Gunnar Asplund

Born in Stockholm in 1885, architect-designer Erik "Gunnar" Asplund is celebrated as the godfather of functionalist design in Sweden.  

After studying painting at Stockholm’s Royal University College of Fine Arts, Asplund’s avid interest in architecture led him to attend the Stockholm Free Architecture School and to open his own practice. His early architectural works represented a pared-down neoclassical style, which was inspired by several class trips to Greece and Italy. Exemplary of the romantic, Swedish Grace movement, his Stockholm City Library emphasize geometric simplicity and clarity of form.

It wasn’t until the last decade of his life that Asplund became a major proponent for the functionalist style, when he was appointed Chief Architect of the watershed 1930 Stockholm Exhibition. 

Following the success of the Stockholm Exhibition, Asplund became a professor of architecture. He passed away in 1940. Asplund’s life and work served as inspiration to a number of Scandinavian design luminaries, such as lifelong friend and mentee Alvar Aalto, as well as Erik Bryggman and Arne Jacobsen.

ASEA

An acronym for Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (in English, the “General Swedish Electrical Limited Company”), ASEA was a Swedish manufacturer of electrical products and industrial infrastructure. While broadly known for the more large-scale parts of the catalog—e.g., steam turbines for power plants, high-speed locomotives for passenger railroads, etc.—ASEA endures in hearts of design lovers for their midcentury interior lighting collections produced in collaboration with venerated designers like Gunnar Asplund and Hans Bergström.

Formally founded in 1893 by Ludvig Fredholm, the company spent its first decades exclusively producing generators and motors. In 1911 ASEA began to develop more lightweight products, including lighting fixtures for the Swedish home.

Its production most prolific from the 1930s through the 1960s, ASEA’s lighting design spanned desk, table, floor, and wall lamps, as well as chandeliers, pendants, and other ceiling lights.