byggnadsverk på Blasieholmen

1976; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 45; Issue: 1-4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00233607608603870

1651-2294

Anna von Ajkay,

Architecture, Modernity, and Design

Summary On one of Stockholm's most conspicuous sites, on the shore of the Blasieholmen peninsula opposite the Royal Palace, stands an impressive complex of buildings replete with twin towers (fig. 1). It is known as Sörensenska huset (Sörensen House), it was built between 1881 and 1883, and architecturally it is distinguished by its eclecticism (comprising a multitude of styles from the 1850s to the turn of the century) and by the skill with which the architect, A. E. Melander, harmonized it with the nearby 18th century Fersenska palatset (Fersen Palace). Sörensen House was scheduled as an ancient monument in 1973, and prior to its restoration the author was commissioned by the Stockholm City Museum to carry out a survey of its architectural history and an inventory of all its constituent buildings. After qualifying as a master builder in Stockholm, Adolf Emil Melander (1845–1933) won his spurs as an architect, spending several years studying on the continent and practising in Aberdeen and Edigburgh (1865–71) and in the United States (1871–75). On his return to Stockholm, in 1876, he translated his experience of the flourishing electicism of the western world into stately façade buildings for the new Karlavägen esplanade. In 1881 he was engaged by a wholesale merchant, Niels G. Sörensen, to design a residence on a site which Sörensen had recently purchased and which also included the Fersen Palace with its great courtyard and two terrace gardens. At the same time as he wanted to live privately and in style together with his family in the palace, Sörensen was anxious to make more economical use of the somewhat manorial grounds of the building. Originally the Fersen Palace had been the first Admirality building in Stockholm. Built in 1634 by Hans Förster, it had the sandstone décor and the high copper‐clad roof and octagonal tower that were typical of its period. The building fell vacant in 1640 with the transfer of the fleet to the neighbouring island of Skeppsholmen. The area where the Palace stood was selected by Queen Kristina (1626–50) as the site of an arsenal and, later on, for the establishment of a royal stables. It was in this latter connection that the Queen ordained that the former Admiralty building should be given to her Master of Horse, Hans Wachtmeister (1609–1652) to live in, "so as to be that much nearer to the stables". The deed of conveyance was drawn up in 1647, but the stables project was abandoned owing to the difficulties posed by the topography of the area, whereupon the Queen resolved that the entire area was to be turned into a new quarter of the city with homes for the senior nobility and the leading officials of the realm. Her expectation was that the sites she donated to various persons between 1647 and 1651 would be used for the erection of fine buildings worthy of a capital city. Wachtmeister started his conversion of the Admiralty building into a Baroque palace by adding two flanking buildings nearer to the water. These were completed before 1658, and the interior and the first of the terraces to the southeast of the building were completed under his son Axel Wachtmeister, during the 1680s (fig. 4). By the time Axel's grandson Axel Fersen the Elder, a politician and one of the country's biggest landowners, inherited the property in 1748, both building and grounds were in need of modernization. To this end, Fersen engaged the foremost architects of the time, namely Carl Hårleman ( 1700–53) and Jean Erik Rehn (1717–93). A distinguished city residence incorporating elements of corresponding French design was built between 1750 and 1764 to drawings by Hårleman. As with Hôtel Lambert in Paris, the old palace, rebuilt in Rococo style, came to be the centre‐piece of a large U‐shaped building and courtyard (fig. 5). It extended via a concave gatehouse to the principal street of this part of the city; Blasieholmstorg. Both sides of the courtyard gave shelter to gardens: the famous Fersen terrace gardens, upper and lower, were laid out to Rehn's design to the left of the courtyard (fig. 6). Rehn was also in charge of the interior decoration of the Palace in the early classical style. His panelling has been preserved one floor up together with the Empire decoration of gilded leaden ornaments and pastellage palmette frieses executed between 1810 and 1820 by Fabian von Fersen (figs. 11, 14). When Melander started work on Sörensen's residence in 1881, he decided, in accordance with his client's wishes, to co‐ordinate the new building with the existing design to form an integral architectural unit. Melander wanted to heighten the effect of the courtyard by putting up the new buildings round the U and joining them onto the old Palace. He replaced the gatehouse looking onto the square (Blasieholmstorg) with a five‐storey building with a double entrance and a semicircular front looking onto the courtyard. On the site of the upper terrace garden he planned to build a five‐storey residence which, combined with the old building, would rise from the inner edge of the lower terrace to form an intermediate step between street level and the new building. The seaward corner of the terrace was accentuated by a heavily articulated single‐storey façade. Melander chose to adorn the façade of the new building with Renaissance motifs such as alternating triangular and segmental gables and articulation using pairs of columns and pilasters in Colossal order. However, the inspecting architect from the building authorities rejected both the composition of the façade and the position and height of the new building. There ensued a protracted controversy regarding the aesthetical merits of the project between the City Architect and architects Melander and Zettervall in which, for reasons of prestige, both parties refused to budge. Helgo Zettervall, professor and superintendent, became involved when Sörensen engaged him to design a new façade. Zettervall made use of a more lavish façade décor together with the important architectural device of a round tower in the angle between the new building and the old, counterbalanced by a hexagonal tower at the corner of the building (fig. 8). Professor Zettervall's drawings also failed to secure the approval of the City Architect, who put forward a plan of his own for the solution of the problem in keeping with current principles of urban planning. The terrace was to be blasted away and the new building erected from street level, in line with the old one, so as to give a "harmonious" effect along the street as a whole. The controversy was resolved by a Royal dispensation from the building height regulations, and work on the project could then proceed without any further impediment. The façades overlooking the water and Blasieholmstorg were lavishly decorated, after Zettervall's drawings, in plaster and employed the classical principle of triple division to underline the importance of the separate storeys. For the palace façade at the base of the courtyard, on the other hand, Zettervall made use of elements of Norman and Gothic architecture as a contrast to the Renaissance motifs adopted by Melander for the courtyard façades (fig. 9). The rebuilding of the old Palace took the form of a restoration. Melander was determined that neither the addition of a new storey nor the link‐up between the Palace and the new building should entail any alteration of the lines of rooms and their magnificent interiors, which were piously augmented in the same style. The reception rooms of the new buildings were decorated throughout with 18th century pastiches of elements from the Palace interiors (fig. 13). Melander succeeded in both preserving and creating a building of artistic and historic value. Thanks to the exemplary restoration work undertaken by the present owners, Svenska Handelsbanken the survival and wellbeing of the building have been assured for our time.