The Making of Home and History The Revival of the Fin de Siècle Architecture

ABSTRACT

In this text, I will discuss how history is used and understood in different contemporary contexts regarding the domestic architecture of the fin de siècle (approx. 1880-1915). The focus is on apartment housing and my examples are all found in central Stockholm. I have used an ethnographical method with personal stories and experiences as my main focus while conducting interviews with people living in apartments in houses originally built around 1900. To place the interviews in a broader context they have been analyzed in relation to contemporary housing advertisements. In the first part of the article fin de siècle architecture is discussed as a coherent material style, modified to modern needs and dreams and given the function of a sign of among other things history, quality and status, legitimizing new modern lifestyles. In the second part, the use of history is considered as one among many factors in the project of homemaking and as being a possibility to transform yourself and your surroundings into better and more beautiful and interesting versions.

KEYWORDS:

• Fin-de-siècle
• housing
• domestic architecture
• use of history
• homemaking
• style
• identity

INTRODUCTION

In the last few decades, Sweden, like many other western countries, has witnessed an increase in the popularity of domestic architecture dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries—in this text named fin de siècle ¹ architecture (Holmberg 2006; Lilja 2011; Ramberg 2012). This trend is especially notable in the capital of Stockholm where fin de siècle housing constitutes a significant part of the inner-city housing stock. In a survey from 2013 it is stated that centrally located fin de siècle apartments from around 1900, along with new produced housing, were the most sought after in Stockholm and also commanded the highest prices (Fastighetsbyrån 2013). In various media, such as interior magazines, newspaper spreads, TV shows, advertising, and product marketing, domestic architecture from the fin de siècle is pictured and mediated as beautiful, elegant, and genuine (Willén 2016). Any remaining original features such as ornaments, wooden panels, windows, or flooring are emphasized and celebrated in pictures as well as in written text. But despite the love for, and interest in this historic architecture, many of these once colorful and diversified domestic areas are today being turned into convenient and contemporary “dream homes” with white painted interiors, open-plan solutions and all the modern conveniences you will ever imagine.

My aim with this text is to highlight some contemporary ideals concerning the past by discussing fin de siècle architecture both as a materiality and as history. The analysis starts in a discussion of the possible interactions between the above-mentioned “dream of” an imagined authentic historical setting and “dream of” a contemporary convenient lifestyle. In the text I will dwell around three main themes, namely the understanding of history through the use of fin de siècle architecture, the making of a material fin de siècle through the use of history and the use of history in the practice of home making. The focus is on apartment housing and my examples are all found in central Stockholm.

Method and Material

My analytic focal point is on practices of everyday life and on the making of history and home. I have used an ethnographical method with personal stories and experiences as my main focus (Kaijser and Öhlander 1999). I conducted in total ten interviews with people living in apartments in houses originally built around 1900 in central Stockholm. The informants were found by a contact-based principle and I have chosen to include only tenant-owned apartments to be able to easier focus on questions on renovation and remodeling of the home. My informants, aged between approximately 30 and 70 years, live in different constellations—single households, double-income households and households both with and without children—and consist of people living in their very first own home as well as people with greater resources and the power to choose more carefully. When we met, we had an open conversation around questions concerning ideals of homemaking and lifestyle, of architecture and history, the need for modern standards and ideas about renovation and interior decoration. The informants show a varying level of interest in architecture, renovation, and home decoration but are united in their wish to create a comfortable and inviting home in a good location.

To place the interviews in a broader context they have been analyzed in relation to housing advertisements. I believe housing ads to be an interesting material genre as they combine the traditions of conventional advertising with the vocabulary of lifestyle media. The medium incorporates both a more public dimension of ideal making and an individual dimension of homemaking and dreaming. I used the Swedish site www.hemnet.se to find my advertising material, a site where almost all the Swedish housing for sale is listed and marked. My search was based on the keywords “sekelskifte” (fin de siècle) and “modern” to reduce my findings.

In Swedish housing advertising, an apartment is characterized first by the number of rooms (reception rooms, bedrooms, study, etc.) plus kitchen and then by its size, in square meters. An apartment of “three rooms and a kitchen” normally means one kitchen, one living room and two rooms that can be used as bedrooms. This apartment can also be designated as a “three-room apartment” or a “three-roomer.” The numbers of bathrooms or toilets are seldom mentioned in this simple categorization of the apartment. In this text, I use the Swedish way of naming apartments.

Theoretical Framework

The main theoretical approach throughout my study is based on ideas concerning the use of history. The focus is on how history is made and formulated through various types of narrative—verbal, literal, as well as visual—and how ideas of history can be used to create meaning, identity and be a part of the process of making a home.

