Equality in death: Sigurd Lewerentz and the planning of Malmö Eastern Cemetery 1916–1973

Abstract

The exponential growth of industrialized cities at the turn of the twentieth century led town planners and architects in Sweden to design new cemeteries and engage in the discussion with novel approaches to commemoration. Malmö Eastern Cemetery (1916–1973) was designed by Sigurd Lewerentz (1885–1975) and represented an ambitious experiment: a new scale of cemetery landscape, which involved planting vegetation anew and detracted from sweeping picturesque designs. This paper analyses how Lewerentz's approach to the equality of individual tombstones affected his design of Malmö Eastern Cemetery, both in terms of burial spaces for individuals and the commemorative public realm. Based on archival research and field work, this paper delves into the interplay between the cemetery designers and the different urban planners of Malmö over a period of dramatic transformation in the eastern districts of the increasingly industrialized city. Although Lewerentz initially differentiated between tombstones, after 1922 he reconsidered his cemetery plans, setting standards that made commemoration accessible to everyone while limiting individual choices. Lewerentz's homogenizing decisions in planning Malmö cemetery provide a lens through which to examine how equality has shaped discussions around commemoration, representing ideals of societies across history and the underlying tensions between individual freedom and society.

Keywords:

• Lewerentz
• cemetery
• Malmö
• vegetation
• urban plan
• public space

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design in Stockholm, Malmö Stadsarkivet, Malmö Stadsbyggnadskontorets Arkiv, Kyrkogårdsförvaltningen i Malmö, Arkitektur, The Swedish Review of Architecture and the anonymous reviewers for feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ingrid Campo-Ruiz graduated in architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid ETSAM, after studying one academic year at Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole, Copenhagen. She has a Master in Science in Advanced Architectural Design and an Advanced Architectural Research Program by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation of Columbia University, New York. She was awarded the William Kinne Prize and two Caja Madrid Foundation Fellowships. Campo-Ruiz is currently developing her PhD Thesis at the Department of Projects of Architecture ETSAM.

Notes on contributor

Ingrid Campo-Ruiz graduated in architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid ETSAM, after studying one academic year at Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole, Copenhagen. She has a Master in Science in Advanced Architectural Design and an Advanced Architectural Research Program by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation of Columbia University, New York. She was awarded the William Kinne Prize and two Caja Madrid Foundation Fellowships. Campo-Ruiz is currently developing her PhD Thesis at the Department of Projects of Architecture ETSAM.

Notes

1. Lewerentz, “Modern Cemeteries,” 44.

2. Regarding his aristocratic character, see Hårde, Pildammsparken 1914–2014, 104.

3. Regarding the debate in Paris, see Etlin, The Architecture of Death, 258.

4. In London, under the Act of 1711. In the 1740s, the French reform movement banished burials from the city centre. Similar regulations extended to Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Bavaria. Etlin, “Père Lachaise.”

5. Rugg, “Defining the place of burial,” 261.

6. Rugg, “A Few Remarks,” 111.

7. Stevens Curl, A Celebration of Death, 244–64; Colvin, Architecture and the After-Life, 364–70.

8. Stevens Curl, A Celebration of Death, 299–314.

9. The Roman Catholic Church prohibited Cremation until the 1960s. According to Islam and Jewish, the dead must be buried in the earth.

10. Bergsten, “En projekterad krematorieanläggning,” 111–17.

11. Ahlin includes Malmö Eastern Cemetery in the section named ‘Provincial cemeteries’. Ahlin, Sigurd Lewerentz, 50. Constant includes this project in the chapter “Additional Cemeteries by Asplund and Lewerentz”; Constant, The Woodland Cemetery, 115–119; see also Flora et al., Sigurd Lewerentz 1885–1975.

12. Jansson, “Att anlägga en begravningsplats,” 180–90.

13. Byggnadsnämnden, Malmö, 46–7; Billing et al., Malmo Our Town, 279.

14. Tykesson, Malmös kartor, 182.

15. Sweden attempted to remain neutral during the First World War, however difficulties in the importing of foodstuffs and inflation led to crises. Sejersted, Age of Social Democracy, 35.

