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Gustaf Nyström (21 January 1856 – 30 December 1917) was a Finnish architect. Nyström has been described as one of the most important architects in Finland at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He was active both as an influential teacher, as an architect in his own right, and as an official involved in groundbreaking
urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
projects.


Life

Nyström studied architecture at the Polytechnical school (today Helsinki University of Technology) and graduated in 1876. He also spent a year studying in
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under Heinrich von Ferstel in 1878–79. He began work in the office of his former teacher, Frans Anatolius Sjöström, and took over Sjöström's firm in 1885. Already in 1879 he started teaching construction at the Polytechnical Institute (as it had then become) and in 1885 was named senior teacher of architecture. This position was later transformed into a professorship, and Nyström thus became the first professor of architecture in Finland. He was the principal of the institution between 1895 and 1917, and contributed to the transformation of the Polytechnical Institute into a University of Technology in 1908. The Imperial Academy of Arts in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
honoured him with the title of "academician" in 1892. He was also a member of a national archaeological commission and was a proponent of careful and scientific building conservation.


Work


As a teacher

Nyström has been described as a "legendary teacher of architecture" and as the foremost teacher of architecture in Finland for around 40 years. During this time he developed the curriculum from a one-sided focus on artistic qualities (e.g. through practicing
architectural drawing An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building (or building project) that falls within the definition of architecture. Architectural drawings are used by architects and others for a number of purposes: to deve ...
) to also include elements of engineering. He continued to teach in the Classical tradition but also emphasised the local Nordic and Finnish expressions of architecture. In this way, he became an influential teacher of architects working in the National Romantic style, which was to become very popular in Finland around the turn of the century, although he himself was less interested in the style. He has been described as a thorough and intellectual teacher.


As an architect

Nyström has also been described as one of the most important Finnish architects of his time. His first commissions were executed in a Neo-Renaissance style. He received prestigious commissions early, notably for the House of the Estates and the
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. These are executed in a traditional, representative form of Classicism, possibly in an effort to harmonize with other parts of the city centre of Helsinki which were already built in this style by Carl Ludvig Engel. He furthermore designed the earliest covered markets in
Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
, in
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
(1888) and
Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...
(1896). From approximately the same time are the
greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...
of the botanical garden of the University of Helsinki and the winter garden of Helsinki city park; both are examples of the novel use of
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...
and glass in architecture. Nyström furthermore designed several buildings for the university and other public commissions, e.g. harbour storage buildings and hospitals. Nyström has been described as the last architect in Finland who was truly distinguished as a Neo-Renaissance architect. From circa 1900 onward Nyström began to also experiment in other styles. Influences can be seen from
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
but also from National Romanticism. He knew about the developments in architecture made by Otto Wagner in Vienna. As an architect Nyström was also involved in
urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
projects. He was one of the main contributors to the city plans of Kallio and Töölö and acted as a forerunner, incorporating new ideas into the city plans. He was furthermore active as a local politician and in that capacity involved in social housing projects. Nyström was a conscientious architect who paid much attention to detail. Throughout his life he retained close contacts with the architectural scene in the other Nordic countries and notably also with that of Austria.


Gallery


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nystrom, Gustaf 1856 births 1917 deaths Architects from Helsinki