area 102 | leisure

architect: Wingårdh Arkitektkontor AB

location: Vällingby City, Stockholm

year: 2008

Fifty years after the opening of Vällingby, Sweden’s world famous New Town from 1954, works began with its resurrection. After the glorious days when children and their mothers filled the community in the outskirts of Stockholm with life, other developments gradually drained the neighbourhood unit. Less people made life difficult for the little cinema, as well as for the shops. Vällingby was in need of new blood, and the pièce de résistance of the renewal would be a new department store. Red as a lacquer box, the construction stands as a precious object by the new entrance of the centre. With layers on layers, a sense of depth is transmitted in the façade. The milky glass gets increasingly see-through as the white dots vanish towards top and exposes the red skin behind. A cool and thin cloth on a warm body. The building is an image of the content. A home for the fashionistas, who shall be catched like flies by light. No random additions were to disturb the tailored design. Shiny white letters in the red sky is the only exposure of the companies inside. The house is dedicated to branded fashion and just as all these brands are brought together under the huge canopy, they are brought together in one common space inside. The only detached department is the black box in the east end. As the complex continues the urban pattern from the 1950’s, a pedestrian street cuts thru the site and divides one solo retailer from the large department store. The little black as a contrast to the grand evening dress. The complex is erected on top of the subway tracks, a site that did not exist when the project started. The main entrance is thereby facing the main access road, and the cutting edge 14-meter canopy works as a logotype for the new suburban centre. Vällingby has always been a symbol. A huge rotating letter V once marked the victory for the welfare state. The sign is still there, now as a symbol of what the place used to be. Today do the logotypes shine brightest. Shopping is the new icon. If the exterior is dressed in a red gown and white lace, the interior shows the fancy underwear. The semitransparent theme continues. A pendant ceiling transmits a diffuse light, and the white pattern on the balustrades evaporates like mist in the morning. The large opening in the core of the building opens up toward the light. To ascend the space shall be a travel to the light – as an aeroplane rising thru the clouds.

address: Vällingby City, Stockholm
construction: Tyréns AB
installations: PO Andersson Konstruktionsbyrå AB
electricity: Electro Engineering AB
lighting: Ljusarkitektur P&Ö AB
architect: Wingårdh Arkitektkontor AB thru (Gert Wingårdh, Cecilia Ström, Per Söderberg, Gustav Appell, Ewa Bialecka-Colin, David Christoffersson, Daniel Frickeus, Bengt Hellsten, Robert Hendberg, Rickard Karlsson, Stefan Nilsson Hanna Samuelsson
commercial design: Centrumutveckling Håkan Karlsson AB
client: AB Svenska Bostäder
urban planning: Stockholms Stadsbyggnadskontor and White Arkitekter
project and construction planner: Projektbyrån Stockholm AB
area: 16.600 kvm BTA
design year: 2003
construction year: 2000 -2008
photos: Patrik Gunnar Helin, Christian Saltas

The office is today among the five largest architect groups in Sweden, and among the ten largest in the Nordic Region. This falls well in line with the target set in the office’s general objective; that we must be one of Scandinavia’s leading architect offices. Wingårdh Arkitektkontor AB has been operating in Göteborg since 1977 and in Stockholm since 1985. As we enter our thirtieth year of business we employ 73 men and 74 women in our total of 147 staff. We originate from eight different countries on five continents. The distribution is 110 employees in Göteborg and 37 in Stockholm. We are a knowledge company where assuming great responsibility is commonplace among employees. We are in a state of growth. The office has an expressed objective of recruiting personnel primarily from the younger generation. This gives the option for everyone to assume responsibility and develop within a range of projects. We have established a very sound structure. Part of the rerason for the growth of the company is personnel turnover. Over the years a number of the office’s more experienced architects have resigned and started their own successful companies. This is a natural and sound trend which provides new opportunities for other employees to develop their skills. The office works on all types of project from product development and interior design to large structures and city planning projects.