2010-08-20

That’s not Tudor

The Tudors is an Irish/Canadian produced historical fiction television series, based loosely upon the reign of English monarch Henry VIII, and is named after the Tudor dynasty, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII.

I noticed some time ago that for a brief moment in every episode one sees the top of Stockholm’s City Hall tower against a bright orange sky (title sequence).

The thing is that the Swedish capital's City Hall is hardly an example of Tudor architecture: Stockholm’s City Hall was designed by 20th century architect Ragnar Östberg, and completed in 1923.

Of course I don’t mind the television show’s production designer’s decision to use the tower’s silhouette in this way—but how did such an unlikely thing come about? How on earth did this peculiar and unconventional national romanticist 20th century building (in far away Stockholm, of all places) end up in the opening sequence of that Irish/Canadian television series about the Tudors?

2010-08-10

Villa Spies: Buy the Book

A limited number of copies of the book by Mikael Askergren (published in 1996) about the Villa Spies are now for sale from CINE Arkitektur at this address: info@cinearchitecture.com

The Villa Spies is the futurist summer villa built in 1969 for travel industry tycoon Simon Spies high up on a rock overlooking the many islands of the archipelago just outside the baltic shores of Sweden’s capital Stockholm. The book has been out of stock for years. The offer to buy a copy of the book from CINE Arkitektur is a rare opportunity.