Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Nordic Architecture & Design Special – Sweden
Left: Arklab’s plan for Katarina Hamam in Södermalm. Top and middle right: Award-winning housing project Modet in Bagarmossen. Photos: Åke E:son Lindman. Bottom right: Katarina Hamam will include a Nordic hamam, a restaurant and exclusive apartments.
Exclusive hamam in the city From one of the world’s best housing solutions in the suburbs to an exclusive hamam with design apartments in the city centre – Arklab is certainly demonstrating competence and variety. By Malin Norman | Photos: Arklab
Stockholm and Malmö-based architecture firm Arklab was founded in 2004. The studio is focused on creating innovative, precise and playful architecture. “The key is to identify the effective elements in each project to bring form and material together in a way that interacts and challenges,” says co-owner and architect Tomas Lauri. Katarina Hamam on Östgötagatan in Stockholm is one of Arklab’s noteworthy ongoing projects. In 2003, the gym at Sweden’s oldest existing school, Katarina Södra Skola, was razed by fire and only the exterior walls remained. It was one of the municipality’s requirements that the gables, with their large windows and characteristic decorations, remain intact. When completed next year, the building will include a Nordic hamam 118 | Issue 105 | October 2017
and a restaurant on the ground floor, and 16 high-class design apartments on the floors above. To communicate the new content, the design strikes a contrast between the classic and symmetrical design of the original building. “From the outset, this was a complex project in many ways,” explains Lauri. “We are combining an old structure, which we are not allowed to change due to its historic heritage, with a completely new atmosphere on the inside. There is an exclusivity to this combination, which makes it quite unusual in the Stockholm area.”
World’s best housing Another of Arklab’s projects, Modet in Bagarmossen, a terrace of 12 houses, has been shortlisted in this year’s World
Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards in the Housing – Completed Buildings category. The houses act as a link between a natural reserve and a paved street, connecting urbanity and wilderness, and also function as a filter between private and public. Lauri elaborates on Arklab’s successful design philosophy: “Every project has its own context – politically, socially, environmentally – and the design is a way of highlighting what is unique in that specific location. We believe that design actually makes a difference.” These two examples, a housing project in the suburbs that is considered one of the best in the world and an exclusive hamam and accommodation solution in the city centre, unquestionably show the range of competence and creativity at Arklab. Web: www.arklab.se Instagram: @Arklab