Christensen & Co architects (CCO) were announced as winners of an international competition for the new city council building in Lund in Sweden. Transparency, staff/visitor synergy, innovation and sustainability are the key ambitions behind the new city hall due to be completed in 2012.
More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »
Naturum Laponia, a visitors center in Laponia, Sweden, was a competition entry designed by Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter last year. A naturum is a visitor centre with activities and exhibitions, located in connection with several of Sweden’s national parks and nature reserves.
More images and architect’s description after the break. read more »
As the key words “Sustainability, Innovation and Communication” cornerstones, the Swedish Pavilion, designed by SWECO, showcases how the nation’s spirit of innovation solves problems, improves the urban environment and living standards, and demonstrates the importance of communication under the new technology situation.
The pavilion comprises four cube-like structures that are arranged to form a cross-like space between them — a shape much like Sweden’s flag when seen from above.The outside walls show a city-like grid; the inside walls are covered with images of nature. These cubes are connected by elevated walkways, and house the exhibition,VIP areas, a shop, a café, and a large covered courtyard — room enough for everyone.
More images and description after the break. read more »
Schmidt hammer lassen architects have won a competition for a Congress and Hotel Centre on the central harbour front of Helsingborg in Sweden, which is a 15-minute ferry trip from Elsinore in Denmark. The property development competition was won in conjunction with Swedish developer Midroc and engineering/architect consultants Sweco.
Architect’s description and more images after the break. read more »
Stockholm Bypass (Förbifart Stockholm) is the new highway linking the southern and the northern parts of Stockholm, planned to be open in 2020. The major part of the project – 17 of the 21 kilometres – consists of tunnels. The length of the tunnels requires extra care in designing a safe and attractive environment.
Early conceptual sketches are now interpreted by researchers in behavioural science and traffic safety in cooperation with Rotstein Arkitekter, the architects in charge of the tunnel design. Daylight illumination in the tunnels, optical guidance based on curvature and designed underground domes (working as lungs with fresh air and natural light) are creating continuous flows and unique landmarks.
An early stage of the design concept is now featured in this autumn’s main exhibition at the Swedish Museum of Architecture, spotlighting infrastructure – road and rail traffic – and its connection with urban planning.
More images after the break. read more »
© Åke E:son Lindman
Architect: Elding Oscarson
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Structural Engineer: Konkret
Builder: Nils Bengtsson Bygg / Storskog Bygg & Montage
Floor Area: 160 sqm
Project Year: 2009
Photographer: Åke E:son Lindman
@ Åke E:son Lindman
Architect: Elding Oscarson
Location: Landskrona, Sweden
Structural Engineer: Konkret
Builder: Skånebygg
Gross Floor Area: 125 sqm
Construction Cost: 280,000 Euro
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman
Visiondivision’s latest project, a residential extension for two children in Stockholm, utilizes a landscape surface that is enhanced by elements around and inside the house. The young children will be spending most of their day enjoying the outdoors, so Visiondivision “wanted to give the two new citizens a safe base where they can explore their new surroundings and be able to appreciate it to the fullest.” By deliberately choosing inexpensive building components, such as windows and façade materials, the architects saved a bigger part of the budget to create as many playful elements as they could.
More about the Hill House after the break. read more »
© Åke E:son Lindman
Architects: Widjedal Racki Bergerhoff
Location: Ingarö-Evlinge, Sweden
Project Area: 250 sqm (interior) + 50 sqm (Studio)
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman
© Åke E:son Lindman
Architects: Widjedal Racki Bergerhoff
Location: Trosa, Sweden
Project Area: 240 sqm (interior) + 20 sqm (exterior refugee)
Project Year: 2006
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman
© Åke E:son Lindman
Architects: Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter
Location: Tidö-Lindö, Västerås, Sweden
Architects in charge: Bolle Tham & Martin Videgård Hansson
Collaborators: John Billberg, Fredrik Olsson, Claes Sörstedt, Måns Tham
Client: Björn and Berit Karlsson
Civil Engineering: Konkret Rådgivande Ingenjörer, Olle Norrman
Constructed Area: 200 sqm
Budget: $250,000 Euro
Project year: 2002
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman
© BIG
BIG, in collaboration with AKT, Tyréns and Transsolar, just won the competition for the World Village of Women Sports in Malmo, Sweden, a 100.000sqm complex for research, education and training of women’s sports.
Rather than a program organized around a sports arena disconnected from the city, the project becomes a town inside a town, offering rich public spaces as you can see on the renderings.
© BIG
The central space of the village offers a large area for public gathering, which can host professional football matches, concerts, conferences, exhibitions and flea markets. Around this space we find a series of sloped buildings, which reduce the visual impact of the complex to the adjacent neighborhood.
Between these buildings we find a pedestrian network around the main sports hall which plugs into the surrounding street networks as well as the interior galleries of Kronprinsen, turning it into a complete ecosystem of urban life.
More images and drawings after the break.
