Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture by Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture

Arvinius + Orfeus

Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture

Arvinius + Orfeus

Contents

Texts: Foreword, Christer Larsson

The Pursuit of Happiness, Hans Ibelings

From Sustainability to Resilience, Ylva Frid

Kjellgren Kaminsky in Conversation with Gert Wingårdh

Projects: Strandbaden Dancehall

Villa Atrium

Supported Living For Young Adults

Lecor HQ

Pilgrimage Center

Lagerströmsplatsen Urban Redevelopment

Super Sustainable Gothenburg

105

Villa Bondö

112

Kollastaden School

127

DIY Chair

143

Kvillebäcken Apartment Building

150

Bicycle Tower

160

Öijared Hotel

171

Vallastaden Plus Energy Building

187

Vallastaden Row Houses

192

Öster Mälarstrand School

198

Neden

206

Sea Rescue Station

210

Sundbyberg Apartment Tower

219

Rosendal Apartment Building

230

Gustavslund Row Houses

240

Project Index

252

Christer Larsson is city architect of Malmรถ and professor at the School of Architecture in Lund. In 2015 he was appointed by the Swedish government to propose a new architecture policy. He is a member of the board The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Foreword

Christer Larsson

My faith in the force of architecture, form and design is genuine. I think that architects can change the world, or a least our daily living environment. It is clear to me that architecture and design contribute to solutions in the long-term perspective. For far too long, architecture has been seen as a surface – as decorations that can be added at the end of a process, instead of as a powerful tool initself. We therefore need architects like Kjellgren Kaminsky, who believe that their work can contribute to solutions to the challenges we face when it comes to climate, technological development and urbanisation. This book summarises Kjellgren Kaminsky’s first ten years of work. During these ten years the world and Sweden have changed profoundly, as we have seen major societal challenges such as urbanisation, climate change and the shortage of housing. It is in this context that the projects in this book should be seen. Lagerströmsplatsen Urban Redevelopment proposes a strategy for urban isation where an overlooked space dominated by cars is filled with life, creating a new and denser city with a mix of new and old buildings, work places and housing. Öijared hotel suggests a sustainable answer to new demands for faster building processes and prefabrication, offering an energy efficient off-grid building constructed by wooden modules. Kollaskolan functions not only as a school, but as the social hub of the new urban area it’s situated in. It is also one of Sweden’s largest passive houses. These projects show that architecture, its shape and design, can be part of the solution to meet the challenges of these past ten years. From an international perspective, I believe Swedish architects are among the best in the world on sustainable development and that we have something to sell! My view is that architects can also meet society’s challenges – not only by creating sensual spatial experiences, which in itself is important, but also in affecting our environment and everyday lives in a broader sense. An example of this is how Kjellgren Kaminsky’s KAN project – an initiative where refugees with engineering and architecture backgrounds are being helped to become integrated into the Swedish labour market – has changed the lives of twenty-five refugees who have found work within their professions as a result of the program. As we see the everyday effects of globalisation, increased segregation, poor health and declining attractiveness in several cities, interest for how architecture can help empowering the residents of these areas is increasing. It is important to realise that it is the human who should be in focus, and that we should speak of not what architecture is, but what it does with our lives. It’s time to put focus on the importance of architecture, how it actually can help solving these issues, because when a holistic approach with humans as the starting point is utilised for architecture and design, it can combat exclusion, poor health and diminishing social engagement. It is a question of democracy.

Hans Ibelings is an architectural historian lecturing at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. He is author of several books, and has been the editor and publisher of The Architecture Observer since 2012.

The Pursuit of Happiness – Poetry and Pragmatism

Hans Ibelings

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented his cabinet after his election in 2015, a reporter asked him why having as many female as male ministers was important for him. Trudeau’s immediate response was: “Because it is 2015.” It was perhaps a non-answer to a non-question, but thinking about it, it is one that works for many topics of contemporary life that don’t need any further elaboration or discussion. One can for instance assess many aspects of the work and attitude of Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects as typically 21st century. Several architectural topics that had to be explicitly addressed until recently are now finally becoming common sense. One of those is sustainability, although it has yet to become the norm by the profession as a whole in the same way as, say, it is self-evident that architects have no choice but to take into account the law of gravitation. (No single website of an architect boasts their expertise in dealing with gravity, but many still go out of their way to stress their expertise in making sustainable architecture.) For Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky, however, it seems like any reference to sustainability is stating the obvious: “We think of our legacy. Therefore we aim to design sustainable buildings that will stand for centuries to come. Buildings that hopefully will make people happy and have a minimised ecological footprint. Doing so we hope we can help leaving a better planet to the next generation.” The website of the office contains another reference to sustainability, and a brief mention of the office’s involvement in a think tank called Super Sustainable. And there are several projects, including proposals for making Gothenburg and Stockholm more sustainable, which reveal the intentions of the office. But that’s about it: because it is 2017 and everybody should care about the ecological impact of their behaviour and actions. KKA’s architecture is sustainable in a similar way as it is watertight. It may not always be easy to achieve, but they manage to succeed and they are not making a big deal out of it – even when they manage to achieve the standard of passive houses, with a high energy efficiency and very low energy consumption. “Passive house” is a literal translation of the German passivehouse, which is a catchall term for all architecture – not only houses – with minimal energy use. In fact, the most important passive-house project of KKA is not a residential project but an educational one: the Kolla school and sports hall in the new residential district of Kungsbacka, just outside of Gothenburg. And the low energy consumption is just one of many aspects that have to be taken into account when creating such a building, which is first and foremost an environment that enables learning and socializing, and makes people happy. Building a better planet is no small ambition, yet Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky are also practising architecture in a disarmingly casual and modest way. An excellent illustration of their modesty is the hotel for the Öijared Country Club, which is an extension of one of Gert Wingårdh’s early projects: a partially buried club house which sits in the middle of four golf courses. Wingårdh’s original building (in both senses of the word) cleverly plays out the contradictions between nature and art in an environment where the artificiality of a golf course, with its manicured greens, bunkers and water features, meets the naturalness of the woodlands of the Nääs Slott estate. Nearly 30 years ago, Wingårdh designed his building with more than a hint of Frank Lloyd Wright. Even if architecture is by definition not natural, the lavish use 23

of stone in the interior is, to paraphrase the title of Henry-Russell Hitchcock’s book on Wright, very much in the nature of materials. Kjellgren and Kaminsky (both of whom have worked for Wingårdh) have carefully renovated the clubhouse, which has aged gracefully, without making fundamental changes, and have retouched the interior by renewing the upholstery and adding some custom-made furniture. Their extension with two levels of hotel rooms contains subtle references to the clubhouse, for instance in the continuation of a similar colour palette. While the Wingårdh clubhouse is immersed in the land, the KKA hotel is “touching the earth lightly,” to use Glenn Murcutt’s words. It consists of large prefabricated wooden modules with built-in furniture, which came to the building site in one piece, and have been assembled, stacked and covered with a screen of vertical ribs. These ribs are made of planks, sewn from trees of the surrounding woodlands. The pattern of stripes is interrupted by the windows, to offer the hotel guests unobstructed views. Aside from guest rooms, the hotel contains a casual, double-height space that feels more like a living room than the semi-public space a hotel lobby tends to be. The walls are covered with inexpensive wooden boards and finished with four different shades of transparent varnish. The homey atmosphere is underlined by a fireplace, curtains, bookshelves and the sofa chairs, which were specifically designed for this interior. The new furniture almost looks inconspicuous, evoking a refreshing oldfashionedness not dissimilar to what one can find in the furniture and fabric design of the Austrian-Swedish master Josef Frank. The same furniture, colours and atmosphere fill the rooms, which are more like small apartments that in some cases have secondary bedrooms with built-in bunk beds. The hotel exemplifies Kjellgren and Kaminsky’s approach to architecture, as it encompasses every scale of the design: building, interiors and furniture. It also shows their combination of a pragmatic stance – in this case basing their design on modular units which were in production even before it was completely clear what the building would exactly become – with an undeniably poetic touch of blending the building in the woodland. And perhaps not irrelevantly, it is off the grid. But again, KKA only mentions this in passing. The architecture of Kjellgren and Kaminsky not only balances poetry and pragmatism, but also takes into account the needs of the client and the context. Like sustainability should be a no-brainer, the same is true with addressing the wishes of clients and users. And obviously, aside from some famous anecdotal evidence of architects who were turning deaf ears to their clients, it has always been part and parcel of the profession of architecture to listen to the people who have to live in and with their creations. Yet this now seems to be at the very forefront of the profession again, judged by the frequency and popularity of terms such as “participation” and “bottom-up co-creation.” Just as with KKA’s attitude towards sustainability, their sensitivity to what the clients and users care for is partly a generational issue. This interest for the daily existence of architecture can be situated in the context of an international reaction to the global star architects infatuation with their own signature version of iconic architecture. Even if Kjellgren and Kaminsky are certainly not effacing themselves or their design, their work is not driven by big egos or the wish to make an impression. Their egos are definitely big enough to make a monograph after a decade of working together but not too big for listening to the wishes of their clients, and aiming to understand what they really want and need. To them, listening is another example of “because it is the 21st century.” No matter how important the well-being of the users of their architecture is, and no matter how considerate 24

