SIGURD LEWERENTZ & BERNT NYBERG IN DIALOGUE

This publication takes a contemporary look at Bernt Nyberg's biography project on Sigurd Lewerentz, which shows the great Swedish architect from a new perspective in film, still images and sound recordings. The prevailing image of Sigurd Lewerentz is that of the "silent architect": opaque, reclusive, and reluctant to reveal the motivations behind his work. Through still images, film and hours of recorded interviews, the architect Bernt Nyberg presents us with a different view - that of an architect on site, captured in a dialogue among the workers, the materials and the contingencies of a design as it unfolds in space and time. Through the curious and experimental lens of a younger contemporary - an architect obsessed with film, and operating at the cutting edge of its technology - Lewerentz's discourse is shown to be one of praxis rather than theory, intensely interested in the consequences of construction. Nyberg was Lewerentz's first biographer, and he was aiming to make a documentary film and book. However, these plans were cut short by Nyberg's untimely death.