Eric Norin on how the Architecture Uprising Movement is Changing the Political Landscape in Sweden

As the Vice President of the Swedish Architecture Uprising (Arkitekturupproret), Eric Norin is a strong proponent of humane and harmonious architecture and city planning, and has appeared in numerous debates on architecture in Swedish media.
Norin works as a professional architect within the classical tradition, and runs his own architecture firm Tradition Arkitekter, specializing in new classical production and renovation.
He argues that city planning is a democratic matter and that we must start developing greater democratic basis for what is being built.
Surveys clearly show that people generally prefer classical and beautiful buildings, and Norin stresses that people ought to act according to their architectural preferences: Buy new classical houses and visit stores in classical buildings!
As social media has made the architecture debate more open, are we witnessing the fall of the modernist hegemony?
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Chapter markers:
01:47 Norin's path to becoming a classical architect
06:28 Self-learning at The Royal Academy
12:33 Founding The Architecture Uprising (Arkitekturupproret)
17:33 Key to success: before and after pictures
23:44 INTBAU education of classical architects
27:10 "True" architecture is ugly architecture
29:58 The definition of "classical architecture"
38:18 "Modern" vs "modernism"
46:33 How classical architecture strives towards nature
54:40 The patterns of history
59:33 A "rational" approach vs diversity
1:06:34 The Architecture Uprising is impacting politics
1:10:11 Everybody wants to live in Disney Land
1:15:26 Notre Dame fire: a gift to classical crafts
1:17:38 Eric Norin's greatest fear
1:23:33 Three sustainability-arguments for classical architecture
This episode featured Eric Norin & Carl Korsnes and was filmed and edited by Bork Nerdrum.
The centerpiece was a photograph of a street in Sundsvall, Sweden.
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[@javierpacheco8234]

Hope classicism grows, modernist ideology is biased. I also support this movement. I am 21 but I like traditional architecture more.

[@StoriesAroundUs]

Your movement will grow. Many years from now, people will see that you were right all along, and you will be celebrated as having fought the good fight. Keep going, for all of us!

[@Duececoupe]

Love this! This is the second video that I'm watching, first being Michael Diamant, very bright minds on these young shoulders and I wish them continued success! I love classic architecture, Edwardian, Victorian, Art Deco, Arts and Craft....beautiful architecture! Excellent video! 👍🏻👌🏼👏🏻 Greetings from a Swede in Glasgow!

[@Uncouth]

Great interview with a very well spoken and intelligent young man! 👍🏻

[@stephaningleby8024]

Another beautiful Scandinavian prince fighting for beauty!

[@sarahsarah2534]

Thank you for such a superb guest. We lovers of beauty are all discriminated and ostracised in this times of madness. High time to fight back.

[@CuteArwen]

I've recently move to Oslo from Italy, where I've lived in a small town of L'Aquila and travelled a lot. The architecture shocks me. Beautiful by content - Deichman library, Munch museum, National museum -and so terrible on the outside. In in a rich country that can afford better projects. It's good to hear I'm not crazy

[@Wraithninja1]

As more and more people live in urban places rather than amidst nature, I can't help but think modernist architecture movement has compounded the mental health crisis. So glad there is hope of sanity being restored to our urban environments.

[@javierpacheco8234]

Yes modern and contemporary architecture is creating a mental health crisis because we have to live with ugliness affecting our mental health and positivity.

[@marlan5470]

Having seen monstrosities being built around me as I was growing up, and having lived in a 70's home, that is indeed the case.

[@ArtPhotographerLindsay]

I agree, but also wonder if simply living in large urban areas on it's own contributes to the decline in mental health?

[@TheManHimself94]

Fantastic interview! Very informative and eye opening. I hope the Architecture Uprising continues to grow. Theyre doing great work and I wholeheartedly agree with their ideas, as a lover of vernacular and classical architecture myself

[@hatmanbuilder]

This movement need to become international!

[@TaeKinzel]

One country at a time

[@ruben4447]

International but each with their own traditional styles otherwise it will become the same as now.

[@hatmanbuilder]

@@ruben4447 Exactly! At least XIX century style, when a cuntry could take a style of an other country, but usually adapt it and turn it into something of its ownn. Sorry my English, I'm not the native speaker.

[@hubertflorianczyk7815]

Found a clip of you guys on IG and instantly searched for your podcast. Amazing job! Greetings from Poland and the UK!

[@LS-uj3fj]

People need to realise just how ideological the transition towards modern architecture was. Cost reduction and efficiency is always the main excuse to cram this style down our throats but there is so much more to it! Research Le Corbusier and CIAM.

[@echoes5476]

ça ira ça ira ça ira, we need to have faith and support this movement

[@macedonian_catholic_]

I pray that this movement will reach Greece, classicism originated here and our ancestors loved all things beautiful, I hope we will be like them and make our cities beautiful like in the past

[@guzy1971]

Merci beaucoup moment formidable

[@Luisa-cs2pd]

Bravo!