they are about the ecological impact of their intervention, Kjellgren and Kaminsky are and will remain architects. They contribute to people’s well-being and to the world by making architecture. The combination of contained egos, an ear for clients’ wishes and an ethical sense of legacy all adds to the diversity of KKA’s work – most importantly because people and their wishes are always different. If there is a common thread in all of their work, it can be found in their malleable approach and their agility to adapt to different situations. In this respect, Kjellgren and Kaminsky are not building a tight oeuvre of interrelated works but a sequence of distinctive projects that are each adapted to the specificities of the context, circumstances and clients. As the appearance of KKA’s architecture and urban planning is not the immutable result of a two-personal style, but rather the outcome of the specific circumstances, it makes their work intriguingly chameleonic. This is not meant as a criticism, quite the opposite: the chameleon has an amazing capability of adapting itself to a wide variety of situations. Similarly, it is a quality of KKA’s architecture that it stands out for fitting and blending in, without reverting to the traditional tactics of mimicry, or by paying a gratuitous lip service to the context. KKA’s projects have a distinct and recognisable presence in the urban and natural landscape. Yet there is no such thing as a signature style that makes all of their projects instantly recognisable as a KKA project. All KKA projects differ from each other as they are not conceived in splendid isolation from external influences, but the outcome of the specific circumstances from which they originate. To return to Öijared once more, it is striking to see how different the furniture made for the hotel is in comparison to the autonomous furniture designs of KKA, such as the sail-and-rope chair Hello Sailor, or the Pompous Armchair – an impressive, and impressively comfortable, recliner. Pieces like those would be too ostentatious for the hotel, and would disrupt the blissful harmony of the place. In line with their pursuit of happiness, KKA aims to strip architecture of the impregnable aloofness it often has. By adding subtle forms of ornamentation to projects, their architecture becomes more relatable. A small but important aspect of KKA’s first project, the competition-winning design for the Falsterbo Dance Hall, was the patterning of the facade-panels, which gently echoe the window frames of the original dance hall that was destroyed in a fire. Other examples of KKA’s interest in patterns are the speckles of white bricks in the outer walls of the Kollastaden School, which also contain a small number of bricks decorated by students. And the schoolyard side of the school consists of colourful checkerboard patterns of panels. These are all light touches that perk up the architecture. Underneath this buoyed-up appearance lies a remarkable conceptual clarity. All projects are based on a logical basis of strong ideas, which are capable of driving the design process without reductively imposing its outcome, or distracting people from enjoying the buildings. The fact that almost every KKA project, large or small, can be summarised in the form of an emblematic diagram is an indication of this conceptual foundation; yet the final result is always more than a built version of the initial concept. Again, here is a parallel with their approach to sustainability. Kjellgren and Kaminsky aren’t blowing their own trumpet on this point either. Though modest, or perhaps even indifferent to showing off, their designs stand for themselves as proof of how clever they and their work actually are. 25

Ylva Frid is a practicing architect and a frequent writer on architecture. She is part of Bach arkitekter, a practice concentrated around innovative solutions for existing buildings and heritage management under the platform Second Futureâ&#x201E;˘.

From Sustainability to Resilience

Ylva Frid

Gothenburg 2008. It is quiet in Sweden’s second largest city. There are a few quaint places bustling with activity, but it’s not much. da Matteo, one of the first places that served espresso in town, has just opened a second, larger coffee shop and roastery on Vallgatan. They store the coffee beans in large jute sacks that are stacked among the coffee tables. On Magasinsgatan, just around the corner, the vintage shop Miss Ragtime has just added a collection of newly produced organic clothing to their selection of goods. Further down the street, the restaurant Hello Monkey has just opened. The open courtyard along Magasinsgatan – which nowadays has grown into a diverse amalgamation of two da Matteo coffee shops, trendy shops like Artilleriet, Grandpa and Acne jeans, food trucks and markets – is still just an ordinary, grey parking place. A non-place. As were many other places at that time. Bar Centro, where people sit today on the pavement of Kyrkogatan having perfect espressos, is six years away from being open. The bar Kino in the basement of Hagabion does not exist. Instagram is not invented. Dubbel Dubbel, the restaurant that made dumplings a hype, is not yet open. What was happening in Gothenburg at that time? It was raining. New urban blocks filled the gap sites at the former dry dock of Eriksberg. Rather plain urban blocks, but still. The River City Workshop in 2011, an international event that initiated the transformation of the city’s inner harbour, is still three years away. This was probably the last stains of evidence from the backwash of the huge crisis that had paralysed the city when the shipbuilding industries collapsed some decades ago. I guess no one really thought about it in that way. It was the reason for the tentative mood of the city, the vague feeling that something was lost and needed to be found. A city searching for a new narrative. What was it supposed to be, when it could no longer be the worker city it used to? When the container ships no longer docked along the shorelines and no brand new 460,000-deadweight-tonnage tank ships sailed off from the shipyards? Elsewhere in Europe, things were moving progressively forward in terms of the economy, the scale of buildings and the number of foam models that flooded the floors of architectural offices where people worked night and day with conceptualising new projects. These were offices in capital letters – OMA, MDRDV, BIG, UN Studio – with research departments of their own that produced books, diagrams and ideas, and seemed to be able to just throw the whole world into a blender and still come out with something useful after turning all previous truths upside down. In Gothenburg, however, there were no architectural practices of this kind. In 2008, a video appeared on Youtube (this video channel itself being a new phenomenon), in which Bjarke Ingels displayed the concept for a new building they were making. Bjarke described the ideas around the project as he walked among large foam models within the office. He stopped by an empty, white table. As he sweeped his hands over it, colourful diagrams of the building started to appear in the air – animated 3d-diagrams mixed into the video – and as he seemingly pushed them, they adjusted to his movements while he talked. It all started with a regular, enclosed urban block, which step by step twisted, winded and reshaped as Bjarke developed the line about what a contemporary urban block should provide to its surroundings. With his final hand gesture, the southern corner was squeezed down to the ground, finalising the epic figure 27

“8” of this housing project, completed in 2010. Without knowing precisely what, it was immediately clear that something in this whole concept was really important. Greater than any words, this video still captures the spirit of those years. When Kjellgren Kaminsky Architects entered the scene in Gothenburg in 2007, they had the wind at their backs. Anyone who could recognise the scent of that spirit could see that immediately. Just like someone filling a room with the fragrance of a perfume. The smell of speed, success and achievements. The spirit of Dutch diagrams. The pre-2008-crisis-energy. The Rem Koolhaas-energy. The fast-forward flawless-energy. The world was introduced to KKA with a video: “Gothenburg, a Super Sustainable City.” In this ten-minute-long sequence, a vision of a future Gothenburg was presented, addressing the huge challenge of finding a sustainable way to arrange human life with a new urban approach. Food production, windmills and rain gardens were integrated into the urban fabric. The water areas, which fill a lot of the urban territory, were reconsidered as part of the city’s public space. Farmers, pedestrians and cyclists shared the same space. This new kind of urbanity was presented with a casual, bright and contemporary design. This was architecture accompanied with the feeling of a new pair of white sneakers: comfortable, flawless and designed to move fast. The visual language and the diagrammatic clarity had a similar spirit as the 8-house video, but KKA added another dimension that made it something more than just a new style: sustainability. The actual content of this video, the vision itself, was based on a future vision of Gothenburg that was written by the local authorities. But until then it was all just a text document. Now, the paper tiger had come to life and started to run, as the video illustrated how this vision could actually look. It immediately created a sense of certitude that this concept was to be applied to city after city, until they were all super sustainable. Gothenburg was just the start. The video formed one part of a larger think-tank project that also included exhibitions, lectures, blog posts and visualisations – all made with the same bright and playful attitude towards the crucial issues of ecological sustainability. Both founders, Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky, had gained some experience from working in open, international and exploring environments. Joakim from UN Studio in Amsterdam, where trainees and senior architects were all working together in a constant search for new methods and concepts. Fredrik from a master class at the Academy of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, where many different fields of design were represented among the students. After a bachelor’s degree in architecture, Fredrik added these two years of furniture design to his education – something that has contributed to a level of detailing and awareness of the small-scale in his work as an architect. After having spent some years in Holland, Joakim decided to return to his hometown to work at his own practice Winstart, despite offers of employment from Rem Koolhaas and UN Studio. He teamed up with Fredrik, and as they worked for a while at Wingårdhs, they made plans to enter all architectural competitions that came their way until they would make a winning entry, and using that as a starting-point for an office. They won on their first try. Environmental issues and sustainability were still something that many people laughed about. Fredrik and Joakim were told more than once that they should quit that “geeky sustainability thing” and instead just show the world their abilities as great designers. But the KKA founders never doubted that they could do both: setting new standards for sustainability and developing contemporary architecture. And before they knew it, sustainability became the framework over the following years, while they were establishing their office. 28

