Sven Markelius (1889 - 1972)

Sven Markelius was an advocate for Swedish Functionalism. Some of his most important commissions were the Students´ Union Building of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm 1928 – 1930, the Swedish pavilion at the World Fair in New York in 1939. He was also a member of the distinguished committee of architects occupied with the creation of the UN-building in New York at the beginning of the 1960’ies.

Markelius also designed furniture and interior decorations for most of his buildings and to this end he designed the textile prints as well. Several of his well-known patterns, such as ”Pythagoras”, ”Prism” (Prisma) and ”Timber” (Timmer) have been exhibited internationally as representatives for Swedish textile design during the 1950’ies.

Sven Markelius contributed with the pattern ”Set Square” for ”Signed Textile”. The set square is a typical attribute for an architect. This pattern he drew for a theatre curtain to be placed in his own People’s House in Linköping. According to Astrid Sampe, who often worked together with him on different decoration projects, he had a keen intuition for the harmony between the pattern repeat and the space of the room.

The pattern consists of a field of triangles in four different sizes. They are constantly repeated in a complex play between light and dark, big and small. The variation of the sizes gives the pattern depth and movement, an impression that is enhanced if you view it at a distance. Here it is printed on modal satin.