Swedish Architecture

The Graham Foundation has announced the award of 64 new grants to individuals exploring innovative and interdisciplinary ideas that contribute critical perspectives on architecture and design in 2023.

For the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Nordic Countries Pavilion, representing Finland, Norway, and Sweden, will showcase Girjegumpi, an itinerant collective library project initiated by architect and artist Joar Nango. For over fifteen years, Joar Nango has been assembling an archive of books and materials exploring Indigenous Sámi architecture and design, traditional building knowledge, activism, and decoloniality. The Girjegumpi first opened to the public in 2018, becoming a welcoming space for gathering and promoting the Indigenous culture. In 2023, the library will travel to Venice, where it will be presented in the Nordic Countries Pavilion, designed by Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn.

Kim Utzon started his small architectural practice, Kim Utzon Arkitekter, in Copenhagen in 1987, choosing to work primarily in Denmark and neighboring Sweden, to keep close ties with family and be able to reflect effectively on regional building traditions. Kim is the youngest son of Jørn Utzon (1918-2008), the Pritzker Prize-winning architect whose most celebrated buildings include the Sydney Opera House (1973), Bagsværd Church near Copenhagen (1976), and the Kuwait National Assembly Building (1982). Kim’s brother Jan Utzon is a practicing architect and his sister Lin Utzon is a ceramic artist.

The Swedish architecture firm Tham & Videgård exhibits a broad selection of projects celebrating over twenty years in practice at the ArkDes—Centre for Architecture and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. For the first time, the studio’s work is being presented in its entirety, displaying in detail acclaimed buildings like the winning proposal for the Denfert art center in Paris and the 150-meter-tall +One Tower for the Swedish Exhibition in Gothenburg. From November 2022 to August 27, 2023, On: Architecture offers visitors a full-scale spatial experience involving models, new photography, and films – all set within a glass ground showroom.

Beyond the traditional boundaries of Scandinavian minimalism and Japanese wabi-sabi, the aesthetics from the far north and the far east have more parallels than one might think at first glance –it is not for nothing, after all, that they are so popularly combined with each other, creating the term Japandi.

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei unveiled the Arch, a cage-like sculpture in front of the National Museum of Stockholm. The 12-meter-tall stainless steel structure features at its center silhouettes of two people holding one another, appearing to break through the steel bars of the cage. The artwork was created to symbolize refugee stories and is seen as an ode to freedom. The sculpture is installed outside Nationalmuseum national gallery on the Blasienholmen peninsula in Stockholm’s archipelago. It will remain there for one year, after which, it will be moved to a yet undisclosed location in the city.

Henning Larsen revealed the design for World of Volvo, an experience centre for the Swedish car manufacturer that highlights the Scandinavian landscape and architectural traditions. Currently under construction, the project features a circular timber structure that takes on a modern approach to traditional construction material, while expressing openness and an intimate relationship with the landscape. The venue is set for completion in late 2023 and will open to visitors in 2024.

With the magnitude and urgency of the immediate Covid-19 crisis worldwide, efforts have been concentrated on saving lives, rather than focusing on concerns related to the road to Net-zero carbon. Net Zero carbon in regards to construction is defined as when the amount of carbon emissions associated with the construction of a building and its completion is zero. A zero-energy building will have an overall zero net energy consumption; the total amount of energy used by the building annually is equal to the amount of renewable energy generated on-site.

Construction broke ground on the Wendelstrand residential development that will transform an old quarry outside Gothenburg into an environmentally friendly and socially sustainable neighbourhood. Developed by Next Step Group and designed by Snøhetta and White Arkitekter, together with Tham & Videgård, Andreas Martin-Löf Architects and Liljewall, the project will feature 1000 homes of various typologies and a series of amenities. The first stage of the development debuts with the Snøhetta-designed Lakehouse, a communal building that blends with the landscape.

An integrated team led by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Marge Arkitekter have won a design competition for the redevelopment of Stockholm's central station, Sweden's largest transportation facility. The winning design aims to bring together several modes of transport in an integrated hub, while prioritizing pedestrian circulation and creating a new mixed-use urban district that combines old and new architecture.