In Sweden, their first project ideas were met with silence. But internationally, they were one of the most published Swedish offices on the web and in magazines. In 2008, they were on the top 10-list of Dezeen, and around the same time they went to Silicon Valley to pick up a prestigious American Innovation Award. The big difference between dreamers and doers is the latter’s ability to do the homework. From the very start, KKA always backed their rainbow visions with practical knowledge of the technical and infrastructural solutions. For example, in 2009 Joakim was one of the first architects in Sweden to become a certified passive-house builder. The certification requires passing an examination on a special theoretical education, and afterwards there are regular follow-ups to ensure that creating passive-house buildings is still an active part of the person’s professional discourse. To have this detailed and professional knowledge about how the volume, window area and sun screening affect a building’s energy consumption is crucial in order to control all parts of the design and reach a high level of architecture. Looking back, it is clear that KKA found a vacant spot in the Swedish scene of architecture and took advantage of it. Nowadays, there is no office, enterprise or authority that lacks “sustainability” in its branding concepts, but in 2008 this was still a futuristic utopia. Yet Fredrik and Joakim had conviction in their approach, even when their peers and clients did not. There were moments when their clients stated that they definitely did not want any of this “sustainability bullshit.” But Fredrik and Joakim pushed on with their projects as intended, and often brought sustainability into them with clients unaware of it. That required hard work, stubbornness and one or two white lies, but it worked out. Step by step, the office turned into a distinct voice on the architecture scene, where inventive design now came hand in hand with a raised level of ecological performance. This had a defined impact on their surroundings. Other offices realised that they had to step up, and clients and authorities were challenged on where they placed their level of ambition – which clearly contributed to pushing the environmental concerns forward in the whole line of business. In 2014, the Kollastaden School outside of Gothenburg was completed. Being the largest passive-house school ever constructed in Sweden, it is standing proof that KKA has learnt to master the art of energy efficient building, and at the same time reaches a level of detail that is rare for a public building in Sweden. All previous experiences with passive-house buildings had shaped an effortless way of dealing with the design parameters of this project. To have sustainability as a design parameter means that some decisions need to be taken at a very early stage to reach the maximum performance and to avoid problems that would arise from trying to solve them with a fixed design. The geometry of the roofs of the Kollastaden School are designed for optimising the harvesting of solar energy, the angles in the plan minimise the facade surface in relation to its area plan, and the number of windows are balanced with the energy calculation. Altogether, these elements create a building that has a very low energy consumption and for part of the year provides an energy surplus from its solar-panel roof that is then distributed through the power grid. The correspondence between the design and the sustainability features are so intertwined that it’s not possible to separate them from each other. And the shape of the building is just as much a way to frame the schoolyard, making it a clearly defined and protected space for the children. Without this professional knowledge, projects with high ambitions of sustainability can easily become like a Christmas tree where all environmental devices simply are added 29

to maximise its performance. Here, all those decisions were just a natural starting-point of the design process, leaving time and energy to work with the details and expression of the architecture. By the time the school was completed, the office had grown from the two founders to more than twenty employees. It was probably of significance that Gothenburg was in this somewhat sleepy condition when they started, since that search for a new narrative, a new direction, created openings for new ideas. The incomplete often bears both problems and possibilities. For KKA, it was a conscious decision to remain in Gothenburg, where they could keep a distance from the capital. This made it possible for them to control their growth, away from the noise, and really find out who they wanted to be and how they wanted to work. It wasn’t until 2016 that they opened their Stockholm office. In November 2016, the temperature in the Arctic was twenty degrees warmer than normally. The situation disturbed the models and scenarios that leading climate researchers had made so far – it shouldn’t have happened that fast according to them. In a broadcasted interview with Swedish environmental professor Johan Rockström, he explained how this phenomenon might indicate that we have reached a point of no return for global warming. A point where the speed of rising temperature might be much higher than anticipated, and that there is no return from a drastically changed climate on the earth. We have since long argued about the existence of climate change and how to deal with it, yet the situation continues to worsen. The question now is no longer if we can prevent global warming, but rather if we can manage to avoid the worst scenarios. Somewhere along this line, there was a point when “resilience” started to replace “sustainability” as the new top relevant feature of urban and building design. The word “sustainability” – to sustain, to keep things the way they are – belongs to a time when it was still possible to prevent something, which now seems like a distant prospect. To be resilient means instead to be prepared, to have the capacity, flexibility and elasticity to adapt to new conditions. These conditions contain a much broader spectrum of scenarios than we used to prepare for. In 2016, KKA made a winning competition entry for a new urban block in Kristineberg, Vallentuna. For this project, resilience was the keyword. The proposal addressed the need to provide cities with local food production, and transport systems that will operate even in case of storms, power outages and disturbances in the larger transport net. “By combining different types of transport based on renewable and local energy sources such as bicycles, cargo bicycles and electric cars, the ability to transport is secured even in the event of a crisis.” The project for the Swedish Sea Rescue Society, to be completed in 2018, also has a resilient approach in its design. The building can remain in operation even under extreme weather conditions: “The building is designed as a plus energy house with minimal need for technical systems. Nothing should prevent the lifeguards from doing what is most important – to always, in all conditions, be ready to save lives.” In the renders of the Super Sustainable City from 2007, the weather is light and sunny with hot air balloons in the air. The images of the SSRS, on the other hand, show a stormy blue sky over dark water. In ten years’ time, the atmospheres in the renders have changed. Is the rain coming in, or is it perhaps already upon us? At this point in history, it is easy to be disappointed in those who laughed at sustainability in 2008. At that time, there were still so many options for a different path forward, avoiding some of the challenges that we are now inevitably 30

facing. But disappointment is not a useful approach in the search for solutions. Perhaps this is one of the keys to how KKA came to prosper: they always look forward, continually searching for new answers, and have the ability to envision solutions where others see problems.

Kjellgren Kaminsky in Conversation with

GW - How are you different from me?

Gert Wingårdh FK - Even though we started our careers working for

you, we were shaped as architects in another time. GW - Gert Wingårdh FK - Fredrik Kjellgren JK - Joakim Kaminsky

GW - I agree, but let me ask about this in another way:

are you one or two generations younger than me as architects? FK - Off the top of my head, two. GW - I believe so, too. I think the generation immedi-

ately following mine was in somewhat of opposition to my work, whereas your generation is using the same starting points that I have, but taking other directions. There is a postmodern side to your work, which I find very different from your peers. In 1972, I broke loose from my generation. I found the prevailing rationality and functionalism terribly boring and knew I had to do something different. Robert Venturi wrote that he liked to draw buildings that you could put an awning and a flower box on, without ruining the architecture. I think the postmodern philosophy and ideas are still valid, not as formalistic elements but as an attitude, and I believe you are capable of working with this, unlike the generation between us. In the Vetlanda group home for instance, there’s a vaulted window as an acceptance of daily life, refined. It’s an individualisation too, since there’s only one window. And you can put a flower box on it. JK - I think humour has a place in architecture. We are seldom satisfied with the simple approach. We want so much, we can’t settle with the simple solution. In our dialogue, we are also interested in topics beyond the aesthetics of architecture, like sustainability, history and the stories of people interacting with the designs. GW - Looking at the Bondö entrance facade, I don’t

think many other architects would show that tip of the gabled roof. How have you come to that solution, and whose idea was it? Gert Wingårdh, architect SAR, has been working as an architect for 40 years, and has designed numerous buildings. He is the only architect who has received the Kasper Salin Award five times, and he also received an honorary doctorate degree from Chalmers University of Technology in 1999.

FK - I think most often we don’t remember whose idea something was, it’s born in the conversation, but as I remember it we thought that just making a modern barn wasn’t interesting enough. JK - Another answer to your initial question could be that we are two and you are one, so there’s a con-

tinuous discussion between us. A discussion that nowadays is often joined by other members of staff.

GW - Do you like setting your own limitations?

feeling that you like the ugly cute?

FK - Yes, but it was a battle. And we could only work at night, because in the daytime we were working for you.

FK - Yes, I think so, but it’s also about experimenta-

GW - Why is the building black? Is it because its pre-

tion, the urge to try things out. We started very young and still I couldn’t say we are mature architects, perhaps we will never be. It feels like we are still students with an office.

decessor burned down? Or in praise of shadows?

GW - So which approaches do you share? I have a

GW - I think that’s an incredibly nice approach,

FK - The latter, as a camouflage to fit in the forest. After it was built, I met an old conservative man walking his dog close to the building. He said that he liked it very much, because you don’t see it.

which I share. My attitude is still that it would be fun if I ever learned this job, but I’m not quite there yet.

GW - So Fredrik, which is your favourite project in

the book? JK - I think there are many things we share, one being

FK - We are not signature architects, the opposite rather.

FK - The pilgrimage center. I think we created a strong relation to the church, and the building has beautiful interior spaces; the high and narrow chapel overlooking the woods, and the double roof height café where you can fully appreciate the construction and roof of the building.

JK - Another similarity is that we both come from

GW - The building is slightly curved, why exactly this

Gothenburg, a harbour city looking out towards the world, but somewhat cut off from the main current of Stockholm. So I think here it is easier to define your own agenda as an architect – or as a musician or an artist for that matter.

rounding?

that we have different answers to different questions. I think you have that, too. There are some things we like, of course, but there is no formula for our designs.

