Swedish architecture has become in the 21st century a global reference for the use of light, simple, and functional design elements and the expression of materials. There is no comprehensive definition for Scandinavian design, but the Swedish architects as well as furniture makers and textile fabricators that have come to represent it, certainly have a common tendency to draw from the natural surroundings in which their cities and towns are so well integrated. Stockholm is at the forefront of Scandinavian design, home to architects of multiple generations producing outstanding bold work here and abroad. Selected below are 25 of the most successful architecture practices operating out of Stockholm today:
White arkitekter is one of Scandinavia’s leading architectural practices. It was founded in 1951 in Gothenburg by Sidney White with the aim of improving society through architecture. Today the firm consists of 700 employees working in 13 offices located in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the UK. White arkitekter works on projects of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and interior design. Its mission is to enable sustainable life through the art of architecture, and healthy living environments that inspire and engage. Its wide-ranging portfolio includes the recently-completed Sara Cultural Centre in Skellefteå. Standing at 75 meters in height, the carbon-negative building is one of the world’s tallest timber towers, built from prefabricated units in Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) stacked between two elevator cores.
2. Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor AB
Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor is among the largest architectural offices in Sweden. It offers services ranging from architecture and interiors to urban planning, exhibition design, furniture and product design. Wingårdhs has a staff of 150 employees who deal not only with planning but visualizing, writing, model making, landscapes, interiors, urban planning and graphic design. The firm’s projects include Aula Medica, a building with a glulam structure clad in six types of glass. The medical building stands at the center of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, houses programs including a 1000-seat auditorium and takes a form that leans heavily over the adjacent highway to announce the presence of research and education to visitors entering Stockholm.
LINK Arkitektur is an architectural firm with 500 employees located in 15 cities across Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Its driving force is to create sustainable social architecture, increase people's quality of life and make projects profitable for its clients. LINK’s projects include the Vaagen High School and Sandines Culture Academy in Norway, a school for 800 students with a striking central atrium designed as a bulbous cocoon spreading over four levels and leaning out over the street.
Tham & Videgård Arkitekter is a progressive and contemporary practice that focuses on architecture and design – from large scale urban planning to buildings, interiors and products. The practice’s objective is to create distinct and relevant architecture considerate of the unique context and specific conditions of the individual project. Its commissions include public, commercial and private clients in Sweden and abroad. The office has completed projects such as Mirrorcube, a series of small-scale tree hotels seemingly levitating within the forest canopy on a hill close to the small village of Harads, Sweden.
Kjellander Sjöberg was founded in 1998 and is a medium-sized architectural practice with an international, diverse and dedicated team led by partners Mi Inkinen, Ola Kjellander and Stefan Sjöberg and operating out of Stockholm, Malmö and London. The office works at all scales to support daily life and generate rich, green urban experiences. The studio is driven by developing sustainable projects that meet the challenges of climate change and make meaningful use of resources to tell a story of life, content, interaction, local neighborhoods and society. Its portfolio includes housing projects such as Woodhouse Rosendal, a varied range of residential buildings constructed in solid timber.
6. AART
AART is a team of 300 architects, urban planners, civil engineers, designers and anthropologists working in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Roskilde, Frederikssund, Oslo and Stockholm. Its aim as a cross-disciplinary practice is to open people’s eyes to the importance of architecture in developing organizations and communities. Its portfolio includes a transformation of Aarhus’ historical municipality hospital from the 1930s into a new contemporary housing complex for 170 students.
Claesson Koivisto Rune is an architectural partnership founded in Stockholm, in 1995, by Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune. It started as an architectural firm, but has since become an internationally acclaimed, multi-disciplinary office with an equal emphasis on architecture and design. As the first Swedish office to have exhibited in the international section at the Venice Architecture Biennale, in 2004, it is responsible for award-winning projects such as the Tind Prefab house collection for Fiskarhedenvillan, Widlund House private villa on Öland, Örsta Gallery building in Kumla, Sfera Building culture house in Kyoto and Nobis Hotel in Stockholm. The office is the recipient of awards including the Bruno Mathsson Prize for furniture design.
