Brutalism in Sweden

Sweden's postwar architecture is better known for welfare-state housing than for raw concrete, but the country produced several works central to the brutalist canon. The key figure is Sigurd Lewerentz, whose late brick and concrete churches, above all Markuskyrkan (1960) in Björkhagen, achieve an austerity and material honesty that influenced architects worldwide.

In Stockholm, Peter Celsing designed the Filmhuset (1971) for the Swedish Film Institute, a long concrete slab that is the city's clearest brutalist statement, alongside his Kulturhuset. Sten Samuelson, often working with Fritz Jaenecke, brought engineering-driven concrete design to stadiums and public buildings in the south of the country.