© Åke E:son Lindman
Architects: Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter
Location: Södermanland, Sweden
Architects in charge: Bolle Tham & Martin Videgård Hansson
Site Area: 1,006 sqm
Constructed Area: 360 sqm + roof terrace
Project year: 2006-2008
Client: Private
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman
Swedish architects Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter have done some interesting projects lately. So to finish this week’s Round Up, we bring you previously featured works from them, including an interesting concept for a camouflaged hotel and their ORDOS.
Archipelago house
The starting point is the direct relation to the dramatic archipelago landscape with the objective to offer within a simple frame – a platform – several diverse readings of the relation space-nature. Conceived as a light weight construction in wood and glass, this summerhouse is built in the outer Stockholm archipelago (read more…)
Double house
A house organized as a spiralling sequence of four large rooms in four levels. These big spaces without a fixed hierarchy let this house invite the inhabitants to organise their lives following their own preferences. The building envelope was defined by the full width, the maximum area and height fitting into the building regulations (read more…)
Kalmar Museum of Art
The new Kalmar Museum of Art is the result of a winning proposal in the open international competition in 2004 and will be inaugurated in 2007. Situated in the City Park of the renaissance town of Kalmar, it will be added to a restaurant pavilion dating from the 1930s by Swedish modernist architect Sven-Ivar Lind (read more…)
Tree hotel
The concept is to create a shelter up in the trees, a lightweight aluminum structure hung around a tree trunk, boxes clad in mirrored glass, 4×4×4 meters. The exterior reflects the surroundings and the sky, creating a camouflaged refuge. The interior is all made of plywood and the windows give a 360 degree view (read more…)
ORDOS 100
The starting point of this proposal is a vertical experience as a complement to the horizontal condition of the Ordos plateau, a new topography that can take full advantage of its surroundings. The house starts with the pool at lower garden level and reaches up to the top roof terrace open to the sky (read more…)
During an election year in Sweden, public squares are filled with temporary bases to display the political parties. Although only temporary structures, these “huts” play a vital role in the political networking system of the country. Such structures allow the politicians to meet and interact with the voters, answer any political questions and spread information, or even debate with those in neighbouring huts with different political ideas. “In the best case, such a structure is a manifestation of a parties’ political identity and priorities. It is therefore ironic that campaign-structures are similar, independent of what party they represent,” explained Antman Gorsetman Architects. In an effort to redesign the huts and allow each structure to embody their individual parties’ ideals, Antman Gorsetman Architects approached the political parties during the election year of 2006. The FI Party, the Feminist Initiative, was campaigning for the first time and decided to work with the architects to solidify their image in the public squares.
More about the election pavilion after the break.
ASAE (Annual Symposium for Architecture and Education), is an annual two-day seminar at the School of Architecture, Lund University in Lund, Sweden. It celebrates the beginning of the academic year. The aim is to keep an annual ongoing discussion about international education programs and architectural education strategies.
ASAE promotes encounters between different schools of architecture in Europe, America and other countries, taking into consideration the objectives of the School of Architecture in Lund: Architectural Design, Experiment and Construction . ASAE is meant to be a public event and the ambition is to also engage local and international architects, teachers, students, politicians etc. in an open discussion about architecture and design.
Right now, the Board of Education for the School of Architecture in Lund, Sweden, together with guest Professor Sir Peter Cook, are preparing for this year’s ASAE – Annual Symposium for Architecture and Education. It is a public event which will take place September 4th and 5th 2009.
We have shared architects’ different approaches to addressing the pressing food issue, from the highly conceptual designs to the more classical ideas. It seems that more competitions and clients require architects to implement gardens for harvesting food, or create an available food solution to accompany the structure. Statistics estimate that more than 80% of the population will live in cities by 2050 and the oil transportation needed to ship food from rural areas will only become more expensive. Soon, adding alternative farming methods won’t be an option; it will be a necessity if food for cities is to remain cost-efficient.
Plantagon, a Swedish-American company, has recently created their take on the vertical farm idea: a geodesic dome containing an urban Plantagon® greenhouse. The farm “will dramatically change the way we produce organic and functional food. It allows us to produce ecological with clean air and water inside urban environments, even major cities, cutting costs and environmental damage by eliminating transportation and deliver directly to consumers,” explained Plantagon.
More about the dome after the break. read more »
Visiondivision shared with us their design for the Royal Elephant Pavilion which was rewarded an honorable mention in a not so ordinary competition. Recently, the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav received two female elephants from the King and Queen of Thailand as a way to express their gratitude for the creation of a Buddhist pavilion in the north of Sweden. Stemming from this event, a competition was created to design the facilities for the two elephants.
More about the Elephant Pavilion after the break. read more »
Architects: Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter
Location: Stocksund, Stockholm, Sweden
Architects in charge: Bolle Tham & Martin Videgård Hansson
Constructed Area: 285 sqm + 25 sqm of roof terrace
Project year: 2004
Client: Private
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman
Architect: Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture AB
Location: Falsterbo, Sweden
Project team: Joakim Kaminsky,Fredrik Kjellgren, Oscar Arnklitt and Jonas Tjäder
Competition year: 2006
Design year: 2006-2008
Construction year: 2008-2009
Photographs: Kalle Sanner
