A guide to Art Nouveau in Ålesund

How can you determine whether the peculiar building you just passed is in Art Nouveau style? Is it sufficient that it is made of concrete? Does it have to have a tower?

Does it perhaps have something to do with the window or the beautiful decor on the façade? So, you are standing there, staring. "What about this, is this Art Nouveau?"

There are some typical ways to see and experience the town of Ålesund. You can climb all the steps to Aksla viewpoint to get a full overview of the town. Not enough of a physical challenge? Then you can hike up to Sukkertoppen, a little mountain located on the island of Hessa, south of the city centre, for an even broader overview. Or you can go into the town centre and experience Ålesund from the sea, walking on a floating walkway along the canal.

But if you want to really get to know the town's unique architecture, you have to trudge your way along the streets. And maybe cross them a few times, to see the buildings both from a distance and up close. The very best thing you can do, is to bring an expert with you on your hike. Because together with someone who knows what to look for, small and large details may appear around Ålesund's façades that you would not otherwise have noticed.

The very best thing you can do, is to bring an expert with you on your hike. Because together with someone who knows what to look for, small and large details may appear around Ålesund's façades that you would not otherwise have noticed.

The expert we have got hold of today, is called Signe Elvik Svoen and works at Jugendstilsenteret (the Art Nouveau Centre) in Ålesund. Signe is an architect. More precisely: an architect specialised in building conservation and transformation, but as she says: – Just write "architect".

Signe works as a conservator of Art Nouveau architecture, which means that she occasionally organises city walks for curious souls. The purpose of the walk is to teach what characterises an Art Nouveau building. And we learn early that if you are going to decide whether a particular building is Art Nouveau style, you should not just look for specific details, one by one. It is the total – the building's full expression – that determines whether it is a typical Art Nouveau building.

Not surprisingly, the tour begins where we meet: outside the Art Nouveau Centre, located in the building that previously was the main pharmacy in the centre of Ålesund.

Signe points and explains, and together we stand on the pavement and tilt our heads back to see the whole building.

Details and large façades

We see towers and elaborate ridges: a building in roughly hewn natural stone, with arches over the windows and doors. Bay windows protruding from the façades. Ornaments. Grid patterns in the windows.

Signe reveals that this building was designed by architect Hagbarth Schytte-Berg and completed in 1907. The building has a national romantic feel to it, and the architect was inspired by nature. The rough building material also points in the same direction. Then we discover ornaments inspired by the Norwegian Middle Ages, with meandering snakes and Viking-like patterns. The arches and bay windows are reminiscent of the rock's unexpected formations. Here, you can let your imagination flow.

We turn around and look at another building. A bright one in plaster, pale yellow beige colour, almost white. A building – let us say – a “purer” kind than the rough-hewn Art Nouveau. Apotekergata 9 has the number 1905 on it, so we can ascertain that it is from the same period. The building also has towers, and arches over windows and doors. Gradually, as architect Signe points and tells, other details appear: Ornaments depicting red flowers, the small-paned window above the gate, the tower that is somehow growing out of the façade – an example of the plasticity that the architects managed to get out of the hard building material. So much in common between the two buildings! Signe says that here, too, the national romance comes to the fore, as the ornaments’ flowers represent flowers typical of the Norwegian coastal flora.

It is in this kind of trend recognition that you can see a bit of the background. Jugendstil, the Art Nouveau style, as it was later known, was not a conscious expression full of set rules. The architecture was based on elements of the time, trends, and reactions to other, older, expressions. Signe explains:

– The architects, for example, did not sit down and think: "Now, I am going to design a building in neo-baroque style!"

As with all styles and directions within architecture, it is only in retrospect that we can say anything about the tendency.

– A building usually has a certain impulse. These impulses may come from the architect’s inspiration at the time the building was designed. If you put it in context with other buildings and styles from the same era, you may subsequently be able to call it Jugendstil. Or art nouveau if you like.

And in Ålesund's case, we find inspiration from the Norwegian coastal landscape, blended with traditions from European architecture. Among other things.

With an expert at your side, you can also allow yourself to ask silly questions, such as whether there were alternative building methods at the time.

– Oh yes, there were countless ways to plan and construct a building – it is not like all buildings from that period ended up in Art Nouveau style!

Signe says that there was no plan to build Ålesund as an Art Nouveau town, but that several architects with similar visions found their way to Ålesund at the same time.

For those of you who may not know the background for this simultaneous development – here is a little history lesson:

A town of sea and flames

Ålesund was on fire. The entire town centre burned down over the course of the night and day of the 23rd of January 1904. One wooden building after the other was affected by the fire, which spread at high speed in the middle of a winter storm. The cause of the fire is to this day not known, but the conclusion was that wooden buildings close together in such a weather-exposed place left the residents no chance. As long as the wind continued to spread the fire, the extinguishing work was impossible.

A new town was to be built out of the ruins, this time of bricks and concrete. A national project was set in motion. The arriving architects were mostly Norwegian, but many had been educated abroad and brought with them inspiration from European cities. They thought, planned, and drew new buildings. Mines from all over the country supplied stone, and workers arrived. Within a few years, Ålesund had arisen again, only this time it was quite different from the tiny wooden town that had burned down.

A unique example

– We tend to say that Ålesund is unique, both nationally and internationally, due to the concentration of Art Nouveau buildings, says Signe. The fact that the entire town centre was built up within three years lead to a high concentration of buildings from the same time period. It is exactly this uniform, urban landscape that makes Ålesund unique.

The foundation for it was the new building directive, stating that the new town’s building material had to be brick and concrete. The reason why the Art Nouveau style was so dominant, was because the style was in fashion at this particular time.

The owners looked at each other's buildings, and the architects were inspired by each other. If the project allowed for higher expenses, they could supply it with more decorations. Others had to settle for simpler façades.

Contradictive styles

Towards the end of the town walk, we come to a rather simple building: Apotekergata (the Pharmacy Street) No. 5. This cannot be an Art Nouveau building, can it? Zero ornaments!

Yes, this is also considered to be in Art Nouveau style, albeit of a slightly different kind.

Signe asks us to notice how the building follows the landscape: along the pavement, which descends the street, the doors and windows follow the same way, creating a somewhat untidy façade, since this leads to uneven and asymmetrical distances between the windows. This is probably a characteristic detail from the Art Nouveau style, which, like nature, is not always straight and symmetrical.

Just when you think you have got one thing figured out, something else comes along and messes it up.

Maybe you will just have to keep on walking, look for a couple of hours more – and wonder.