GW - I visited your first project, the Mirage dancehall,

when I was on the Kasper Salin jury. Unfortunately, it smelled of hangover, wine and puke. FK - Well, it’s a nightclub so I guess it’s working. This project formed our office. We decided to do ten competitions and if we didn’t win one we would get out of business. Luckily, we won on our first try. JK - For the design, we were interested both in the old building that had burnt down and the people that had used it. Falsterbo is the most exclusive summer vacation area in Sweden and the audience of the dancehall is affluent. So we thought visiting the club was about seeing and being seen in an exclusive environment, and thus came the mirrors and the grand staircase. FK - To relate to the old dancehall, we set out our own

restrictions, limiting the size of the new building to the square footprint of the old one. 33

JK - Because there’s a stipulated minimum distance from the church, so we decided to put our building on that circumference. So all interior walls point towards the church, which become the focal point of the building. GW - How did you go about the roof? It’s not often one sees such a section, and it reminds me of Vandalorum by Renzo Piano. FK - It’s inspired by the local building tradition, with large gable roofs sheltering from snow and rain, but divided in two hoovering sheets and then folded up by the entrances. GW - And Joakim’s favourite? JK - If I must choose one, it would be the DIY chairs. GW - Such a tiny project?   JK - Yes, it was such a joyful process building them ourselves over a weekend and to be in total control. Then our idea was to go from this tiny scale to a global one, sharing the drawings so that anyone

anywhere could build their own copy of a chair using scrap material and simple hand tools. GW - How did this villa become round? (Pointing at

Villa Nyberg) JK - This project started at a housing fair where we exhibited models of three dream houses, and a client wanted to build this one. There are two reasons behind the shape. Firstly, the circular shape is energy efficient. Secondly, you move in the building as a clock; you come home, cook dinner, relax, undress, sleep, use the bathroom and leave. Always in connection with the atrium and the changing light. GW - It’s the rat race as a house?

starting point. We were primarily interested in a compact energy and efficient volume for which the wing shape proved effective, and then it became the driver for creating the plan and interior spaces and flows. GW - Yes, I think Scharoun would have had another

starting point, but I think the result has similarities, such as complex social interior spaces adjusted to the flows of people. Now, on a more personal note. Fredrik, what’s Joakim’s strongest side? FK - He never gives up. And he’s a great conversation partner. Even though we don’t always agree, we share a foundation, a view on architecture.

JK - Exactly! GW - And Joakim, what are Fredrik’s main weakFK - It was also about making a passive house look

good, with larger windows and more interesting architecture than most passive houses we’d seen until then. So to take control of the process, we learned how to make our own energy calculations and detailing. We proved that our design was possible, and the house even ended up breaking a new record for air-tightness in Sweden. GW - Let’s have a look at Kollaskolan. The street

facade has a beautiful composition, with the stepping windows and their frames – something I would have been pretty satisfied to have designed myself. How did you come about that? Also, I’m thinking of a European architect when I see the plan drawings – can you guess who? JK - I have to think about the architect… For the facades, we usually have a pragmatic starting point to our aesthetics. So for Kollaskolan we had to use small windows, it being a passive house, and we wanted them to look more, let’s say, happy, so we added the frames. GW - In this project you have worked with colour, tell me about that. FK - We used soft, welcoming colours for the interior, and bolder colours for the courtyard. But generally, we prefer working with materiality and the colours of materials rather than with paint.

nesses? JK - He never answers my e-mails… No, honestly, sometimes I think he can fall in love with an idea and then it’s hard for him to let go, perhaps holding on to it for too long. GW - Do you complement each other? JK - Yes, but I think there are no clear dividing lines, such as one of us being more creative and one more pragmatic. It’s more complex than that. FK - We can switch roles, but usually I’m interested

in details and the overall strategy, with Joakim being somewhere in-between. Also, we both have a background in sports – me in sailing and Joakim in orienteering, which both are highly competitive and require a strategic mind. You have to think before you act in these sports. GW - But you must fight sometimes? FK - While working on the Super Sustainable Gothenburg project, we fought for half a year. I had this idea about building a new city on the river, while Joakim thought about boats and bridges. In the end, the project became stronger since we had analysed it from more angles. JK - I was finally convinced when I realised that the

JK - Did you think of Hans Scharoun? I see the sim-

ilarities with his work, but I think we had a different 34

present river shores are actually not historical, but the results of hundreds of years of land reclamations.

Then, making the final leap over the river seemed logical to me. Sometimes you need to find your own arguments for another person’s idea. GW - You started your office winning a competition,

are you still competing a lot? How do you go about that? JK - I believe the most important thing is to win with

good proposals, rather than winning often. Thinking like that changes your strategy. You don’t have to worry about being fashionable; instead, you can be honest and propose the unexpected. You might not win as often, but when you win it’s with something very interesting. Perhaps it’s not the best strategy for expanding the office quickly, but then again, that’s not our main goal. Another good thing with competitions is that you work within a bubble. You get a program and then for a couple of months there’s no contact with the client. This gives you time to develop a clear idea. FK - Then there’s the great challenge once you’ve won. How to implement the ideas. We used to see the winning proposal as a climax, from which the project could only become less satisfactory. To build the rendering. But over time we have realised that the following process can also make the project better. JK - Gert, I know you once said that a compromise is a failure. Ideally, you would never have to compromise with your clients; instead, you would work until you shared a vision. I think that is very true, but it takes time to learn. It’s something we are getting better at. GW - So let’s talk about Öijared, closing the circle

of our story. You have designed this hotel as an addition to the golf clubhouse drawn by me in 1986 and inaugurated 1988. How did you approach this “masterpiece”? And I know your member of staff Johan Brandström was very involved, how did you work with him? FK - Johan was a big part of this project. He joined into our conversation, so we were really three people behind the design. JK - We had three main ideas for relating to the clubhouse. Firstly , we understood that you had worked with a triangular grid, so we extended it and based our structure on it. Secondly, the clubhouse uses rustic materials, especially the stone covering 35

its interior surfaces, so we created a relationship using rustic wooden boards for our facade. Thirdly, the clubhouse is designed as a cave under the ground, so we thought that we should do the opposite and let the hotel float above the ground among the trees and birds. FK - Our other starting point was the programme. We had to work within a relatively strict budget using prefabricated wooden modules for the hotel rooms. Between the modules we introduced triangular spaces for services and social areas relating to the grid of the clubhouse. Along with the facade panelling made of local wood, this connects the building to the local context.

Strandbaden Dancehall

Falsterbo

In May 2006, the old dancehall in Falsterbo, Sweden was destroyed by a fire. The municipality launched an international architecture competition and subsequently announced Kjellgren Kaminsky as the winner. The plot is situated on the southern point of Falsterbo in a nature reserve surrounded by old pines, high sand dunes and the ocean. Kjellgren Kaminskyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal took precedent from the original dancehall; reflecting the position and facades of the old building and preserving the surrounding pine trees. The main aspiration for the facade was to envelop the building into the surroundings and reflect their beauty. The facades are clad in boards made of graphite-grey fiber cement and mirror glass placed in a pattern inspired by the windows of the old dance hall. The new building has the same footprint as its predecessor. In plan, it is cut diagonally by a two-story entrance hall connecting all the interior spaces. On the eastern side of the building are service spaces and storage, allowing a flow between the public rooms. The southern facade opens up to the terraces and the sea. The old dancehall solely consisted of a dance floor and a bar, but for the new building the program was extended to include two restaurants for 250 people, a kitchen, a room with a stage and a second floor with a roof terrace that can host 1500 people. Emphasis was put on designing spaces with extraordinary acoustic qualities. A custom-made damping wall was designed in collaboration with an acoustics expert. The wall consists of a black acoustic felt covered by white wooden boards of various dimensions, which creates a strong graphic language throughout the building. The design enables highly appreciated acoustic qualities during concerts.

Project - Strandbaden Dancehall

Drawings - Strandbaden Dancehall

Villa Atrium

BorlĂ¤nge

Situated by a lake in a pine forest in central Sweden, Villa Atrium’s concept was derived from an analogue clock, in the form of a circular plan with a central courtyard that encourages the inhabitants to experience different views and daylight conditions over the day as they move through the house. The rooms are placed around the courtyard in the order that they are used throughout the day. The living room and kitchen provide beautiful views of the nearby lake, while the more private areas such as the bedrooms and bathrooms are situated on the other side of the house, and have smaller windows with views towards the forest. The interior is bright yet neutral, with natural materials. As a passive house, Villa Atrium is well insulated and predominantly heated by the energy that is already present – energy that is mainly generated by body heat and household equipment. The round shape of the house also eliminates cold-bridges and reduces the enclosing wall area of the house, which also has the effect of reducing heat loss. The house is clad in pine boards that will weather and become grey like the trunks of the surrounding forest. The roof is clad in zinc and the roof terrace on the second level provides beautiful views of the lake and the surrounding nature. The building line steps up the hill, echoing the natural incline on the site. Eventually, the natural vegetation will crawl its way up to the building edge, allowing the house to settle and relax into the landscape.

