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Markuskyrkan – the church that leaves few unmoved
During the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s, the Swedish state built hundreds of churches as Sweden became urbanized at a rapid pace and new suburbs needed new churches.
The architects worked with new styles, designs and materials along with new ideas on how a church interior should be designed. In this spirit, architect Sigurd Lewerentz created two churches that stood out above the ordinary. Markuskyrkan in Björkhagen outside of Stockholm was built in 1956–1963, followed by St. Petrikyrkan in Klippan, 1962-1966. Both churches crowned Lewerentz’s career and are today regarded as highlights of the 20th-century brutalist style of architecture.
Three years ago, a major renovation of Markuskyrkan was undertaken. The working environment was deemed substandard and new times required new ventilation and updated electronics. Three years may seem like a long period but renovating a listed building with a particularly high cultural-historical value can’t be rushed. On September 1, 2019, church operations resumed in the renovated premises. In this newsletter, we’ll take a tour of the re-opened Markuskyrkan in Björkhagen.
If you want to see more of the details, click on the pictures and they will open in a larger format.
Enjoy!
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Power station or church?
Markuskyrkan is constructed on an old seabed in the birch tree grove that gave the district of Björkhagen its name. In the architectural competition advertised for the church building, Lewerentz’s proposal was the only one that utilized the park environment and did not compete with the nearby high-rise buildings in the suburb. He wanted the color of the facade bricks to interact with the surrounding birch forest, and the choice of color allows the church to blend in with the surroundings.
During the early construction work, when the walls began to rise in the birch grove, a passerby asked one of the young priests: “Is this going to be a power station or a church?” The answer was: “Both!”
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Why should everything be straight?
The brown-violet hard-burnt brick comes from the brickworks Helsingborg’s Ångtegelbruk in the south of Sweden. Since Lewerentz only allowed whole bricks to be used, the vertical joints have different widths. The mortar is relatively coarse and has been partially smeared over the bricks to create associations with the bark of the surrounding birch trees.
The construction work of the church was carried out as an old-time “Bauhütte” where the architect, much like a medieval master builder, remains onsite and controls the daily work of the craftsmen. This led to a number of anecdotes. A bricklayer said that if he did what Lewerentz wanted, “it would not be straight,” to which Lewerentz replied: “Straight and straight, why should everything be straight? It should be beautiful, even if it’s crooked.”
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A reflecting pond with a lotus flower
The space between the pastor’s office and the meeting rooms forms a courtyard with a large rectangular reflecting pond with a tiled floor and a bronze fountain.
Artists Robert and Barbro Nilsson account for the sparse decoration of the church buildings, like the two draperies behind the altar and the crucifix in between. Robert Nilsson also created the Lotus flower as well as the church silver, candlesticks and the bronze plate in the wooden door as well as the tiled relief with the Markus Lion in the facade above the entrance.
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Frameless windows and doors
In the 1920s, Lewerentz developed his own patented construction system for windows. Here in Markuskyrkan, he used frameless windows for the first time. The insulating glass panes were mounted directly in the wall opening using elastic jointing material, which minimizes the difference between inside and outside. There are no door liners, plinths or moldings and the electrical wires are visible on the outside of the masonry making their own architectural statement.
Painting is extremely sparse. The interior surface layers are dominated by natural materials, raw concrete, bricks from the Helsingborg brickworks, floor tiles from Höganäs, glulam beams and untreated plywood.
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Family Fridays and yoga
In addition to the traditional church activities, Markuskyrkan offers opportunities for meetings, children’s play and fellowship in the parish halls. There is an open preschool, space for young people as well as children, youth choirs, theater, yoga and family events on Fridays. If you need a break after lunch, you can enjoy a 20-minute concert in the church every Wednesday.
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Church bells are still rung by hand
Markuskyrkan is the only church in Stockholm’s diocese where the church bells, after 50 years, are still managed manually by bell ringers on weekends and at worship services. The bell ringers are divided into teams, named after the four church bells of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
In the beginning, the ringing was done manually every weekend year-round but eventually was replaced in the summer by an electrically operated fifth bell outside the church entrance. At temperatures below minus 15 degrees Celsius, no manual ringing is performed out of consideration for both bell ringers and church bells.
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A church with elaborate asymmetry
Characteristics for the church exterior are the closed walls with their varied shapes and the flat roofs. The relatively few window openings provide very limited light in the church room. It takes a while for the eye to get accustomed to the darkness, which was the architect’s intent, as he wanted visitors to get into a spiritual mood.
In Markuskyrkan, Lewerentz has allowed the irregular and crooked to take front and center. The large church hall is offset, and the altarpiece is not centered. All windows have different shapes and placement, and the organ that in a church normally has a projected position is here located in a dark corner.
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New modern light adapted to the operation
When the lighting of the church room was deemed as inadequate, it was deservedly updated by AIX Arkitekter in 2012. Spotlights in oxidized brass and untreated steel were mounted on brackets to clearly stand out as a historic layer in its own right. In the lower side aisle, LED strips were mounted along the steel beams in the ceiling.
The pendant brass fittings that Lewerentz designed were also updated with new LED lighting. Finally, the church hall was given a new stage-based management system so that all lighting fixtures can be individually regulated.
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Markuskyrkan won the first Kasper Salin PrizeLewerentz has also designed parts of the interior such as the benches and most lighting fixtures. He is also responsible for the brutalist design of the church organ with its side panels of plywood. The organ features 27 pipes and was manufactured in 1963 by A Mårtensons Orgelfabrik in Lund. During construction, the church attracted considerable attention, both in Sweden as well as internationally. In 1962 Markuskyrkan was awarded the first Kasper Salin Prize, considered Sweden’s most prestigious architectural prize.
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Sigurd LewerentzSigurd Lewerentz (1885–1975) is described as a shrewd and strict taskmaster who demanded much from his employees. But he was to become a very respected architect around the world. For quite a long time he, and architect colleague Gunnar Asplund, collaborated to create Stockholm’s Forest Cemetery, but after a conflict between them, he withdrew. For more than a decade he devoted himself to developing and manufacturing windows and doors in the patented building system Idesta. In the twilight of his life, Lewerentz returned to work as an architect and today, his churches Markuskyrkan in Björkhagen and St. Petrikyrkan in Klippan are considered some of the foremost works in Swedish architectural history. An example of his international stature was given by Nobel Laureate Doris Lessing’s grandchildren. In connection with the Nobel Prize Award ceremony in 2007, they refused to leave Sweden before having visited the church in Björkhagen.
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Architect of Markuskyrkan
Architects for the renovation
Upgrading of lighting in the church
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Lasse Olsson Photo photographs and films architecture, interiors, and lighting. My newsletter is published 6-8 times a year. It presents photographed projects and reports from furniture fairs in Stockholm and Milan.You can read my previous newsletter om my website. Click Here!
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