The Swedish historian Peter Aronsson has in several works focused on theoretical aspects of the use of history (historiebruk). The use of history, Aronsson claims, is the process whereby parts of “the culture of the past” are being activated (Aronsson 2004: 17). Aronsson describes this “culture of the past” as the sources, artefacts, and actions that connect our time with the past (Aronsson 2004: 17–18). He gives the use of history four different purposes; to create meaning, to legitimize, to handle changes within yourself, and to handle changes in the surrounding society (Aronsson 2009: 57). There are also four different ways of understanding how history and our own lived experience are linked together. The first is that people cannot learn from history because they are totally separate from it. The second is that everything has already happened. Third, there is the idea that the society is constantly moving forward, and finally, the idea that everything was better in the past (Aronsson 2009: 15–17).

In my article I discuss how history is used and understood in two different ways. The first part of the text focuses on ideas of (re)construction of fin de siècle architecture on a material level (Ward 2004; Baudrillard 2005; Holmberg 2006; Lilja 2011; Ramberg 2012). I highlight the way fin de siècle architecture is pictured as a coherent time-specific style, how this style can be defined, and how it is used to create meaning and identity in our contemporary life, according to the ideas of Aronsson.

In the second part the use of history is related to more general societal ideas about homemaking, identity, lifestyle, and taste (Sparke 1995; Baudrillard 2005; Heynen 2005; Featherstone 2007; Strannegård 2009). In this analysis history plays an important role, but it appears as one tool among many others to create the perfect home. The goal, it seems, is not to recreate a particular historic period but rather to achieve a unique atmosphere, an important component in the creation of a personal home and lifestyle.

THE MAKING OF A MATERIAL HISTORY

Central Stockholm is planned after international late 17th century standards with a symmetric system of esplanades, parks and squares. (Andersson 1997: 57). During the years of 1880–1915 multistoried stone and brick houses designed according to European neo classical ideas with symmetrical facades, rows of windows, rusticated lower stories and with classicistic ornamentation, were constructed along the new streets. Both more exclusive housing and simpler working-class housing were raised and the size and standard of the apartments varied according to the specific target group of the building. The ornamentation changed over the years, from new renaissance and new baroque in the 1880s to national romanticism and art nouveau in the early 1900 (Andersson 1997: 57 and Gejvall 1954: 39). During the mid 20th century several of these fin de siècle buildings were regarded as old fashion, aesthetically as well as functionally, and were replaced by newer architecture (Andersson 1997: 159). The remaining buildings have naturally all gone through substantial renovations and remodeling over the years, continuingly being adapted to the different styles and ideas of the 20th century.

The population of Stockholm is growing fast and the housing prices have (in 2016) doubled over the past 10 years (Svensk mäklarstatistik 2019). The once mixed inner city has, as in all European cities, more and more become a reserve for a new urban middle class as many people like to live in central Stockholm, close to work, restaurants and cultural activities (Lilja 2011: 18, 33). The fin de siècle housing, I would say, has in many ways become a symbol for this urban middle class. The choice of inhabiting this architecture signals economic strength, good taste, and implicate a great location within the city (Lilja 2011: 18, 33). My informants are in different ways all part of this new urban middleclass. Most of them are well educated, have good jobs and incomes and most have moved to Stockholm from other parts of the country.

When I met my informants, I asked them to reflect about their relationship to fin de siècle architecture and also to tell me how they have dealt with possible renovations or improvements of their apartment. Through this discussion I wanted to find out how they describe and understand the materiality of the fin de siècle architecture.

Katarina, a woman in her 50s, is the one informant who shows the deepest interest in the original architecture and design of her home. She lives with her husband in a five-room apartment in one of the smarter areas in central Stockholm in a house built in 1905. Before they moved in, the flat had been used as an office for many years and didn’t have much of its original appearance left except for the arched windows, some parquet flooring and some ornamentation. Since moving in the flat has been totally but carefully renovated. Katarina tells me she has been very keen on both rescuing and (re)creating such original features as ornaments, wall panels, and flooring to both conserve and recreate the original design of her home. But although she is keen on recreating original features, this comes with some limitations: She explains:” I went to the town building office and checked out the drawings because I wanted to know how it had originally looked like and decide how much respect we could pay to it.” When it comes to modern equipment and necessities such as the kitchen and bathrooms, she very explicitly states that they need to be given both enough space and a good location in the apartment, even if this means she must change the original layout of the apartment. The well-equipped kitchen is now found in the central room of the apartment, which was previously used as a reception room, and the original kitchen space has now been converted to a bedroom with an en-suite bathroom. Katarina has created a modern, luxurious home in a historic environment.

