Nationalmuseum - Stockholm

After five years of renovations and modernizations, Nationalmuseum - Sweden's premier museum of art and design - opened up its doors again in 2018. The new space is tailored, quite literally, highlight the museum's enormous collection of classic art. 

Building Exterior

Functionalism..

Entrance Hall 

Permanent Exhibition

Facts: 

• When the building was completed in 1863, a total of 427 drawings were submitted to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Buildings – 270 building plans and 157 decoration drawings.
• The glass panes used in the windows surpassed any that had previously been used in the country. At this time, the largest window panes used for housing normally measured 45x45 cm. The largest window panes in Nationalmuseum were 170x200 cm in size. They were manufactured at a factory in Aachen, Germany.
• The condensed water from the lanterns had to be carried down from the attic. In a single night in 1864, this condensation filled 370 jugs.
• At the top of the building, where the vaults cannot brace each other as they do in the plan below, the vaults were constructed out of a total of 59,000 hollow clay jars, so-called vault pots. Through immediate pressurisation, the vaults became strong as well as light and thin.
• The masonry work for the façades took six years, although the two steam-powered planes in Borghamn worked around the clock (except on Sundays) throughout that period.
• The building also lacked toilets, but a workaround was developed in the form of the granite urinals designed in 1868 to be built adjacent to the Strömmen canal. Until 1915, the ladies simply had to ‘hold it’.
• Nationalmuseum's 349 ceiling roses have ten variants – enough to create the illusion that each one is unique.
• The museum long lacked electricity, which was not installed until 1931.