[@scottpark2395]

Wow, this is really fascinating. If someone in Edmonton, Canada, is involved, that would be great. We make fun of the box factory over in Canada as well. We make fun of the fact that they utilize city planners, home builders, engineers, and architects to create an abstract city, where they put all the houses in boxes, mix up the street names and numbers, and then add avenues and cul-de-sacs. Play the dice. Wow, City Council, you're really on to something. Can we spend 100 million $ on new bike lanes too? ...YES This is Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I'm not an architect yet always dreamed of being one and still plan on doing it. This is very inspiring.

[@BernardoFagot]

This is brilliant!

[@TaeKinzel]

We need this here in the USA

[@anonymousperson4943]

The part where Eric Norin mentioned that his teachers could not help him in classical architecture design just really shows that the teachers know nothing and have no consideration of their own legacy of their own amazing history and that's a shame....even if the project is hypothetical the teachers should encourage in making the student learn as much as possible...

[@esarge66]

I wish there were more choices than classicism and "ugly on purpose" contemporary (or whatever it is called). In my town, A large cubic building with randomly placed windows and all white metal cladding that looks cheap (even though I'm sure it was expensive) landed with no context like a space freighter. The architects seem proud of its shameless imposing "statement" (there is no such thing as beauty?). I would like to see a return of adventurous ornament and friendliness in architecture. In my view, architects have become salesmen of engineered systems that seek to design out skilled labor. They want the most sterile lines, that make a fetish of a certain manufactured "perfection." Personally I would like a revisiting of art nouveau, but that would require a revival of lost trades, a whole movement.

[@simonestreeter1518]

I'm glad you used the word 'friendliness.' Architecture now is about power, about the least friendly thing there is.

[@matthew_joshua_knisley_jaguar]

Modernist architecture is a form of kitsch wannabe futurism that belongs in Disneyland. Thanks for this insightful interview and keep up the great work.

[@calvinmondrago7397]

Excellent gentleman! Could somebody please tell me the correct spelling of the name of the city his photograph is from?

[@TheManHimself94]

Sundsvall in Sweden

[@simonestreeter1518]

This is riveting to listen to. And it becomes evident without being exactly spelled out, that another reason why traditional architecture was attacked after WWI exists. Eric said when he travels, he wants to know where he is, he wants to see their kind of buildings. Yes, and their kind of people too. I've never visited Sweden, but I can tell you I will not plan a visit there to see a lot of Arabs. For that, I will be very happy to go to Arabia.

[@crabb9966]

💯

[@CheeseBae]

I don't like referring to them as, "functionalists," as it suggests other styles of building aren't functional. I think a better name is "machinists," since their buildings came out of the Machine Age, and at that time people like to think of humans, cities, and entire nations as "machines." Even Le Corbusier said "a house is a machine for living in."

[@crabb9966]

What is the point of this alleged efficiency anyway. What is the goal? I would argue beauty should be a goal to strive towards. Make earth more like heaven.

[@CheeseBae]

@@crabb9966 They need to justify their existence, and they do that by claiming they're functional and other styles aren't. This, of course, isn't true. Building 100 story towers with glass curtain walls isn't functional at all, it's quite inefficient and complicated. They also ignore that beauty is functional because it creates feelings of comfort and relaxation in the users of the buildings. The idea that signs of craftsmanship aren't "functional" nor appreciated is a myth commonly believed by 20th century modernists.

[@ruben4447]

I think people decided to build ugly and simple because of the war. They thought they dont wanna waste so much money and time just for it to be destroyed. But now we live in times where there havent been wars for a long time. So i say we can build beautiful buildings again because now we also have technology that can help us design impressive things faster.

[@simonestreeter1518]

That isn't true, because whole cities were rebuilt exactly as they were before the war, like Cracow Poland and Dresden Germany.

[@ruben4447]

@@simonestreeter1518 Ok but those are exceptions. If you go to all major cities even european ones you will for sure see a whole district full of ugly buildings. There are always exceptions but the majority isnt like that.

[@simonestreeter1518]

I understand. My point is that the reason the reconstruction was often so ugly is not what you said: " They thought they dont wanna waste so much money and time just for it to be destroyed." I think there were other reasons, and the fact that some cities that were totally destroyed did decide to build back the same way shows that. Who should have been more broken in spirit than Dresden or Cracow? And yet, they managed to make something nice. I think there was pressure on most places to not take pride in their building. Pressure from those who wanted to ruin a sense of national pride.@@ruben4447

[@erikwahlberg448]

I disagree. Ariktekturupproret promotes copying older styles. If you like the 1800 arcitecture, at least make your own contemporary version of it!

[@sabinas8818]

This guy talks too much about himself and too little about architecture.