PROJECT DETAILS

Bengt Edman / Lennart Holm: Villa Göth, 1950

  • Uppsala, Sweden, Show on map
  • #RES #Western Europe
  • The Villa Göth is a residential house built with dark brick and a flat gable roof. It has two floors and a basement. Partly, unpretentious windows form bands in the façade. Above the window sections on the front and back, there are clearly visible I-beams, an example of how the choice of material is displayed openly in this house. The floor plan is open and even indoors the materials are shown honestly. In the ceilings, the contours of the wooden formwork appear imprinted in the concrete, while several interior walls are of the same dark brick as the outside. The toilet on the first floor is made of raw concrete and has the shape of Alvar Aalto's famous Savoy vase.

  • Heritage protected.

    Historically, the building is considered to have given rise to the concept of brutalism: In a playful commentary on the Villa Göth, the term 'new brutalism' was coined for the first time in 1950 by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund. The term spread through English colleagues visiting Sweden and was taken up. A letter in which Asplund explains how he coined the term was published in the Architectural Review from August 1956.