In 1921 he changed his surname from Jonsson to Markelius. His grandfather had been a crofter on a small farm called Mark, and at the time a lot of Swedes with common names changed to Latinised names.
Markelius became involved in the social democratic movement and participated in some radical intellectual groups like "Kulturfront", becoming one of the leading architects in the social democratic welfare program. He was also involved in the standardisation and prefabrication of building elements. By participating with five projects at the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930, and with buildings like his own house at Nockeby in 1930 and the Helsingborg Concert Hall in 1932, he was among the architects who introduced modern architecture to Sweden. His main work, however, concerned town planning and housing. He became the chief of the Stockholm Town Planning Office in 1944-55. He was known around the world as an architect who embodied the Swedish way of building a welfare society. He became a member of CIAM from 1929 and of the FN consulting group in Paris in 1947. He was also a member of the UNESCO advisory committee in 1952-58, and the UNESCO Art Committee in 1954-1972. He was a Visiting Professor at Yale University in 1949, at the MIT in 1961, at Berkeley in 1962, and at Cornell University.
Between 1920 and 1966 Markelius wrote almost 200 articles, some of them published in well-known international journals and reviews. The subjects varied from discussions about the need for standardisation of building elements, new kitchen models and ventilation of dwellings to town planning and housing, professional ethics, and the rational production of prefabricated elements. He also took part in many debates.
In the Swedish welfare state program, good housing for everyone was one of the most important goals. During the 1940s there was a debate about how to achieve this goal. Markelius' was against high-rise apartment buildings. He believed that the best for children and family life was one- or two-storey houses with some kind of garden. He thus worked on the development of standardised building elements for small houses. The industrialisation of the building process had already been on the agenda in the early modernist movement, in order to minimise building costs. This now had to be realised, and Markelius developed the so-called "systemhuset". There had been a long tradition of prefabrication in Sweden. It started with Fredrik Blom in the nineteenth century and was developed on a large scale at Enskede in Stockholm at the end of the 1920s. Several small factories also produced prefabricated wooden houses for the market. At that time Walter Gropius was working with the same problem and had probably inspired Markelius to develop elements which could be used in many different ways. The idea was to avoid standardised house types and instead to allow different kinds of plans and house sizes. In 1942-45 four houses were built using these elements: his own house at Kevingestrand was the last of these experiments.
The ambition was to make a highly systemised construction with elements based on the measurement of 600 mm in order to be easily combined with other elements. Such a house should be possible to construct in a short time on site. "It should be possible for a man to put up his house in a few hours together with his wife."
The early modernist buildings were criticised for being more avant-garde and intentional than practical and useful, more rationalist than human. During the 1940s modernism slowly moved to a softer, more graceful and useful architecture, more in keeping with the Nordic culture and traditions. Asplund and Aalto are well-known exponents of this movement. On the other hand, another movement, characterised by pragmatic, political, social, scientific and economic thinking, closely connected to the social democratic political program, became very influential. Markelius came to be one of the leaders of this kind of pragmatism or, as it was called ,"New Empiricism". These thoughts influenced the Swedish attitude to architecture, housing and building until quite recently. In spite of Markelius' plans for flexible elements allowing different house-types, the market developed in a different way, and cheep standardised wooden houses-types have blotted the Swedish countryside for fifty years.
The exterior design of the house in Kevinge is simple and almost anonymous. The expression is light and elegant, based on traditional architecture, but has no unnecessary dimensions or expressive decorations, as often happens in traditional Swedish wooden architecture. The window surroundings are thin and straight, put together at right angles. The panel is plain with thin matching.
The plan of the house is refined and has a carefully studied function. It is rather closed towards the road, and the entrance area contains not only the main door but also parking places for car and bicycles. There is also a kitchen garden near the main entrance. The house opens up towards the inner garden with large windows and terrace doors from the drawing room, the library and the bedrooms. The garden was important and showed Markelius's interest in garden planning. The integration of house and garden was essential: it was not only the house, but also the garden that was of great interest when the house was published in international magazines. The organisation of rooms is both practical and refined. The drawing room is connected at a right angle to the library in a way that allows both the simultaneous use of the two rooms and clear separation. In the meeting point of these two rooms, and in connection with the garden, is a big open fire. The study behind the library allowed the creation of a separate working area, not disturbed by the rest of the family. There is a sauna connected to the study and with the garden.
The kitchen is closely linked to the public parts of the house, and at the same time can be reached directly from the entrance and from the maid's room. The bedrooms create a private area with bathroom and generous wardrobes.
Besides the overall planning, Markelius also experimented, in close contact with the building industry, with technical equipment like a dishwasher and an air-born heating system that freed the house from radiators.
The whole house is very well designed and carefully studied, with separate zones for work, social life and privacy. The different zones also overlap, however.
The artistic, functional plan is clearly a result of the debate in Sweden about good planning and everyday life. A lot of research into "the good home" had been carried out since the 1930s, with considerable political and social significance for the Social Democratic Party. It related to healthier life, women's liberation and the ambitions of a state that wanted to take responsibility for its citizens.
In some ways it is remarkable that Markelius, who was one of the most important representatives of the modern movement in Sweden, designed a house so strongly related to Swedish tradition. He also gained fame and international reputation as a result. It is very far from the more heroic modernist buildings he designed in the 1930s. On the other hand, this kind of architecture and construction was more appropriate to prefabrication and rationality than the functionalist houses, even though they were firmly based on the dream of industrialised construction. So what Markelius actually realised was the functionalist dream of industrial construction, but in a more traditional and pragmatic dress. < BACK
Gunilla Svensson, Finn Werne