Project - Villa Atrium

Drawings - Villa Atrium

Supported Living For Young Adults

Vetlanda

This house provided supported living for six young adults, and is located in the outskirts of the rural town of Vetlanda, about 350 km southwest of Stockholm. The design incorporates the inhabitantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; desire to avoid the appearance of a large complex, and instead opts for a scale similar to the surrounding villas and farmhouses. The result is a series of dwellings with pitched roofs, that give contemporary form through a reinterpretation of the existing context. The houses are gathered around a common dining room to highlight the advantages of communal living. The plans were developed by implementing the latest research conducted by graduate students and professors at the Chalmers School of Architecture, led by professor Inga Malmqvist. Echoing the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tradition of brick buildings, the six homes are clad in grey brick while the common areas are clad in black-painted wood. The roof is clad in aluzinc. Special parts of the building have been given a more refined detailing, such as the white-painted wooden ribbons on the private terraces, the brick sills and the articulated drainpipes. The building also has a low energy profile, because of the use of geothermal heating.

Project - Supported Living For Young Adults

Drawings - Supported Living For Young Adults

Pompous Armchair - “While living in the US, I found myself in a recliner – a piece of furniture that is terrible to look at but wonderful to use. Back in Sweden when I made my own armchair, I wanted it to be as fat, pompous and foldable as the armchairs in the US.” / Fredrik Kjellgren

Lecor HQ

KungĂ¤lv

In a time when industrial buildings are often perceived as unwelcoming, Kjellgren Kaminsky has produced an uplifting piece of industrial architecture for the steel manufacturer Lecor. The building is situated in Kungälv, 10 km north of Gothenburg. Lecor manufactures advanced steel constructions and wanted to showcase their skills in their own building. This intention, in combination with the opportunity to create a landmark building visible from the nearby highway, was the starting point of the design process. When approaching the building, you encounters bold, colourful elements standing out against a dark mass. The design of these steelframed glass boxes highlights the potential of steel within construction. The interior consists of a fusion of materials, colours and textures influenced by the steel industry and its traditions. The colour pallet mostly consists of soft pastels and whites, with each room “draped” in a single colour. Across the top of the building sits a green conference room with an outdoor terrace enclosed within a silver-steel truss bridge. From this room, one gets a spectacular 270-degree view over the dense Swedish woodlands.

Project - Lecor HQ

Drawings - Lecor HQ

Pilgrimage Center

RĂ¸ldal, Norway

The simplicity of the architectural design of the Pilgrim Center deliberately subordinates it in relation to the neighbouring chapel. Its section recalls that of a simple farm building with a pitched roof, while its curved shape gives the building a unique identity and puts its focal point on the church. The long, narrow building divides the site in two. The eastern half is framed by the curved shape of the pilgrim center on one side, and the stone wall of the cemetery on the other. Here, one can enjoy the view of the church while being sheltered from winds by the pilgrim center. On the western half of the site lies the entrance of the building, its parking lot and technical installations â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x2026;respectfully kept out of sight from the church. The open character of the landscape is preserved, and walking trails are covered with local slate stones. The usage of slate is repeated throughout the site: in the building, for the parking spaces and combined with vegetation in the landscape. The existing meadow has been complemented with a greater variety of local flowers and grass, to provide biodiversity. The sloping roof and eaves protect the building from moisture and heavy snowfall. Traditional construction techniques and detailing of the area are used throughout the building. Furthermore, the low-energy, twelve meters-wide building uses local materials, and is constructed with a timber frame clad with a tarred wooden facade with horizontal panels under slate roofing. The interior is clad with pine decking and white-stained pine paneling that contrast with the darker tarred beams and columns. The design of the ceiling and the adjustable ceiling light is an integral part of the architectural experience in the exhibition hall and in the main hall. The interior rooms have a strong spatial presence reminiscent of a sacred space providing a worthy resting place for pilgrims arriving to the site of the church.

Project - Pilgrimage Center

Drawings - Pilgrimage Center

Lagerstrรถmsplatsen Urban Redevelopment

Gรถteborg

This urban redevelopment-plan aims to densify an area in eastern Gothenburg directly south of an urban housing-district built in the 1930â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and -40â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, following the same planning principles while handling the challenges of modern infrastructure. With this densification, city life will be extended southwards with new buildings on both sides of the main street in the area, providing opportunities for new services and urban spaces. For the western side of the main street, a new building with a triangular plan and rental apartments is proposed. On the ground floor, shops and services face the street in order to activate the area. As it is situated right next to both a railway and a highway, a noise-reducing billboard with solar cells is positioned towards the heavy infrastructure in the west. For the eastern side of the main street, a number of buildings are proposed, along with playgrounds and parks. In the far south, a new and slightly odd-shaped building is placed, containing both a sports center and offices in order to attract people throughout the day and in the evenings. Trains pass by just below in a tunnel. Therefore, to simplify the foundation, the building has an angled facade to reduce its footprint while maximising the volume. Further east, six new buildings are placed on the hill above the main street, increasing the number of rental apartments in the area. The buildings have been given a triangular sculptural volume so as not to obstruct the view from the existing buildings on the hilltop. At their entrance level, public parks are planned, with open views over Gothenburg.

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Funeral site - “A mountain of stones slowly melts away. They are carried into a beautiful park, one by one, by visitors creating their own personal memorial places. There are 242.000 stones, as many as the victims of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. When the mountain is gone, each one of them will have been remembered.” / Sarah Cooper, Nina Gorfer, Joakim Kaminsky and Fredrik Kjellgren

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Super Sustainable Gothenburg

Gothenburg

Taking its starting point in the Gothenburg 2050 Vision conducted by the city’s municipality, the think tank Super Sustainable initiated by Joakim Kaminsky and Fredrik Kjellgren presented an architectural utopia for a sustainable Gothenburg. To achieve this vision, both people’s mindset and the built environment must be changed. Gothenburg faces a challenge comparable in size with the industrial revolution: to become a sustainable city. For one thing, the rooftops that constitute about one third of its area could be used better. On the flat roofs and in parks, crops could be grown. On roofs facing south, solar panels could be mounted. Small windmills could produce electricity and more apartments could be built. Gothenburg will grow with 8,000 new inhabitants a year until 2020. To meet this challenge, KKA proposes drastic changes in many fields, such as how we handle transportation, energy, food and waste. In the past century, Gothenburg has become sprawled. However, if the city grew denser, distances and transports would decrease, and a network of sustainable highways could connect the city. They would work as personal rapid-transit systems and shelter-cycling highways, and could even collect energy and water. The proposed development envisioned the river Göta Älv as the center of the new city, interconnecting the city and the community along the riverside, and housing one third of the estimated city growth until 2020. Here, roofs could be used for leisure, agriculture and solar power. Buildings would be terraced towards the south so that people, plants and solar panels would have more sun, and the apartments would need less heating and lighting. These structures take inspiration from the traditional Gothenburg social and architectural heritage, such as its yellow bricks, streets paved with granite, markets and canals. To spread and develop this vision, Super Sustainable was invited to exhibit it at the Gothenburg City Museum.

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Villa Bondรถ

Mรถlnlycke

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On the outskirts of Gothenburg, overlooking a beautiful lake surround ed by birch and pine, lies Villa Bondö – a family house with a seamless interior. When viewed from the road, the larch-clad facades and the zinc-framed door opening create an anonymous appearance. The villa consists of three key elements: the view, the minimalist white interior and the hard-waxed pine floor. The highlight of the design is the glass gable facing the lake. Before entering the house, one can get a glimpse of the lake through the glazed entrance; and once inside, one experiences the breathtaking view as the building offers a panoramic overview of the lake and the forest. The church-shaped volume of the building and its structural glazing were a challenge to design due to the natural heat from the sun. The solution was to extend the volume outside of the glass to shadow the interior, which also created a balcony that proved to be a perfect place for growing plants. Throughout the process, there was a close collaboration between architechts and clients, in terms of a passion for contemporary sustainable architecture combined with the use of materials evoking childhood memories. The collaboration also contributed to innovative solutions such as recessed lighting strips in the ceiling and walls, and hidden electronics in the intermediate floors. The result is a minimalistic and aesthetic, yet functional space for a family.

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Kollastaden School

Kungsbacka

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The Kollastaden School provides a playful, inspiring and sustainable school environment centered around the students. The building was constructed as a supplement to an existing school in the new district of Kollastaden in 2014. It consists of a school building and an athletic hall, and is executed as a passive house â&#x20AC;&#x201C;â&#x20AC;&#x2026;thus beeing one of the largest passive-house buildings in Sweden, and probably the largest passive-house school in the country. The building has a compact shape to make it more energy efficient, and the school interior combines opens spaces with a calm atmosphere. Acoustic elements are integrated into all interior components to help reducing noise: from ceilings and walls, to the railings and the fixed furniture. On the north side of the school, a communal schoolyard connects the new and old school buildings. It was designed to be actively used by students participating in activities that support learning. There is parking for both cars and bicycles, and zones for the school taxi. The street facades made of pale brick are kept relatively restrained and establish a close dialogue with the surrounding areas, while the facades facing the schoolyard are clad with fiber cement-boards that create a more colorful and playful expression both in design and in volume. A distinct entrance leads visitors into the entrance hall, which has a vast open atrium space. All social areas are situated around the atrium, whereas the permanent classrooms are located in the wings of the building in order to give them more privacy.

