This drawing shows Gunnar Asplund's design for an advertising tower, the signature element in his scheme for the 1930 Stockholm Exhibition, which marked the introduction of functionalist architecture to Scandinavia. The theme of the 1930 exhibition was "Housing, Transportation, Furnishing," and it focused on industrial responses to the needs of Sweden's growing middle class. The exhibition committee sent Asplund on a tour of continental Europe in the autumn of 1928 for design inspiration. Upon his return to Sweden, Asplund designed the complex in the modernist International Style, a radical departure from the classicism of his earlier projects, such as the Stockholm Public Library. The tower recalls similar designs by Russian Constructivists, but rather than revolutionary slogans, it supports advertisements for chocolates, scarves, and radios by major manufacturers.
Gallery label from 75 Years of Architecture at MoMA, 2007.
