PAGON: Scandinavian Avant-Garde Architecture 1945-1956

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Through the 1940s and 1950s, PAGON (Progressive Architects Group Oslo Norway) was an alliance of young CIAM-affiliated Norwegian architects known for their innovative joint projects. As a group, PAGON went on to become largely overlooked in the history of modern architecture, even though its individual members which included Sverre Fehn, Jrn Utzon, Arne Korsmo, and Christian Norberg-Schulz became defining figures in Scandinavian and international modernism. This book tells the story of PAGON for the first time, offering an impressive account of the groups projects, buildings, and approach, and demonstrating why PAGONs projects are ripe for reappraisal in the international history of modern architecture. It shows how PAGONs architecture constitutes a unique continuity between the Scandinavian functionalism of the late 1930s and the modern movement in the US, and an important transitional stage before the emergence of the better-known neo-avant-garde groups within CIAM and Team 10. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, which brings to light the work of significant yet overlooked modernist architects, this book fills a gap in our understanding of mid-century modern architecture and highlights the internationally diverse nature of the modern movement.

Author Bio

Espen Johnsen is Professor in Art History, in the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, at the University of Oslo, Norway.