When I met Anders and Lisa, a married couple in their mid-30s, they made it very clear that they had explicitly been looking for an apartment situated in a fin de siècle building. They now live in Kungsholmen in a building finished in 1911. The apartment has old windows in typical art nouveau style, two nonfunctioning tile stoves and old floor tiles. While renovating their apartment, and turning it from a two-room apartment to a three-roomer, they carefully constructed new wooden skirting boards to resemble the old ones and they bought small old windows to put into the new inner wall to let some more light into the now windowless kitchen. But despite this love of period features they tell me they feel ambivalent about living in an old apartment. While adding the extra bedroom, they created a modern open space between the kitchen and living room, tearing down the original pantry and other original constructions. They are also dreaming about building a walk-in closet in their bedroom but in this case, they feel restricted by the existence of an old tiled stove which they are reluctant to remove. Lisa explains: “I would rather take it away, but I feel in my heart I can´t do that.” This emotional experience of the limitations in changing the original design, she believes is the greatest downside of inhabiting an old apartment.

Henrik and Elsa, a couple in their 30s, also mention the conflict between conservation and modernization in their interview. They live in Gröndal, an area just outside the city center originally planned as a working-class suburb in the late 19th century (Andersson 1997: 93). They own a two-room apartment in a building from 1911 with little original features left. They tell me they would love to reinstall a tiled stove and explains with some dismay that many of the original stoves in the house were once thrown out into the nearby lake. Their problem is that the smoke passage needed for the reinstallation is now used for ventilating the bathroom built by former owners, a bathroom they need and don’t want to change. This makes the installation of the stove too complicated and costly. For Henrik and Elsa, it would have been a dream come true to have this tiled stove and to be able to restore and experience some air of past times.

30 years old Filippa lives with her boyfriend Anton in a two-room apartment in Liljeholmen. In the interview she expresses something that many of my informants refer to in various way, namely the difficulties of adapting modern standard measurements to older ones. As one example she mentions that they had to make some special, not perfectly functional and good-looking arrangement to make room for a dishwasher in the small kitchen. It is also hard for them to fit in a washing machine in the tiny bathroom. But despite these difficulties she tells me she prefers older apartments because she finds them cozier, better constructed and more unique then newer housing.

The negotiation between the act of preservation or (re)construction and the act of modernization is a constant ongoing process among most of my informants. Although their interest in, and their knowledge about, fin de siècle architecture varies widely, there exists a somewhat coherent idea about what is worth saving and what can be changed. They all agree that modern facilities like bathrooms and functional kitchens need to be fitted in to make a convenient, “up-to-date” lifestyle possible. Most believe that original layouts or color schemes may be altered or removed while for example, windows, tiled stoves, ornamentation or original flooring should not. Spaciousness, generous ceiling height and high-quality materials are other original features my informants emphasize as important ingredients in the fin de siècle architecture. But when some think that the unpracticality’s of old designs and layouts contribute to the charm, others believe they have to be improved to give the housing its full potential. Katarina and Anders and Lisa, for example, have made major renovations to adapt the apartment to their lifestyles, while others like Filippa and Henrik and Elsa, rather have adopted their own lifestyle to the physical limitations of the apartment. But for none the wish to keep or restore certain original features or designs are, it seems, not primarily an active decision about preserving a cultural heritage, but rather about creating a sensation of historicity or authenticity.

In the advertisements a much more standardized picture of the fin de siècle architecture occurs. In an ad for a three-room apartment in central Södermalm the real estate agent writes: “The original fin de siècle details such as a generous ceiling height and the deep window recesses, creates a feeling of charm and exclusiveness” (Kocksgatan 43). The pictures show a white painted modern home with a contemporary kitchen and bathroom, a semi-open space between kitchen and living room, and modern-looking furniture. Still in place is an original tiled stove and some old skirting boards, otherwise there is no original features left. Another apartment, a small two-roomer, is characterized by the real estate agent as “the charm of the fin de siècle.” The description continues: “(n)ew is mixed up with details of the fin de siècle, for example high baseboards, amazing windows and a decent ceiling height” (Floragatan 19). The tiny apartment is situated on two floors connected by a spiral staircase. The walls and the original door and window casings as well as the skirting boards are all painted white. In other ads, the architecture is described as “beautiful,” “exclusive,” “bright,” “full of charm and potential,” and “spacious.” This is despite the photos showing an endless row of white painted interiors complemented by some carefully chosen original features accompanied by modern-looking furnishing. In my advertising material, fin de siècle architecture is characterized as an almost universal self-definitizing design unchanged by the ravages of time, and as something unquestionably beautiful that creates a feeling of exclusiveness, charm, or atmosphere.

