Nordic Architects in Campania in the second half of the Nineteenth Century: Andreas Clemmensen and the Rural House on the Amalfi Coast

Abstract

In the second half of the Nineteenth century, the new infrastructures and the new sensitivity towards the landscape transform the Sorrento-Amalfi coast, previously unrelated to the interests of the traveler architects, in a particularly sought-after destination, even more than Naples. And this happens above all thanks to enchanting natural sceneries and thanks to the presence of vernacular architecture, judged exemplary for clarity and simplicity, full expression of the aesthetic value of functionality. The overall change of interest in the destinations is also witnessed by the numerous Nordic architects, who in recent years have visited the Amalfi Coast, as part of an Italian itinerary aimed primarily at identifying formal cues to be reworked in professional practice. Among them, the Danish Andreas Lauritz Clemmensen (1852-1928) – exponent of national romanticism, trained at the drawing school of Christian Vilhelm Nielsen, and then at the Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademis – fully demonstrates the appeal of vernacular architecture over that generation of architects. His enthusiasm will give life to an interesting article entitled Hus ved Amalfi, published in 1905-06 on the prestigious magazine «Arkitekten», which is a parallel of the report on the Caprese architecture, made by Josef Hoffmann, in the best known article Architektonisches von der Insel Capri, published in 1897 on «Der Architekt».