Petra Gipp Arkitektur set out to create architecture by thoughtfully interpreting both the needs of an individual client and the specific characteristics of a site. In order to achieve an architectural whole, it operates on the belief that in-depth studies of flows as well as of spatial and structural relationships are essential. In each project, everything from the design of details to the choice of materials, relates back to a main concept. The studio was founded in 2009 by Petra Gipp and is widely published and awarded. Its projects include Örnberget, a private house clad in concrete plaster and pine panel, set on a narrow site on a precipice overlooking the inner Stockholm archipelago.
Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture is an award-winning architecture firm based in Stockholm and Gothenburg, recognized for its sustainable designs. Its design philosophy is based on the core values of “Brave, Sustainable and Inspiring,” which it uses to work towards realistic, economically viable and technical solutions to achieve its clients’ goals. Its team consists of Swedish and international experts and offers services in architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, furniture design, urban planning, visualization and branding. Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture aims to design buildings that make people happy and have a minimal ecological footprint.
10. Olsson Lyckefors Arkitektur
Olsson Lyckefors Arkitektur was founded in 2012 and consists of 24 architects, interior designers and project managers with offices in Gothenburg and Stockholm. The company is active in a wide range of project types, from large-scale residences and offices, to interior design for hotels and restaurants, to product design. Central to its business is a belief that architecture can influence, touch and create value. Its projects include Kärdla City Pavilion on Dagö Island in Estonia, a highly crafted wood pavilion designed as an enclosed garden within a public city square.
AIX Architects is a company of 100 employees that include architects, interior designers, engineers, planning architects, antiquarians, theater consultants and lighting designers. It focuses on city planning, new construction as well as renovation and restoration projects. Its portfolio includes Stockholm’s Royal College Of Music, an educational building that contains public spaces for performances and experiences. Here the practice designed a new building interwoven with a listed historic facility, and cloaked in shimmering gold glass as a striking landmark that functions as part of a newly-organized urban ensemble.
General Architecture was founded in 2003 by Erik Persson, Fabian Blücher, John Billberg, Olof Grip and Josef Eder, who met during studies at the Kungliga Tekniska Högskola in Stockholm. General Architecture focuses on producing classically-informed architecture based on thorough analyses, and a clear understanding of the conditions of the city. Its portfolio includes offices, housing and property development projects such as the Skelleftåe Kraft Office Headquarters, a building with a highly-ordered articulated facade, copper-clad with a patina that changes over time.
Marge Arkitekter was founded in Stockholm in 2002 by Katarina Grundsell, Louise Masreliez, Pye Aurell Ehrström and Susanne Ramel. Today the practice employs 12 architects and produces work on a variety of scales ranging from initial strategic studies, masterplanning, housing and commercial developments to interior and product design. The work of Marge Arkitekter is based on a conceptual design process that explores the use of materials and forms in new and unexpected ways. Its focus is on socially and environmentally sustainable designs with spaces created for people to use and interact. It has a clean, sparing approach to space distinguished by a punctuation of color and an inventive use of materials. Its work includes The Gardens, an elderly care home with a collection of comfortable apartments clustered around common outdoor gardens and facilities.
14. Arrhov Frick Arkitektkontor
Arrhov Frick was established in 2010 by Johan Arrhov and Henrik Frick, with Carlos Nieto becoming a partner in 2017. Working with a diversity of projects, the studio’s ambition is to develop clear proposals based on a deep understanding of the specific social and economic contexts. Arrhov Frick often reduces architecture to its basic principles and emphasizes ideological and pragmatic simplicity through a focus on function, structural economy and logical programming. Many of its projects support flexible infrastructures that are capable of future iterations and uses, encouraging sustainability and longevity in the building industry. Among other honors and awards, Arrhov Frick has been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award and exhibited at the Venice Biennale.
15. Joliark
Joliark is a Stockholm-based practice managed by Per Johanson, Helen Johansson, Hans Linnman, Magnus Pörner and Cornelia Thelander, first established in 1972. It is an architectural office with a focus on urban planning, new construction and remodeling, and also has expertise in laboratory and medical industry design. Its portfolio includes Tappen, a project for 44 dwellings organized within two pure and simple volumes, and designed with a focus on honestly expressing the building materials of wood, concrete and steel.