Even though the idea of fin de siècle architecture is proved to be more complex in the interviews, both my informants and the housing ads are talking about fin de siècle as a coherent “fin de siècle style” composed of wooden floors, decorative baseboards, ornamented door and window casings, high ceilings, and generous old-styled windows. The idea of this coherent “fin de siècle look,” however, does not correspond to the way this architecture was originally conceived. Domestic architecture from this period was designed without regard to any particular regulations or norms concerning interior layout. According to Swedish art historian Birgit Gejvall the location of the building, the manner of construction and ideas concerning hygiene were the main architectural questions at this time. When it came to the interior design, fire safety was the primary focus, then came aesthetic matters and finally questions of comfort, she concludes. The design of the interior was determined by the taste, knowledge, and skill of the architect or builder (Gejvall 1954: 39). Style of decorations was subject to the taste and fashion of the time and changed a great deal from 1880 to 1910, from colorful and heavy to lighter and brighter (but never totally white). The interior decorations were, however, always modelled according to certain thematic schemes (Sandström 1981: 114). The ornamentation was carefully chosen to give the decorated objects a cultural value and understanding and in the same way ornamentation could only be understood in relation to these objects: they were inseparable (Negrin 2008: 118–20).

In our time, interpretation of this period doesn’t often separate the heavy decorations of the 1880s from the lighter ideals of the 1910, or simpler working-class housing from lavish bourgeois dwellings; they are lumped together as a this homogenous “fin de siècle style.” This style doesn’t necessarily include the original layouts of the apartment or the original color schemes. And in almost all my examples original features, as well as walls and even floors, have all been painted white. The features from this period seem almost to be standardized, as do the new modern kitchens and bathrooms. The ideal fin de siècle home today appears as a modern white dream, combining the imagined beauty and solid design of yesterday with the aesthetics and functionality of today.

In The system of objects Jean Baudrillard divides our everyday objects into two main categories, functional objects and mythological objects. In the first he places items whose primary function are to be used by their owners according to well-defined purposes (Baudrillard 2005: 16). In the second, he puts those objects whose primary function are to offer symbolic value, as for example historical objects (Baudrillard 2005: 77–8). The process of renovating older buildings according to modern needs and ideals is described by Baudrillard as “nostalgic restoration.” In this process mythologies are activated and the old is transformed into a raw model signifying, for example, history and continuity (Baudrillard 2005: 80–2). Design historian Louise Ward talks about what she calls “the fabrication and re-invention of style” in modern interior design practices. She is interested in the fabrication of the idea of an “English country house style” as formulated during the years 1930–90. The use of history varied a lot during these years and in the final years of the period studied, the creation of the style was not based on actual historical understanding. Instead, meaning was rendered by the combination of singular objects into a homogenous style. This fabricated style became popular because of its historical and associational values, Ward concludes, but she emphasizes that the wish to recreate traditional or period styles turned the past into nothing but a collection of visual codes (Ward 2004: 107).

In applying these ideas to the narratives on fin de siècle architecture in my material, it is clear that an originally versatile design is reduced or simplified to a specific and very limited style. This style has a certain materiality, based on a particular understanding of history and of an appreciation of chosen architectural objects that have clearly undergone the process of aestheticization. Ornamentation is a good example of this effect. Today ornaments are much appreciated for their decorative effects within their white painted and neutral setting, but nothing remains of their original meaning as functional objects, to use Baudrillard’s concepts. Instead, ornamentation may be regarded as mythological signifiers symbolizing “history” (Willén 2017). And in line with Ward’s conclusions, ornamentation and the whole creation of a fin de siècle style should primarily be regarded as a set of visual codes signifying not only ideas of a particular history, but also of, for example, tradition, status or quality.

But it is not only the idea of a coherent material style that is a product of our time. Ideas about the unquestionable beauty of the fin de siècle architecture can be regarded as a construction of today. To begin with, already, contemporary fin de siècle critics denigrated the architecture as incoherent, sprawling, and extravagant and therefore symbolic of bad taste (Sparke 1995; Eriksson 2000). During the years around 1900 ornamented fin de siècle design, in Sweden as well as in other western countries, became increasingly associated with female taste, and therefore regarded as something less good (Forty 1992; Sparke 1995; Negrin 2008). In the 1940s the idea of fin de siècle taste as something repulsive was fully established, and the revulsion against late 19th century housing was one of the main focial points of the modernist city renewal debate. Blocks were claimed to be too narrow, dark and cluttered, and the apartments were seen as lacking the standard, design, and taste needed for a modern family living according to modern lifestyle ideals (Eriksson 2000). Fin de siècle housing was defined, foremost, as representative of bad architecture and poor city planning and continued to be regarded in this way well into the 1970s (Holmberg 2006).

