The Wingårdhs studio was commissioned to design the expansion of Liljevalchs konsthall, the first independent and public contemporary art gallery in the city of Stockholm, opened in 1916. Liljevalchs+ consists of the design of a new volume attached to the old art gallery, a small, precision-tailored operation.

The new space lets soft natural light into the building through a one hundred and seventy square meter glass roof. The proposal is quite simple and features a sculptural roof full of molded skylights. The concrete facade, designed in collaboration with artist Ingegerd Råman, features transparent bottle bottoms, creating a glass grid.
Wingårdhs proposal assumes the future but preserves the past. The original entry, which is well established as pivotal to Liljevalchs, will retain its primacy. Liljevalchs+ complements the gallery and provides further exhibition space, a secondary entrance, museum shop and café development.

The rectangular extension has three floors and attempts to follow the scale of the original building. The differentiation between the two buildings is both programmatic and visual. The composition on the new façade made up of 6,860 glass bottle caps gives rhythm to the exterior skin.

Liljevalchs+ by Wingårdhs. Photograph by Christoffer Grimshorn.

Liljevalchs+ by Wingårdhs. Photograph by Christoffer Grimshorn.

Liljevalchs+ by Wingårdhs. Photograph by Christoffer Grimshorn.

 

Description of project by Wingårdhs

The addition to Liljevalchs Konsthall is reserved without cowering. Its posture is that of a discreet aide attending to the existing art gallery. A small, precisely tailored operation. One hundred seventy square meters of glass roof let the   whole sky into the building. It’s all rather simple. A square filled with molded skylights. Two meters wide and two meters high. Two straight walls and two leaning. All the way up in the building  a thin glass membrane separates inside from outside. Below, the light plays exactly the way we want it.

Liljevalchs+ serves as a complement to the old art gallery, which continues to welcome visitors approaching from the main thoroughfare of Djurgårdsvägen, but our building faces Falkenbergsgatan instead. The differentiation between the two buildings is programmatic as well as visual. The original entrance, which is well established as fundamental to Liljevalchs and the experience of its architecture, will retain its primacy. Our addition provides more space for exhi-bitions, a secondary entrance, a museum shop, and the development of  the café.

The original building has two levels: a basement with gallery spaces on top. The addition pretends to maintain the same arrangement, but in fact it’s a split-level plan with floors at six different elevations throughout the building. It is rectangular in form, cast like a great concrete block. Glass artist Ingegerd Råman, who has been working with us in the project, has decorated the façades with crystal clear bottle bottoms, creating a grid of glass.

More information

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Architects
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Project team
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Gert Wingårdh, Niklas Carlen, Johan Israelsson, Fredrik Nilsson, Alexandra Pripp, Fredrik Nilsson och Andreas Dahlberg.
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Collaborators
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Artistic facade.- Ingegerd Råman. Interior Design.- Sara Helder, Gert Wingårdh, Wingårdhs.
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Client
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Fastighetskontoret Stockholms stad.
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Area
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2.280 sqm.
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Dates
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Building start.- August 2017. Completed project.- 2021.
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Location
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Djurgården, Stockholm, Sweden.
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Photography
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Christoffer Grimshorn, Johan Dehlin, Mattias Lindbäck.
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Wingårdhs is an innovative architecture practice that has presented benchmark buildings for sustainable, sensual and efficient design for forty years. A staff of circa 200 professionals operates under the company’s founder Gert Wingårdh. The office has pioneered a wide range of designs, from masterplans, housing schemes, civic buildings and transport facilities to private homes, interiors and product design. In a process of dialogue, the architects work intimately together not only with clients but also with superior specialists in every stage of the design process.

The internationally operating office is based in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmö. No other Swedish firm has been bestowed with more Kasper Salin Awards, the main national prize. Most recently 2022 for Helsingborg Water Tower.

The approach combines sensitivity to place and culture with an ambition to apply achievements in technology. The knowledge-driven firm is also actively involved in enhancing the common concern for the built environment thru numerous publications and lectures.

Gert Wingårdh.- Architect SAR/MSA, is Wingårdhs owner and CEO. He was born in Skövde in 1951 and graduated from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg in 1975.

He founded Wingårdhs in 1977, and since then the quality of the office's large production has generated many prizes and awards both in Sweden and internationally.

Gert himself has been awarded the Prince Eugene Medal and the Gustaf Dalén Medal, among others. He’s a Hon.D.Tech and professor at the Chalmers University of Technology and a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
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Published on: October 7, 2022
Cite: "A light and playful extension. Liljevalchs+ by Wingårdhs" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-light-and-playful-extension-liljevalchs-wingardhs> ISSN 1139-6415
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