Left: Atop the arcade in Arenastaden is a 45,000-square-metre office building, all of which makes up Telia’s head offices. The façades boast desk-to-ceiling-height glass and the view is nothing short of magnificent. Top right: A former car park and office building was torn to the ground to make room for the three buildings that now house fashion giant H&M’s head offices as well as an arcade with shops and cafés. Photo: Åke Eson Lindman. Below right: As part of Stockholm’s new Hagastaden district, Reflex Arkitekter are working on a 16-storey building with a restaurant, conferencing facilities, offices and a hotel with 222 rooms.
Royal warrant architects for Sweden’s biggest brands With a knack for everything from conversion projects to contemporary new builds, and an expertise in reflecting client brands’ distinctive values, Reflex Arkitekter offers pioneering architecture and financial sense in one. The firm’s portfolio boasts everything from huge office complexes and residential blocks to laboratory spaces and music studios. In the eyes of the big property owners, they are so reliable they have achieved royal warrant status.
always be one step ahead and provide solutions that work also from a financial point of view. We want to work with pioneering, world-class architecture, and then making the numbers add up is crucial.”
By Linnea Dunne | Photos: Reflex Arkitekter
Among current conversion projects is the much-anticipated Urban Escape block in central Stockholm, for which Reflex Arkitekter will contribute with two segments: T31 and T29. The former is a complex renovation and extension project of an old office building, where a metallic shell in a warm copper shade will be the firm’s response to the task of using the façade to blend the existing floors with a new three-storey add-on, ready in 2017. Due for completion a couple of years later, the latter involves the modernisation of the corner of the block, facing the Sergels torg square, and providing a visual symbol for the entire project. Existing floors will be
Their first project was CityCronan, a huge block in central Stockholm refurbished and remodelled into a modern, stylish quarter of offices, retail units and penthouse apartments with striking views across the city. The project bagged the ROT prize as well as Skanska’s Environmental Prize and was nominated as Redevelopment of the Year in 2003. It went on to give Skanska its largest ever single-property profit when it was sold.
Helping clients do good business Reflex Arkitekter was founded in 1999, and the firm has enjoyed a clear and 98 | Issue 93 | October 2016
convincing path ever since. CityCronan set the bar high in more ways than one: conversion and upgrading projects have become one of the firm’s areas of expertise, and an insistence on financial savvy is always part and parcel of the deal. “We help our clients do good business; we have a clear vision for the architecture but are also sharp when it comes to the finances,” says Marco Testa, one of eight partners. Partner and founder Johan Linnros adds: “There’s this idea of architects as clueless in regards to the money side of things, but that’s a huge misconception. We have to