Today the link between fin de siècle architecture and bad architecture seem no longer to exist. It is a history that have been largely forgotten among most people. Instead, it is now principally regarded as something “old and beautiful,” an expression used by Holmberg in her doctoral thesis to desciribe the process of history making in an old working-class housing block originating from around 1900, in the Swedish city of Göteborg (Holmberg 2006: 280). The “old and beautiful” as a concept she describes as the values created by those who restored Haga in the 1970s, and who aimed to highlight fin de siècle history and the simple working-class identity of the area as something agreeable and desirable (Holmberg 2006: 280–3). As with Haga, my examples of fin de siècle housing today are based on a constructed idea of something unquestionably “old and beautiful,” used as a contrast to modern architecture and modern values.

The materialized fin de siècle style can be regarded as what Aronsson calls a “culture of the past.” It is something that connects our time with the past and makes our own life, as well as the history, meaningful and intelligible. What is also notable in my material is the way of describing renovation and modernization as something both self-evident and necessary. The old remaining features need to be improved and placed in a modern context to be both understood and legitimized. To use Aronsson’s model, some things used to be better in the past, but we can also use the past to improve our own reality and way of living, both in a material and in a social meaning.

THE MAKING OF HOME

Architectural theorist Hilde Heynen claims that one of the essential qualities of housing is the act of homemaking, a process that is constantly ongoing and never really finished (Heynen 2005: 20–1). Susan Saegert, Professor of Environmental Psychology, describes the home as a part of “the experience of dwelling” and as something we do and states that “(i)t describes the physical, social, and psychological transactions by which a person maintains his or her own life, joins that life with others, creates new lives and social categories, and gives meaning to the process, thus gaining a sense of identity and place in the world” (Saegert 1985: 288). According to Baudrillard the presence of the past is one of the factors that can turn your house into a dwelling (Baudrillard 2005: 80–2).

In my interview material, the use of history is clearly a part of the project of making home. My informants tell stories about people who used to live in their apartment or in the nearby area, they talk about the development of the city and of the politics, and they mention more undefined historical characteristics incorporated in the old architecture. Martina, a married mother of three small children, lives with her family in the area Vasastan in a large 5-room apartment. She tells me that she and her husband have lived in many different apartments during their life together, all situated in the same Stockholm neighborhood. Though they have never specifically searched for architecture from a certain period, all their apartments have been in different fin de siècle buildings. She says that it is something about them that they appreciate and that suits their way of living. Thirty-year-old Samuel tells me about the process of buying his current home, a two-room apartment in a building in Vasastan from the early 1900s. He and his girlfriend specifically dreamt of buying a fin de siècle home but weren´t sure if they could really afford it. But when they did it made them very happy because, as he states, there is a special “feeling of just entering a house the breaths history.” Samuel emphasises the idea that there is something “special” about old houses and that living in one makes him feel like being a part of a continuous history.

The idea that there this “something special” about fin de siècle architecture reoccurs among many of my informants. In the interview, Anders and Lisa, the couple that has turned their one-bedroom apartment into a two-bedroom flat, make it clear that according to them the architecture from the fin de siècle mediates a sense of luxury, class, and charm that cannot be found in newer dwellings. They also talk about a kind of inherited history of the apartment. Anders tells me that while he was rubbing down the wooden flooring to remove the many layers of old varnish he was thinking about all people that have inhabited the apartment and walked on the floor, and about the trees that must have been planted some time during the 18th century.

Matilda, a 35-year-old single mother, lives in a small three-room apartment at Södermalm with her young daughter. She says she likes the idea that old houses tell you something about how the city has developed over time and about the politics behind it. She likes to think about how the area she lives in once was a slum but today has been cleaned up and is beautiful again. Matilda also talks about how to furnish her fin de siècle home. “It stands for itself” she says, and therefore you don’t need to be that careful while decorating. In line with this statement she has not bother to change the kitchen or bathroom even though she believes them to be out of fashion.

While the informants above are quite nonspecific in their historic references, others refer to more specific historical episodes related to their apartment or houses. Kerstin and Sven for example, a couple in their late 60s who inhabit a large 4-room apartment in a house from 1914 at Södermalm, tell me that one famous Swedish architect used to live in their house in the early 20th century and when he moved out left some old architectural models in the attic that are still there today. Sven even takes me up to the attic to show me the abandoned models and while doing so he materializes the history of the building in a very concrete way.

