Sigurd Lewerentz

Sigurd Lewerentz was born on December 19, 1885, in Sandö, Västernorrland. After graduating in mechanical engineering from Chalmers in Gothenburg, he studied architecture in Germany and Stockholm, co-winning the 1915 Woodland Cemetery competition with Gunnar Asplund.

While Asplund pursued public commissions, Lewerentz maintained an uncompromising, enigmatic independence, designing the sublime Resurrection Chapel (1925) and operating an industrial metal window factory (Idesta). In his late seventies and eighties, he created two raw brick masterpieces: St. Mark's Church in Björkhagen (1960) and St. Peter's Church in Klippan (1966), laying rough-textured bricks with thick mortar joints without cutting a single brick, revered by architects worldwide as holy shrines of material honesty.