16. Tykesson, Malmös kartor, 158.

17. Nilsson, Till drätselkammaren, 3–8.

18. Tykesson, Malmös kartor, 192; Billing et al., Malmo Our Town, 283.

19. Mosse, “National Cemeteries.”

20. Etlin, The Architecture of Death, 365–6.

21. Nilsson, Till drätselkammaren, 4.

22. Tykesson, Malmös kartor, 156.

23. Frampton, “The Untimely Timeliness,” 15–17.

24. Visell et al., Ny kyrkogård vid Håkanstorp.

25. Kafkoula, “On Garden-City Lines,” 171–98.

26. Dates as stated in Constant, The Woodland Cemetery, 14; and Ahlin, Lewerentz, 184–5.

27. Lewerentz, “Förslag till ordnande af ny begrafningsplats i Malmö” [typescript].

28. At the Klara School, Carl Westman, Ragnar Östberg, Ivar Tengbom and Carl Bergsten were some of his professors and Gunnar Asplund among his fellows. Ahlin, Lewerentz, 18, 185.

29. Eriksson, “Rationalism and Criticism 1915–1930,” 47.

30. Constant, The Woodland Cemetery, 1, 14.

31. Lewerentz, Malmö Stads nya Begrafningsplats vid Hohög [typescript].

32. Ibid.

33. Flora et al., Sigurd Lewerentz 1885–1975, 195.

34. Lewerentz, Förslag till ordnande af ny begrafningsplats i Malmö [typescript].

35. Jansson, “Att anlägga en begravningsplats,” 185.

36. The district of Sorgenfri emerged beside the cemetery, known as the ‘realm of the poor’, a zone of barrack-blocks. Billing et al., Malmo Our Town, 285.

37. Universal suffrage for men came to effect in 1909, parliamentarism in 1917, and universal suffrage for women was granted in 1918. Social Democrats reached government in 1932. Sejersted, Age of Social Democracy, 51, 84–5.

38. Billing et al., Malmo Our Town, 272.

39. Paulsson, “Better Things,” 121.

40. Hårde, Pildammsparken 1914–2014, 112.

41. Ibid.

42. P.M. angående gravvårdar [typescript].

43. Regarding Stubelius, see Constant, The Woodland Cemetery, 26.

44. Lewerentz was Lutheran. Regarding Lewerentz and religion see Hart, “Sigurd Lewerentz and the Half-Open Door,” 181–196.

45. Schulz, Death in East Germany, 105–6.

46. Ibid.

47. Geurst, Cemeteries, 67–74.

48. Jansson, “Att anlägga en begravningsplats,” 184.

49. Ibid.

50. The ridge was transformed from its original state according to different documents. See Wahlberg, Plan av Östra Kyrkogården [plan].

51. According to different documents, seeds of grass were planted on the ridge. See Kostnadsberäkningar för Nyanläggningar å Östra Kyrkogården i Malmö. This area was used to scatter ashes after the completion of the crematorium in 1932.

52. Rudberg, “Early Functionalism 1930–40,” 81.

53. Ibid, 97.

54. Hårde, Pildammsparken 1914–2014, 94.

55. See Wahlberg, Plan av Östra Kyrkogården [plan].

56. Regarding the last letters that Asplund and Lewerentz interchanged in 1940, see López-Peláez, Maestros Cercanos, 156–61.

57. Lewerentz, “Modern Cemeteries,” 44.

58. Ibid.

59. Lewerentz, “Källa Öde kyrkogård,” photograph.

60. Flora et al., Sigurd Lewerentz 1885–1975, 305.

61. Clayden and Woudstra, “Some European Approaches,” 189–207.

62. Lewerentz, “Modern Cemeteries,” 45.

63. Clayden and Woudstra, “Some European Approaches,” 189–207.

64. Caldenby, “Large Programmes 1960–75,” 144.

65. Constant, The Woodland Cemetery, 116.