My informants use stories about the past, as it seems, as a way of deepening the meaning and understanding of their homes and to give the history a stronger presence. The history they use is sometimes defined in time, but more often it is described as being a contrast to modern times and lifestyles. Aronsson argues that it is by being talked about that historical places are defined as historical. People can then use these places to legitimate their way of living, for example by creating a sense of belonging: belonging to that specific place and belonging in the surrounding world. In this way, Aronsson states, historic places function as symbols for a greater whole (Aronsson 2009: 15–17, 22). The fin de siècle apartments, as they are used and understood by my informants, can in this way function as historical places that connect the now and then to create a feeling of belonging to the world, and let their inhabitants be a part of a greater whole and on the same time contributing to the process of making a home. This is clearly in line with the statement of Baudrillard above, that old objects, or the longing for period style which he also includes, are given the role of mythological signifiers of time (Baudrillard 2005: 78–9). When an object has a link back in history it creates myths about the past that can give one’s everyday life a deeper meaning and a greater value (Baudrillard 2005: 79). Many of the informants claim that fin de siècle architecture creates a special atmosphere that evokes certain feelings, which makes this architecture stand out in comparison with newer homes.

In the housing advertisements, the presence of history is at the same time both explicit and implied. The historical architectural framing is always made clear and mentioned as something good and desirable, but it is the possibility of a modern way of living that is emphasized. In one of the advertisements, marketing a small two-room apartment, the photos depict a white painted contemporary interior. The apartment has a layout that tells us that walls have probably been torn down to create the open plan space. The kitchen has modern furnishing and equipment and the furnitures in the sitting room are equally modern looking. The photographs reveal no visual original architectural details, except for the ceiling height and the shape of the windows. The photos depict a contemporary, minimalistic, and convenient housing environment, as you would also find in new built housing. Despite the lack of any visual original features the selling point describes a fin de siècle dream home. The text states: “This is the late 19th century at its best.” Later, the description makes it clear what “at its best” actually implies: “An apartment of 39 square meters that has undergone a total restoration in all details” (Hälsingegatan 11). The ideal fin de siècle apartment is in this context a home adapted to suit every aspect of contemporary life with its white walls, open plan and modern kitchen. Here, no interest is shown in any authentic or recreated original features; it is the idea of historicity that is emphasized. A 125 m², four-room apartment at Döbelnsgatan is described as follows: “In the western corner you find the spectacular sitting room which with its size and design fulfil high demands on a reception room. Besides this it has a great flow of light from three big windows and beautiful parquet flooring” (Döbelnsgatan 25). Again, it is the possibilities for a convenient, modern, and luxurious lifestyle that is being emphasized and the historical setting appears as a stage on which this is being realized.

In the ads, historical aspects are mentioned as a kind of “capacity” alongside modern kitchens, comfortable bedrooms, and newly renovated bathrooms. The advertisers use a narrative typical for lifestyle media, where the possibilities of a better or different life is a significant component (Willén 2012). The use of historicity has a specific function in this media genre; it is used to make an attractive selling point.

In a survey from the University of Gothenburg (2016) it is stated that lifestyle media is one of the main contributors to the significant increase in home related consumption past 15 years (Konsumtionsrapporten 2016: 43). Accordingly, many of my informants claim they are interested in home improvement and decoration. Mike Featherstone argues that since the beginning of the postmodern era there has been an ongoing process of “stylization of life,” where the whole life is part of a consumer culture (Featherstone 2007: 47). Swedish ethnologist Maria Strannegård claims that this stylization of everyday life is manifest by a will to express one’s self and personality through design (Strannegård 2009: 65). According to Baudrillard signs of the past are one important part in this economical system. He believes that people seek to consume status and value through historical objects (Baudrillard 2005: 89). The historic and claimed unique character of fin de siècle architecture could give life and home that desirable individuality that many of my informants explicitly are looking for. The historicity of the home seems to fulful the dream of making the home a better and more unique place, and signals class, luxury or something beyond standardized living—quite unlike dwellings from the mid-20th century. Strannegård also defines what she calls an economy of feelings. This, she claims, is an economic system based on emotions where the chance to escape reality plays an important role. In my examples fin de siècle architecture clearly has the function of an escape from a modern society, both in time and space, by evoking emotions of, for example, tradition, continuity, quality, safety, luxury, or individuality. When people buy a home with a history they also consume the history that surrounds it and merge it into their own life story and identity. In this way the longing for emotion, experience and belonging somewhere becomes one important part in the project of making home.