Murman Arkitekter is based in Stockholm. The company has two partners and 25 architects, interior designers and engineers. It works on projects ranging from furniture and interior design to architecture and planning. It strives for creative, tailor-made solutions with high-quality, sustainable architecture that can contribute to strengthening the identity of its clients. Its portfolio includes Restaurang Tusen, a restaurant on top of the mountain for the Ramundbeget Ski Resort.
Belatchew Arkitekter is an architectural firm working within a wide range of projects, from city planning and housing to offices and retail. The office is idea aims to find unexpected solutions that strengthen sites and add value to real estate. Belatchew Arkitekter considers it a mission to integrate sustainable solutions in all its work. The studio has been internationally recognized, and its projects have been widely published in press and publications. Its portfolio includes Fjärilen, a monochrome building in yellow steel that was shortlisted for the Swedish Building Award.
Wahlin Arkitekter was established in 1994 by Per Wåhlin as an investment in innovative and contemporary architecture. Today the studio employs between 10 and 15 employees who work on projects ranging from nursing homes to shopping centers, to the restoration and renovation of public buildings. Its projects include Sportstuga 90+65, a modern summer house that features two volumes of 90 square meters topped by roofs angled in opposing directions and opening to protected outdoor spaces of 30, 20 and 15 square meters.
19. HelgessonGonzaga Arkitekter
HelgessonGonzaga Arkitekter AB was founded in Aug 2012 by principal architects Isabell Gonzaga and Andreas Helgesson Gonzaga. The studio has a practical design approach that seeks balance among practice, teaching and research. Its underlying philosophy is that architecture presents opportunities for conceptual, material and sociological transformation. Its ambition is to produce work that clearly articulates enthusiasm for issues of place and identity with buildings that possess a high degree of specificity, resonate with their contexts and time, yet diverge to establish independent narratives.
Max Holst studied architecture at the School of Architecture at Lund University, UPC in Barcelona and ETH in Zürich. He started his practice in 2003 after working internationally at the architectural firms of Rafael Moneo, Behnisch & Partner and Campi & Pessina. His projects include a holiday house on the Swedish island of Vindö, a building standing on the ridge of a gorge which informs views and orientation. The timber-framed house was built using local construction techniques.
Reflex Architects is located in Stockholm and Gothenburg and has both national and international projects. The practice was founded in 1999 and is today led by nine partners. Reflex seeks to create architecture that strengthens ties with surroundings and between people. It believes that well-executed architecture creates context, experiences and builds identity. It has completed projects such as Hälleskogsbrännan, a series of buildings that include a visitor center tower set along a 300 meter footpath and constructed in gray timber and black painted steel.
Street Monkey Architects is a Stockholm-based architecture studio dedicated to designing stimulating, social and ecologically-balanced habitats for humans. Its work includes hotels, schools and housing. The practice’s namesake is drawn from Parkour, a specific way to get to know and see the city, where one trains ‘like a monkey’, running, crawling and jumping from the city center to the suburbs. According to the studio’s profile: “if we see ourselves as animals, without all the trappings of culture and with primal needs for stimulation, movement, light and air, then maybe we can design in a more free and robust way.”
23. Albert France-Lanord Architects
Albert France-Lanord Architects works on the basis that architecture can offer experiences to make life more exciting, and that the creative process always includes responding to sociological and ecological questions. The goal is to reach, together with the client, a new vision for each project. The office is driven by a permanent need to experiment.
24. Hermansson Hiller Lundberg Arkitekter
Hermansson Hiller Lundberg is focused on the development and production of architecture with a lasting worth and value to society, always in continuous engagement with the history of architecture. The work of the studio has been acknowledged with various national and international awards. The practice’s ongoing projects include housing, city planning, care homes, pre-schools, hotels and offices. The practice was founded in Stockholm in 2006 by Andreas Hermansson, Andreas Hiller and Samuel Lundberg.
25. Matteo Foresti
The studio activity covers the fields of architectural design, interior and research. It develops projects through all phases, from concept study to construction drawings. The office works locally and internationally. Matteo Foresti graduated from the Politecnico di Milano, worked with several architects in Bergamo and Milan, and with Aires Mateus Associados in Lisbon. In 2017 he opened his office based in Stockholm.
The selection curated by the Archello editorial team is based on a mixture of the amount of featured projects and the views they generated.
