Sigurd Lewerentz

The flower kiosk at Malmö Cemetery, a tiny work completed by the 84-year-old Lewerentz in 1969, has concrete walls featuring plywood shutters and a steep roof cantilevered over the pavement with thin beams on the overside covered, like the rest of the roof, with copper. A door at the rear, seldom used, has been left without any steps so as not to disturb the surroundings. The electric wiring and lamps on the untreated concrete inside are arranged in an almost flower-like pattern that might seem affected had it not been done in such a straightforward way. Here Lewerentz broke all conventions, sceptical yet open at the same time and willing to reconsider everything. His reduction of vocabulary to bare essentials recalls Becket’s phrase, “The less there is to say, the better it is said.”