The notion of transformation may also be helpful in explaining the popularity of fin de siècle architecture. Featherstone describes this transformation as both a concept and an idea of great importance in the culture of consumption. The goal is to find new ways of renewing yourself, your lifestyle, home, and relations (Featherstone 2007: xxi). The idea of transformation can, of course, also be related to the ongoing gentrification of Stockholm’s inner city, of which the renovation of individual apartments is an important ingredient. In the 1970s, low-income households constituted half of the population of central Stockholm. In the 1990s the gentrification process was fully under way and many parts of the city gradually became inhabited by a new class of people, who demanded an urban culture with a focus on small boutiques, food, and shopping (Lilja 2011: 18, 33). One dream in continuing the whole gentrification process is the possibility of returning the city to its glorious days (Lilja 2011: 31).

Transformation also becomes a part of the process of making home, to refer to Henyen and Seagart. The process gives you, in Strannegård’s terms, an experience of something new and exciting and a possibility to create a new home, but even more important, a new you. By inhabiting an old dwelling, you are able to transform yourself into someone more exciting or genuine, transform contemporary society into history, transform the everyday life into something more exotic or luxurious, transform your house into a home, and to transform your dwelling into interesting architecture.

CONCLUSIONS

In this text, I have discussed how history is used and made in different contemporary contexts around the domestic architecture of the fin de siècle.

In the first part, I show how fin de siècle architecture is described and understood as something “old and beautiful” and as coherent material style, modified to contemporary needs and dreams. To put it in the vocabulary of Aronsson, history is used (or made) through the activation of a “culture of the past,” in this case formed in the shape of a “fin de siècle style.” This historic style is composed by a choice of certain architectural details and colors as well as of certain symbolic and historical connotations. But it is a style and history made up by our time and our aesthetic and practical ideals and needs and not by actual knowledge about the authentic design of the fin de siècle. And the fact that we are in many ways separated from our history makes it possible to use the past as an exotic and thrilling element. The idea of this coherent style and of the unquestionable beauty of the fin de siècle architecture can be observed both in the interviews and in the housing advertisements. My informants though show a more reflexive attitude towards the possible struggles it means inhabiting old architecture then the standardized selling message given by the advertisements.

In studying the historic references in the narratives about fin de siècle architecture, ideas of modern lifestyle and home are also made visible. Our contemporary needs and requirements are made clear, not just in the use of modern features, but in the limitations of the dream of authenticity. There are, for example, no original kitchens, bathroom, or color schemes in my material. Modernization of these elements is one factor that is obviously needed to create a contemporary home that can accommodate the social and active lifestyle required by our time. And in an historic environment these modern objects become even more modern since their modernity is emphasized in comparison to their historic framing. In the same way, the past can be said to be defined in relation to the modern; it is not getting old until other things around them can be considered new or newer.

In the second part, the historic narrating deriving from inhabiting “old” architecture, is understood as an important ingredient in the process of home making. In my material, especially the interviews, fin de siècle architecture function as an historic place, though not necessary defined in time. According to Aronsson the use of history connects our times with the past and helps us handle change, within ourselves and in the surrounding world. The use of history also legitimizes new ways of living as well as modern design ideals, and it gives our life and our time a deeper meaning. As discussed above, historical references can be regarded as one ingredient among many others in a wider contemporary lifestyle, as a part of the good life.

The housing ads phrases a longing for a housing that can meet the idea of a home that is unique, personal, and exciting. In line with the ideas of Baudrillard, the presence of history is what makes fin de siècle housing that “something special,” giving life a little extra value by adding a mythological factor. The home improvement activities observed in my material can also be regarded as a way of creating that extra dimension, both by emphasizing the historicity of the home and by making old things new and relevant to a modern society. This transformation process, identified by Featherstone, must, of course, be regarded as a typical middle-class phenomenon and as one aspect of a wider consumer society. In this consumer culture, as Featherstone puts it, there is an ongoing commodification of many aspects of our everyday life. The history, together with the city or our private homes is being turned into consumer goods and jeopardizes at the same time to be reduced to the role of aesthetic or status-giving objects.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

FUNDING

The project is funded by Ahlströms och Terserus stiftelse.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maja Willén