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Drawings - Kollastaden School

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Reflecting time - “In late August we, climbed a Norwegian hillside carrying one hundred reflectors. We spent the night on the mountainside working on our installation. It was invisible in the daylight, but during the brief darkness of the Nordic summer night it dominated the hillside. In the morning, we returned home leaving only our memories.” / Joakim Kaminsky & Maria Poll

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DIY Chair

Gothenburg

With the growing pressures of consumer society, many good-quality materials are thrown away. At building sites in particular, much of the wastage could be rather upcycled. KKAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s furniture designs demonstrate products that do not come at the cost of sustainability, as they are built using scrap materials. In the 1950â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, IKEA revolutionised the furniture industry with affordable designs that allowed customers to self-assemble furniture flat-packs. KKA took this idea one step further by providing illustrated instructions for anyone to download, and then build their own chairs using waste materials.

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Drawings - DIY Chair

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KvillebĂ¤cken Apartment Building

Gothenburg

A straightforward design approach using few but natural materials and simple building volumes was used for these two residential buildings situated in an urban redevelopment-area in northern Gothenburg. The facades are divided into a plastered base and a metal-clad, angled roof form that adheres to the classical facades of the historical inner city of Gothenburg. The buildings stand out as sober and earnest in an otherwise dis crepant surrounding where an amalgamation of colours and materials compete against each other. The project was certified by the Sweden Green Building Council, using verified, sustainable building materials and a low-energy approach. There are solar cells on the rooftop of the lower building that provide part of its electricity consumption. The main facade that faces the Kvillebäcken stream features small bronze sculptures of local birds, which were designed in collaboration with the artist Andreas Poppelier.

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Project - KvillebĂ¤cken Apartment Building

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Drawings - KvillebĂ¤cken Apartment Building

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Bicycle Tower

Gothenburg

A tower dedicated to the storage of bicycles may soon become a reality near the main train station in Gothenburg. Like a sculptural lamp, it displays a beautiful form by day and glows gently at night, illuminating the square. The colour of the glow communicates its status; white indicates vacancy, while red means that the garage is full. The clear, curved glass-facade on the ground floor invites users to watch as the technical installation lifts their bikes up in the tower. The textile used for the upper part of the tower is translucent but not transparent. It can be constructed using teflon-coated fiberglass. The roof of the tower is tilted towards the south and clad with solar cells that provide electricity for charging the bikes and illuminating the tower.

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Drawings - Bicycle Tower

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Parabolic Love - “Damn that television what a bad picture”! “Don’t get upset, it’s not a major disaster”. “There’s nothing on tonight”, he said, “I don’t know what’s the matter”! “Nothing’s ever on”, she said, “so I don’t know why you bother.” We’ve heard this little scene, we’ve heard it many times. People fighting over little things and wasting precious time. They might be better off I think the way it seems to me. Making up their own shows, which might be better than TV. / David Byrne

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Öijared Hotel

Öijared

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Project - Ã&#x2013;ijared Hotel

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Amidst the spruce trees on the beautiful Öijared peninsula near Gothenburg, a hotel emerges. Clad in strips of timbre from the surround ing forest, it seamlessly blends in with the environment. The new hotel sits adjacent to the Öijared Golf Club, originally designed by Gert Wingårdh in 1988. It is based on the same invisible grid as the existing clubhouse; however, in contrast to its neighbour, which is designed as an underground cave, the hotel stands on pillars amid the trees. The facade is folded in different angles to provide six unique views. The wooden slats interact with the underlying red colour in a playful manner, and are arranged vertically as a nod to their environment. On the south side, the slats can be folded out to become sunscreens. The extended slats imitate the filtering light passing through the forest. The hotel conveys a sense of the countryside through the materiality of wood and stone combined with its muted colours. Wooden materials used on the furniture, walls and floors – along with textiles in warm and muted colours – are all inspired by the forest. The red facade is translated into a heavy curtain. Dark green niches illuminated over the entrance doors, and combined with a specially designed carpet, create a unique and interesting corridor. The hotel rooms are reminiscent of a walk in the deepest part of the forest. This is manifested by specially designed, dark plywood furniture, robust materials such as limestone flooring, solid oak floors, stuccolike walls in grey and subdued green, and red tones with leather and brass fittings.

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Drawings - Ă&#x2013;ijared Hotel

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Drawings - Ă&#x2013;ijared Hotel

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Vallastaden Plus Energy Building

Linkรถping

In the city of Linköping, a new district was built for the 2017 Swedish housing fair Vallastaden. The overall plan for the fair site was made up of many small parcels, each with its own developer, to achieve a differentiation in program and formal language. Here, KKA has designed Sweden’s largest residential-plus, energy house to date – that is, a house that produces more energy than it uses, with the surplus being sold back to the grid. Solar cells on the roof provide the building with electricity. Since Vallastaden is a brand new district, KKA turned to the old town of Linköping to research for inspiration. Beautiful window framings, typical of the stone city Linköping and varied from floor to floor, inspired a reinterpretation of this same element. The result is a modern variant with brass-coloured frames in expanded metal. The house, which has a low-cost profile, is otherwise minimalistic in its design, with all windows being of the same size and symmetrically arranged. The aforementioned frames have been combined with a white plaster facade where the finishing texture is rougher on the ground floor than on the other floors.

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Project - Vallastaden Plus Energy Building

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Drawings - Vallastaden Plus Energy Building

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Vallastaden Row Houses

Linkรถping

Like the Vallastaden Plus Energy Building, this small row-house project with four apartments is also located in Vallastaden, Linkรถping and part of the 2017 Swedish housing fair. The townhouse is designed and certified as a passive house with a very low energy consumption. It consists of four volumes that differ in shape and facade patterns. Like four cousins, each apartment has a distinct look, yet the relationship between the four is visible in the colours and expressions of the facade-fiber cement boards. In addition to each apartment, there are small courtyards with bicycle storage, and gardens with patios and storage rooms for outdoor furniture. The storage buildings have green roofs and the facade is treated with an environmentally friendly wood protection that will turn grey over the years. The apartments have flexible third floors with high ceilings that can be used as a studio, a playroom, or an additional bedroom.

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Project - Vallastaden Row Houses

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Drawings - Vallastaden Row Houses

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Öster Mälarstrand School

Västerås

Öster Mälarstrand is a new urban development in the city of Västerås. Here, KKA has designed a school bound by the city in the west and the forest in the east. The building is shaped like an H, with two semienclosed courtyards that both reflect their surroundings; an urban square faces the city and the school playground extends into the forest. The school is planned around a visually transparent central lobby, with private spaces such as classrooms and offices located in the exterior wings. Rooms such as the dining hall, the library and the café are accessed directly from the lobby – thus accentuating the school as a public meeting place by allowing residents to use such spaces. The transparency and openness of the main entrance blur the boundary between interior and exterior, and create a strong visual connection through to the woodland backdrop. The materials chosen emphasise the building’s relationship to its surroundings through the usage of a modular system of concrete with oak detailing and finishes for window frames and solar shading.

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Drawings - Ă&#x2013;ster MĂ¤larstrand School

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Clear Cut - “However eternal it may seem, this is not a natural forest. Like 90 % of the forests in Sweden, it is used for forestry – consequently being grown and chopped down over a 60-years life cycle. We thought draping the trees in mirrors could invoke a memory of earlier generations of pine trees that have stood here and forecast the clear-cut that will soon replace them. Are the trees still there? We don’t know.” / Joakim Kaminsky & Maria Poll

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Neden

Gothenburg

Heden is a unique open space situated in the midst of Gothenburg, and has the potential to become one of the largest and most exciting redevelopments in the city. Populated by sports fields and an overwhelming amount of car parking, the site has had numerous proposals intensively studied and debated by the local community, council and other stakeholders. While many proposals enriched the area with new homes, shops, offices, bars and restaurants, KKA conceptualised an underground expansion in order to retain the current urban oasis within the city fabric. Sports halls and car parking are located underground, next to a sloped surface embedded into the landscape. The surplus of sports halls encourages existing sports premises dispersed across the city to move here, freeing potential land for new housing and office developments thus financing project Neden. Inhabitants may enjoy a protected, car-free space surrounded by trees and with facades that are restricted to a height of approximately ten meters to maximise sunlight. Intricate planning of ramps and bridges provide a coherent connection to the city, with an extension of the main street Vasagatan to the two key districts Ullevi and Haga.

BistroELLE

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Sea Rescue Station

Rรถrรถ

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Project - Sea Rescue Station

In case of alarm, the Swedish Sea Rescue Society (SSRS) and their volunteers are set up to depart within fifteen minutes in any weather, all year round. The sea is an extreme working environment, which inevitably demands a safe haven at shore. SSRS was formed in 1907 and is now responsible for the majority of all sea rescues in Sweden. In recent years, they have doubled the number of sea-rescue stations and tripled the amount of available rescue volunteers. One of the new stations is situated on Rรถrรถ, an island centrally located along the Swedish west coast and a node in the history of the SSRS. The station is positioned in the surroundings so as to respectfully integrate with the local harbour of Rรถrรถ, and also to openly display the activity of the SSRS. The house is angled to create shelter from the wind. The warmly lit, glazed gable faces west towards the ocean and people in need. The exterior is divided into three parts in order to break down the scale of the volume and to create a silhouette inspired by the surrounding settlements. The division of the volumes also helps separating the private spaces from the public. Locally sourced wood shingles used on the facade require minimal care and add character to the building. The physics and construction of the house have resulted in a zeroenergy building with the potential to become a fully off-grid structure with a low need for technical systems. No crisis should prevent the building, the boats and the lifeguards from doing their most important task: saving lives.

