Woodland Crematorium, Stockholm, Sweden, First version: ground floor plan
Erik Gunnar Asplund
Swedish, 1885–1940
Unknown
A graphite-on-tracing-paper ground-floor plan in which Erik Gunnar Asplund arranges chapels, ceremonial routes, and service spaces for his first design of the Woodland Crematorium, aiming to choreograph procession and quiet reflection within a simple, ordered plan.
You notice the fragile translucency of the tracing paper, the finely ruled grid of columns and pews, tiny hand-lettered Swedish notes, and the striking contrast between the rectilinear chapel blocks and the sweeping curved driveway that frames the site.
This drawing records a key moment in Asplund’s shift from Nordic Classicism to a restrained modernism and helped define Skogskyrkogården’s influential approach to cemetery, sacred space, and landscape design.
Medium
Graphite on tracing paper
Dimensions
16 1/2 x 16 1/2" (41.9 x 41.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller, Mrs. Gifford Phillips, Celeste and Armand P. Bartos, Mrs. S. I. Newhouse, Jr., and purchase
Accession
60.1990
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
