On a recent visit to Sweden to visit our daughter and grandchildren, we visited Tjolöholm Castle located on a peninsular in the Kungsbacka Fjord on the Kattegat coast south of Gothenburg.
Tjolöholm as a property has been in existence since the 13th century when it was mentioned in the Danish King Valdemar’s ‘Jordebog’ (census book). It was owned by a number of different families until 1892 when the site was purchased by James Fredrick and Blanche Dickson, an Anglo-Swedish couple who intended to build a house there. James was the son of James Jameson Dickson; the founder of a Swedish shipping company and Blanche was his English cousin.
In 1897 the couple organised an architectural competition for the construction of a castle (really a grand country house) ‘in the Elizabethan style’ and despite his entry only being given second place, the commission to design and build the castle was given to Lars Israel Wahlman, who at the time was only 27. He was a proponent of the ‘National Romantic style’ that was part of the National Romantic movement in many Nordic countries during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nordic architects looked to medieval architecture and earlier precedents to construct a style that they considered to be appropriate to their perception of the national character of their countries. The style can be seen as a reaction to the industrial revolution and as an expression of the romantic nationalism that had given impetus to the study of early Scandinavian history. As with the arts and crafts movement in Britain, the style often gave expression to progressive social and political ideals especially through the design of domestic architecture.
Wahlman had never visited Britain but took inspiration from British design magazines, examples of Tudor architecture and from the British arts and crafts movement and its proponents’ love of high-quality craftsmanship and the authentic use of materials. He also designed the extensive gardens.
The design of the castle is an eclectic mix of Tudor, arts and crafts and art nouveau styles, with Elizabethan-style bays with windows with stone mullions and transoms at front and back, a ‘Tudorbethan’ section with a black timber frame and white infill panels and stylised flower and plant motifs throughout. The internal layout of the castle was divided into sections for the owners, for their children, for guests and for servants. The archaic exterior of the castle hid a number of very up-to-date innovations: it was heated by a ducted hot air system and bathrooms were equipped with the latest style of showers.
See below for photos of the castle and gardens:
Shortly after the construction of the castle started, James died as a result of blood poisoning and the construction was overseen and completed by Blanche. Blanche was also very concerned about the welfare of the workers in the castle and on the estate and had a village for the workers built in the National Romantic style (probably also designed by Wahlman). These to me, are much more interesting than the castle! The village also contained a stone-built church (in the ‘Scottish’ style and now suffering badly from the ingress of water) and a meeting house (now a café).
The houses are built of timber wall and roof frames supported on foundations built of boulders or large stones. The walls are clad externally with horizontal or vertical timber cladding protected at the corners by vertical, tapered timber cladding panels. Roofs are steep and mainly clad with clay tiles with decorative finials but several of the houses have thatched roofs. Windows have small panes with decorative timber surrounds. The entrances to the houses are through covered porches again with decorative timber work. Some of the houses have rooms in the roof spaces and some have basements.
Internally, the roofs are supported on large, exposed, round timber purlins which are supported in the living rooms by very decorative columns at the corners of built-in cupboards on either side of the rooms. The ceilings are finished with timber strips with cornices around the perimeters and the walls are clad internally with vertical timber panels with timber skirtings. There is a large, vertical, brick-built and wood-fired heater in each house between the bedroom (where it has a tiled finish) and the living room and this heats both spaces and also contains a cooking range in the kitchen area which is surrounded by a fence to keep children away from the range.
The detailing generally and the timber detailing in particular of the houses both internally and externally is of a very high standard and the workmanship is extremely good with all elements being beautifully finished.
See below for photos of the houses and of the interior of one of them which is now a small museum:
Architecture in Developing Countries: A Resource
The design and construction of appropriate, low-cost buildings for education and health in rural areas of the developing world.
Nigel Wakeham is an architect who lived for 23 years in Southern and West Africa and the SW Pacific working on education, health and other projects. He has since worked for over 20 years as a consultant for national governments and agencies such as the World Bank, DFID, ADB and AfDB on the implementation of the construction components of education and health projects in many countries in the developing world.
The objective of this website will be to provide the benefit of more than 45 years of experience of working in developing countries to architects and other construction professionals involved in the design and construction of appropriate, low-cost buildings for education and health. It will provide reference material from the projects that Nigel has worked on and technical information on the design, construction and maintenance of educational and health facilities and other relevant topics and these will be added to from time to time.
I am happy to be contacted by anyone requiring further information on any of the projects or resources referred to in this website or by anyone wishing to discuss work possibilities.
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