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Drawings - Sea Rescue Station

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Sundbyberg Apartment Tower

Stockholm

Sundbyberg is part of the greater metropolitan area of Stockholm. Originally an industrial town, today it is becoming increasingly densely populated. Two main ideas characterise KKAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s project. Firstly, creating an active link across the fluctuating terrain of the site, in order to connect the street and the square with the hilltop church and the surrounding park. Secondly, breaking down the scale of the high-rise through the composition of the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s volume in order to provide a contextual response. Four boxes are stacked with varying functions, bringing life to the surrounding area. Sustainable mobility was a key focus of the design. Office spaces are provided to discourage commuting where possible, and residents can also borrow bikes and electric cars. The first two floors are planned as a natural extension of the surrounding public space, while simultaneously connecting the different ground planes. The two basement floors are clad with polished stone-slate, and the floors above are decorated with relief patterns cast into the concrete facades, giving them a varied but sober effect. Balcony railings are made from matt-blasted glass that provides them with a light expression. Materials were carefully chosen in order to age with beauty, harmoniously with the other stone houses situated along Tulegatan.

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Project - Sundbyberg Apartment Tower

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Project - Sundbyberg

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Drawings - Sundbyberg Apartment Tower

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Drawings - Sundbyberg Apartment Tower

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Tower of Nests - “Could animals and humans share a building? Could wildlife development be as important as urban development? Could a city provide the same eco services as a forest? If a family of thrushes where your closests neighbours, would that make you happier? I think so.” / Joakim Kaminsky

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Rosendal Apartment Building Uppsala

This apartment building in Rosendal, just south of the city center of Uppsala, is developed as a sustainable testbed featuring passive-house techniques, Svanen environmental certification, integrated solar cells, sustainable materials and an imÂproved environment for sustainable living. The large block is divided into three buildings: Golden Palm, Black Birch and Silver Spruce. The three buildings each have their own unique character, with different details and treatments of wooden frames and facades. The upper facades are angled, reducing the height of the volume towards the street while increasing natural light in the apartments. This inclination optimises the yield of the solar cells, especially during winter when sunlight is scarce. The staggered volumes juxtaposed with the recessed ground floor create an inviting backyard and a welcoming street environment that encourages residents and passers-by to stop and sit down. Green crops dominate the courtyard, while the roofs foster local biodiversity. A shared greenhouse and urban farming in the yard encourage social interaction and offer a place for relaxation.

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Project - Rosendal Apartment Building

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Drawings - Rosendal Apartment Building

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Drawings - Rosendal Apartment Building

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Gustavslund Row Houses Helsingborg

The Gustavslund row houses are situated on the edge of the city, where manÂmade structures beside the sea meet the open farmland of southern Sweden. The buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s massive shape provides much needed shelter from the strong winds. For the design of the row houses, inspiration was taken from the modernistically influenced, brick-building tradition of Helsingborg. And the design concept was modelled after an imagined cube of brick, from which blocks were removed until the final volume of the houses had been achieved. Dark brown brick laid on site dominate the exterior of the structure. Inside, a sheltered atrium courtyard has been provided for each dwelling. A special design feature are the brick railings, which consist of brick walls with every third brick removed - thus giving them a transparent and light expression.The southernmost terrace changes position, creating a rhythm to the building volume and offering a choice to the homeowners between a more western- or southern-facing terrace. Following the main terrace, there is a separate room that can be used as a studio or guest house. Each row house has the form of an L-shape, with its own atrium courtyard facing the sun towards the west, whereas the eastern street facades are more enclosed. An interesting feature are the garages, which can be opened both towards the street and the courtyard, and thus provide a link between the two. These spaces can be used for garden parties, as hobby rooms, or as shelters for outdoor dinners when it is raining. When entering a row house, the courtyard is directly visible through the hallway. To the left is the garage, and the kitchen on the right is open towards the living room. A free-standing, open fireplace splits the large open room in two, and large doors with windows face the atrium. There are three bedrooms and two terraces on the second floor.

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Project - Gustavslund Row Houses

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Project - Gustavslund Row Houses

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Drawings - Gustavslund Row Houses

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Super Sustainable Wagon - “We decided to build a moving garden and wanted to fit it to a bicycle, like old time peddlers. Now wherever we go we make it our own special spot. Maybe you’ll see us some day, nursing our plants and enjoying some home grown carrots in your neighbourhood.” / Fredrik Kjellgren & Jacob Rocamora

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Project Index

NAME: Supported Living for Young Adults LOCATION: Vetlanda, Sweden

NAME: Kjellgren Kaminsky HQ

CLIENT: Vetlanda municipality

LOCATION: Gothenburg, Sweden

TYPE: Accessible housing for six young adults with shared

SIZE: 400 sq m

dining hall

MATERIALS: Interior materials, waxed plywood boards, cork

SIZE: 696 sq m

walls and carpets

SUSTAINABLE: Low-energy building

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2016

COMMISSION: Competition 1st prize

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

MATERIALS: Wooden construction. Facades are clad in brick

PROJECT ARCHITECT: Johan Brandström, Johanna Engloo

and wood, roof is clad with Rheinzink.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Kalle Sanner

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2011

AWARDS: Shortlisted for Sweden’s best office

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren DESIGN TEAM: María Martínez Fábregas, Josefina Högberg

NAME: Strandbaden Dancehall

PHOTOGRAPHY: Dan Hallemar

LOCATION: Falsterbo, Sweden

AWARDS: Shortlisted for the young Swedish Architecture

CLIENT: Vellinge municipality

Award

TYPE: Dance hall SIZE: 1600 sq m

NAME: Lecor HQ

COMMISSION: Competition 1st prize

LOCATION: Kungälv, Sweden

MATERIALS: Facade in mirror-laminated glass and fiber

CLIENT: Lecor

cement boards. Interior walls are clad with white-glazed

TYPE: Office

pine boards and mirror-laminated glass with an acoustic felt

SIZE: 1200 sq m

behind. Floors are clad with ceramic tiles and oak flooring

MATERIALS: Steel construction and facade panels. Structural

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2009

glazing. The stair: CNC perforated steel plates. Interior floors

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

wool carpet and oak flooring.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Kalle Sanner

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2011

AWARDS: Winner Skåne Region’s prize for Architecture,

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

Shortlisted for Sweden’s debut prize, the Great Indoor

PROJECT ARCHITECT: Fredrik Kjellgren

Awards and the World Architecture Festival

DESIGN TEAM: Johan Brandström, Yvonne Lohmann, Alexandra Agapie, Josefina Högberg, Pamela Paredes, Joacim

NAME: Villa Atrium

Haag, Vincento Castillo, Margherita Castellani

LOCATION: Borlänge, Sweden

PHOTOGRAPHY: Kalle Sanner

CLIENT: Emrahus & the Nyberg Family TYPE: Prefabricated passive-house villa

NAME: Pilgrimage Center

SIZE: 156 sq m

LOCATION: Røldal, Norway

SUSTAINABLE: Passive house, solar panels

CLIENT: Røldal kyrkje

MATERIALS: Facades are clad with pine wood, roof is clad

TYPE: Visitors center, chapel, office, restaurant

with Rheinzink.

SIZE: 1004 sq m

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2010

MATERIALS: Facade is clad with horizontal tarred wooden

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

panels, roof is clad with slate. Interior walls are clad with white

DESIGN TEAM: Oscar Arnklitt, Daniel Andersson, Corina

glaze, wooden-panelling interior beams and columns in tarred

Bermúdez

wood.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Kalle Sanner

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

AWARDS: Winner of Green planet award, shortlisted for Green dot award

NAME: Lagerströmsplatsen Urban Redevelopment LOCATION: Gothenburg, Sweden CLIENT: Scius development partner TYPE: Urban redevelopment LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren DESIGN TEAM: Anna Sobiech, Elvijs Sprudzans

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NAME: Super Sustainable Gothenburg

NAME: DIY Chair

LOCATION: Gothenburg, Sweden

CLIENT: Super Sustainable think tank

TYPE: Furniture

TYPE: Vision for a sustainable city

SUSTAINABLE: Cradle-to-cradle concept

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

MATERIALS: Upcycled wood

DESIGN TEAM: Shadi Jalali Heravi, Jonas Tjäder, Anna

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2014

Risell, Alessandro Micelli, Corina Bermundez, Daniel

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

Andersson, Johan Brandström, Linnea Ericsson, Maria Martinez, Marie Löwenherz, Philip Ahlqwist, Robin

