View of Interior for Paris Exhibition 1925, with Rugs 1824

This watercolor, ‘View of Interior for Paris Exhibition 1925, with Rugs,’ was made by Swedish architect Erik Gunnar Asplund. It shows a room from above, seemingly empty but for a few rugs. The use of watercolor is interesting. It’s a quick medium, good for sketching ideas, but also for creating a sense of light and atmosphere. Here, Asplund uses it to give the room a muted, almost dreamlike quality. This might be because the image depicts a design, not a built space. It represents the architect’s vision, rather than a recording of reality. The rugs are rendered with flat, graphic patterns. These were likely made using industrial processes, reflecting the rise of mass production in the 1920s. By depicting them so prominently, Asplund seems to be suggesting a new kind of domestic space, one that embraces machine-made objects without sacrificing beauty or craft. It’s a reminder that even in architecture, the details matter.