I AM AN ART HISTORIAN CURRENTLY WORK AS A RESEARCHER AND LECTURER AT THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE AND AESTHETICS AT STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY. MY THESIS, DEFENDED IN MAY 2012, FOCUS ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDEALS CONNECTED WITH THE CONTEMPORARY OPEN PLANNED HOME. IN THE STUDY, I AM DISCUSSING HOW NARRATIVES ABOUT THE LIFE IN OPEN PLAN APARTMENTS ARE BEING CONSTRUCTED, DISTRIBUTED, WHAT THEY CONTAIN AND HOW THE OPEN PLAN LIFESTYLE IS BEING FORMULATED AS AN IDEAL WAY OF LIVING YOUR LIFE. I WORKED WITH AN ETHNOGRAPHIC METHOD AND A DISCURSIVE PERSPECTIVE THROUGHOUT THE STUDY. IN MY ONGOING RESEARCH I AM INVESTIGATING CONTEMPORARY IDEAS ABOUT THE DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF THE “FIN DE SIÈCLE.” I AM LOOKING AT HOW IDEAS ABOUT HISTORY AND MODERNITY IS BEING MADE IN RELATION TO THE CONTEMPORARY USE OF THIS HISTORIC SCENE, AND HOW THESE CONCEPTS CAN BE RELATED TO IDEAS ABOUT IDENTITY, GENDER AND TASTE. THE ARTICLE PRESENTED BELOW IS A PART OF THIS PROJECT. [email protected]

Notes

1. In this text I use the term fin de siècle to describe the time between approx. 1880–1915. The term was though used much narrower at the time, describing the years just around 1900.

APPENDIX 1: LIST OF HOUSING ADVERTISEMENTS

(rok = room and kitchen)

Birger Jarlsgatan 103, 3 rum och kök (rok), 70 m².

Brahegatan 7, 3–4 rok, 114 m².

Döbensgatan 25, 4 rok, 134 m².

Floragatan 19, Etagelägenhet 2 rok, 28 m².

Grevgatan 52, 2 rok, 82 m².

Grevgatan 57, 1 rok, 48 m².

Gustavslundsvägen, 2 rok, 66 m².

Heleneborgsgatan 3, 3 rok, 74 m².

Högbergsgatan, 2 rok, 36,4 m².

Hälsingegatan 11, 2 rok, 39 m²

Kaplansbacken 3, 1 rok, 24 m².

Kocksgatan 43 A, 3 rok, 72 m².

Mariatorget 4, 2 rok, 57 m².

Norra Agnesgatan 43, 2 rok, 62 m².

Sibyllegatan 9, 5 rok, 144 m².

Tavastgatan 43, 2 rok, 44,6 m².

Torstenssongatan, 3 rok, 72 m².

Upplandsgatan 74, 3 rok, 97 m².

Valhallavägen 14, 2 rok, 63 m².

Valhallavägen 22, 1 rok, 34 m².

Vikingagatan 21, 2 rok, 50, 8 m².

Vikingagatan 26, 3 rok.

Västmannagatan 89, 2 rok, 61 m².

Erstagatan 13, 1 rok, 42 m².

Fleminggatan 63, 2 rok, 61 m².

Grev Turegatan 74, 3 rok, 102 m².

Hantverkargatan 86, 3 rok, 93 m².

Inedalsgatan 7, 3 rok, 85 m².

Luntmakargatan 12, 3 rok, 88 m².

Norrtullsgatan 26, 2 rok, 54 m².

Riddargatan 25, 2 rok, 50 m².

Rörstrandsgatan 36, 1 rok, 40 m².

Rörstrandsgatan 60, 3 rok, 84 m².

Styrmansgatan 6, 3 rok, 83 m².

Surbrunnsgatan 19, 2 rok, 57 m².

Wallingatan 14, 7 rok, 340 m².

Åsögatan 167, 3 rok, 84 m².

APPENDIX 2: LIST OF INTERVIEWS

(The names are anonymized)

Filippa och Anton, Liljeholmsvägen, 2 rok, 60 m². 4/2–2014.

Henrik och Elsa Maskinistgatan 15, 2 rok, 61 m². 13/2–2014.

Katarina, Narvavägen, 5 rok, 150 m². 28/4–2014.

Kerstin och Sven, Katarina västra kyrkogata, 4 rok, 120 m². 15/5–2014.

Klara, Folkungagatan, 1 rok, 26 m². 16/2–2014.

Lars, Parkgatan, 1 rok, 31 m². 10/3–2014.

Lisa och Anders, Inedalsgatan, 3 rok, 70 m². 21/9–2014.

Martina, Ynglingagatan, 5,5 rok, 130 m². 4/9–2014.

Matilda, Heleneborgsgatan, 3 rok, 51 m². 13/2–2014.

Samuel, Valhallavägen, 2 rok, 56 m². 4/2–2014.