NAME: Kvillebäcken Apartment Building

Westerström, Vicente Castillo, Ylva Frid

LOCATION: Gothenburg, Sweden

PHOTOGRAPHY: Niclas Dahlgren

CLIENT: HSB

AWARDS: Winner of the Green Dot Award

TYPE: Multifamily residential SIZE: 5800 sq m

NAME: Villa Bondö

COMMISSION: Competition 1st prize

LOCATION: Mölnlycke, Sweden

SUSTAINABLE: Sweden Green Building Council certification,

CLIENT: Private

solar cells

TYPE: Villa

MATERIALS: Facades are clad with plaster in two different

SIZE: 250 sq m

roughnesses, painted wooden panels and steel

MATERIALS: Wooden construction. Facades are clad with

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2015

larch wood, roof is clad with Rheinzink

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2014

PROJECT ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

DESIGN TEAM: Sandra Nygren, Michael Tuuling, Sanna

PROJECT ARCHITECT: Fredrik Kjellgren

Johnels, Mélia Parizel, Michele Pascucci, Douglas Tullie

DESIGN TEAM: Sanna Johnels

PHOTOGRAPHY: Åke Eson Lindman

PHOTOGRAPHY: Mikael Olsson

AWARDS: Shortlisted for the Best Building in Gothenburg Award

NAME: Kollastaden School LOCATION: Kungsbacka, Sweden

NAME: Bicycle Tower

CLIENT: Eksta bostads AB

LOCATION: Gothenburg, Sweden

TYPE: Primary and high school + Athletic hall

CLIENT: City of Gothenburg

SIZE: 6500 sq m + 2500 sq m

TYPE: Bicycle garage

SUSTAINABLE: Passive house, solar cells

SUSTAINABLE: Promoting use of bicycles, solar cells

COMMISSION: Competition 1st prize

MATERIALS: Base in clear, curved glass. Upper part in

MATERIALS: Brick facade with white plaster and fiber

semi-translucent textile.

cement boards. Interior walls are clad with acoustic birch

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

paneling, railings are made of painted wooden boards.

DESIGN TEAM: Erik Järkil

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2014

AWARDS: Winner of World Architecture Community Award

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren PROJECT ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky DESIGN TEAM: Mélia Parizel, Michael Tuuling, Michele Pascucci, Joti Weijers-Coghlan, Maelis Grenouillet, Sanna Johnels, Johan Brandström, Pamela Paredes, Maria Syrén, Paulina Kałużna, Kuei Fang Chang PHOTOGRAPHY: Mikael Olsson AWARDS: Shortlisted for World Architecture Festival Awards and Kungsbackas Arkitekturpris

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NAME: Öijared Hotel

NAME: Östra Mälarstrand School

LOCATION: Öijared, Sweden

LOCATION: Västerås, Sweden

CLIENT: Öijared Country Club

CLIENT: Västerås municipality

TYPE: Hotel

LOCATION: Västerås, Sweden

SIZE: 2300 sq m

TYPE: Primary school

SUSTAINABLE: Off-grid building, local materials

SIZE: 8000 sq m

MATERIALS: Wood and steel construction. Wooden lattices

MATERIALS: Concrete elements with varied treatments,

made from local spruce. Interior walls clad with glazed

wood paneling

plywood boards

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2019

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2014

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

DESIGN TEAM: Sofia Wendel

PROJECT ARCHITECT: Johan Brandström DESIGN TEAM: Sanna Johnels, Mélia Parizel, Sofia Wendel,

NAME: Neden

Michael Björeling, Maria Syrén, Paco Pomares

LOCATION: Gothenburg, Sweden

PHOTOGRAPHY: Åke Eson Lindman

TYPE: Urban redevelopment

AWARDS: Shortlisted for World Architecture Festival

MATERIALS: Steel facade with glazed walls, granite paving

Awards

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

NAME: Vallastaden Plus Energy House

NAME: Sea Rescue Station

LOCATION: Vallastaden, Linköping, Sweden

LOCATION: Rörö, Sweden

CLIENT: Stångåstaden

CLIENT: Swedish Sea Rescue Society, SSRS

TYPE: Multifamily residential

TYPE: Rescue station with offices, workshop and café

SIZE: 1000 sq m

SIZE: 556 sq m

SUSTAINABLE: Plus energy building, solar cells

SUSTAINABLE: Zero-energy building

MATERIALS: Plaster facade with metal-window framings

MATERIALS: Wooden construction. Facades are clad with

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2017

wooden shingles

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2018

PROJECT ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

DESIGN TEAM: Jenny Nyström, Mikael Rehnmark, Jake

DESIGN TEAM: Johan Brandström, Edouard Boisse, Jenny

Woods

Nyström

PHOTOGRAPHY: Åke Eson Lindman

AWARDS: Winner of MIPIM Future Project Awards

NAME: Vallastaden Passive House

NAME: Sundbyberg Apartment Tower

LOCATION: Vallastaden, Linköping, Sweden

LOCATION: Sundbyberg, Sweden

CLIENT: Stångåstaden

CLIENT: BJC Group

TYPE: Rowhouses

TYPE: Mixed program of apartments, offices and shops

SIZE: 600 sq m

SIZE: 6300 sq m

SUSTAINABLE: Passive houses

COMMISSION: Competition 2nd prize

MATERIALS: Wooden construction. Facades are clad with

MATERIALS: Concrete elements with different matrix

fiber cement boards in different patterns

mouldings, wood paneling

YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2017

LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren

DESIGN TEAM: Edouard Boisse, Carolina Ripoll

PROJECT ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky DESIGN TEAM: Jenny Nyström, Mikael Rehnmark, Jake Woods PHOTOGRAPHY: Åke Eson Lindman

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NAME: Rosendal Apartment Building LOCATION: Uppsala, Sweden CLIENT: Kjellgren Kaminsky and Bright Living AB TYPE: Multifamily residential SIZE: 3100 sq m COMMISSION: Competition 1st prize SUSTAINABLE: Passive house, Svanen certification, solar cells MATERIALS: Wooden construction. Facades are clad with pine wood and integrated solar cells YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2018 LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren PROJECT ARCHITECT: Fredrik Kjellgren DESIGN TEAM: Sanna Johnels, Sandra Nygren, Martin Login, Emilio Lorenzato, Louise Nickelsen NAME: Gustavslund Row Houses LOCATION: Helsingborg, Sweden CLIENT: Kjellgren Kaminsky and Jagaren Fastigheter TYPE: Row houses SIZE: 12 units SUSTAINABLE: Low-energy building COMMISSION: Competition 1st prize MATERIALS: Concrete construction with brick facade. Floors in bare concrete and massive oak YEAR OF COMPLETION: 2017 LEAD ARCHITECT: Joakim Kaminsky & Fredrik Kjellgren PROJECT ARCHITECT: Edouard Boisse, Francesca Suaria

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Texts

Christer Larsson, Hans Ibelings, Ylva Frid Drawing design

Johan Ljungmark, Emilio Lorenzato Graphic design

Studio Moss Photographers

Dan Hallemar 65, 68 – 69 Jacob Rocamora 251 Kalle Sanner 4 – 11, 13, 33, 35 – 45, 53, 55 – 59, 74 – 77, 79 – 83 Maria Poll & Joakim Kaminsky 141,205 Mikael Olsson 112 – 117, 119–120, 126 – 128, 130 – 135 Niclas Dahlgren 105, 107 – 111 Sarah Cooper & Nina Gorfer 73, 169 Åke E:son Lindman 150 – 155, 171 – 181, 187 – 189, 192 – 195 Publisher

Marie Arvinius Print and binding

Livonia Print SIA, 2017 Latvia ISBN 978-91-87543-61-6 Published in 2017 by Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing AB Olivecronas väg 4 113 61 Stockholm Sweden Phone +46 8 32 00 15 info@ao-publishing.com www.ao-publishing.com (c) 2017 Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing (c) 2017 Kjellgren Karminsky All Rights Reserved This book is protected by the copyright law and international treaties. All rights are reserved by the copyright owners. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic of mechanical means ( including photocopying, recording or information storage and retrieval ) without the prior written permission of Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing AB.

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The work of the Swedish architects Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky represent sustainable solutions and innovative design at its best. Central to their many projects is the belief that they can contribute to solving the challenges we face from climate-threats, technological development and urbanisation. Building a better planet is no small ambition, yet Kjellgren and Kaminsky are at the same time practising architecture in a disarmingly casual and mod¬est way, thus bringing together large-scale ambition with small-scale attention to detail. In this first monograph on their work, Kjellgren and Kaminsky summarsie the first ten years of their partnership in the form of a selection of some of their most important projects, such as Öijared Hotel, Kolla staden School, Lecor HQ, Strandbaden Dancehall, the Vallastaden Plus Energy-Building, the Rosendal Apartment Building and the Neden area.

“The fact that almost every Kjellgren Kaminsky project, large or small, can be summarized in an emblematic diagram is an indication of this conceptual foundation; yet the final result is always more than a built version of the initial concept.”

Hans Ibelings

“The Kjellgren Kaminsky founders never doubted that they could do both: set new standards for sustainability and develop contemporary architecture.”

Ylva Frid

“Kjellgren Kaminsky's strength has always been their unending will to create expressive and articulate architecture, even when the conditions do not really allow it. Even small and seemingly modest projects, which in the hands of others would probably not have become more than an unassuming industrial building, an annex or a block of flats, in Kjellgren Kaminsky's version, becomes a carefully designed building, from the whole down to the smallest detail.”

Per Bornstein, Tidskriften Arkitektur 3/2016

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