Official opening programme: The Forests of Venice

Official opening programme: The Forests of Venice, Biennale Architettura 2016

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to the official opening events of the exhibition The Forests of Venice, Collateral event at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

Official opening programme The Forests of Venice
Serra dei Giardini, Viale Giuseppe Garibaldi 1254, Castello, Venice, Italy.

26th May at 17:00 – 18:00: Press event, unveiling exclusive material.
Introduction by the Swedish Minister for Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke.

Speakers:
Jan Åman, Atelier Slice
Stefan Sjöberg, Kjellander Sjöberg
Sandra Frank, Folkhem
Livia Podestá, The Swedish Institute

27th May at 17:00 – 22:00: Exhibition and pavilion vernissage ceremony.
Inauguration by the Swedish State Secretary to Minister for Rural Affairs Sven-Erik Bucht, Elisabeth Backteman, followed by an introductory speech by the initiators and curator.

Speakers:
Jenny Bergström, The Swedish Insitute
Stefan Sjöberg, Kjellander Sjöberg
Sandra Frank, Folkhem
Jan Åman, Atelier Slice

28th May at 17:00 – 22:00: Think Tank 014 – a lecture and open discussion.
Moderator: Hans Ibelings – architectural historian.

Speakers:
Chris Sharples, Shop Architects (USA)
Andrew Waugh, Waugh Thistleton (UK)
Alex de Rijke, dRMM (UK)
Tobias Olsson, Swedish Association of Architects (SWE)

Panel:
Jan Åman, Atelier Slice
Stefan Sjöberg, Kjellander Sjöberg
Sandra Frank, Folkhem
Morten Johansson, DinellJohansson
Katarina Lundeberg, In Praise of Shadows

The Forests of Venice is initiated by Kjellander Sjöberg and Folkhem, who have produced the exhibition together with the support of the Swedish Institute. The curator is Jan Åman. Additional support from Swedish Wood, Sveaskog and Martinsons. Including seven selected exhibiting architectural practices – Architects without Borders Sweden, Arrhov Frick, DinellJohansson, Horn.Uggla, In Praise of Shadows, Carmen Izquierdo and Urbio.

The initiative brings together some of Sweden’s most prominent architectural practices and highlights wood as a sustainable construction material, while illustrating the interaction between nature and the man-made human habitat in order to respond to climate change and limited resources.

Our host for Serra dei Giardini is Microclima.

The Forest of Venice

KS designs an exhibition at the Biennale Architettura 2016 in Venice

Urbanity, architecture, forest, wood and climate; are the focal points for Sweden’s contribution to the Venice Biennale 2016

The Forests of Venice, Collateral Event of the 15th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Serra dei Giardini.

The Swedish exhibition The Forests of Venice has been officially selected as a Collateral Event during the Venice International Architecture Exhibition. The initiative brings together some of Sweden’s most prominent architectural firms, highlighting wood as a building material and illustrates the interaction between nature and habitat for addressing climate change with limited resources.

The Forests of Venice is initiated and produced by Kjellander Sjöberg and Folkhem with the support of the Swedish Institute. The exhibition is curated by Jan Åman, and is supported by Swedish Wood, Sveaskog and Martinsons.

The exhibition is housed in Serra dei Giardini, a greenhouse built in 1894 and situated between the Biennale’s two main exhibition areas – Giardini and Arsenale. The exhibition takes the city of Venice’s origin and situation as a point of departure, drawing similarities to contemporary times when climate change and rising sea levels pose a global problem of flooding to threatened towns and densely populated coastal areas worldwide.

In dialogue with the Doge’s Palace; one of the city’s most public buildings and symbol of its representative government – Kjellander Sjöberg have created a pavilion installation of solid wood which sits alongside the greenhouse in the garden. The Forests of Venice continues inside the greenhouse where seven selected architectural firms – Architects without Borders-SE, Arrhov Frick, DinellJohansson, Horn.Uggla, In Praise of Shadows, Carmen Izquierdo and Urbio – speculate on how classical Venetian architecture and urban elements can be reformulated into strategies for our time using wood as the main building material.

The exhibition The Forests of Venice connecting to the Biennial theme Reporting from the Front, which explores the architect’s role in the struggle to improve the living conditions of people worldwide.

Our host for Serra dei Giardini is Microclima.

The Forests of Venice is open from May 28 until September 18, 2016.

Serra dei Giardini
1254 Castello, Venedig

Co-creation Malmö

KS invites for an open discussion

This Think Tank takes a closer look at collaborative ways of operating in design and planning processes. We would like to investigate how this may be done in distinct but related fields from art and installation to design and urban planning. What kind of new work can arise by including wider user groups and the people closely connected to a place?

Co-creation points towards possibilities of sharing knowledge and facilitating processes of a complex nature. Join us for a discussion on the power of dialogue, cross-sectional teams and participation, how an activist-approach can empower citizens and address the complications of rigid structures.

Panel Guests
Elin Eyborg (UK), architect and performance maker
Rosa Lund (DK), architect and partner at STED
The Connectors Society (SE), community of architects and urban planners, Malmö
Jessica Segerlund (SE), Älvstranden Utveckling, Göteborg

Time and place
28th April 2016, 17:00
Kjellander Sjöberg
Grimsbygatan 24 (Saltimporten)
211 20 Malmö

The event is free of charge. Wine, beer and snacks will be served

Everyone is welcome, please invite friends and colleagues!

New school in Burkina Faso

KS designs a project in West Africa

A school building designed by Kjellander Sjöberg is currently being built in the village Nakamtenga in Burkina Faso. The project is an initiative of the organization Yennenga Progress, which has already built another school in the area. The project proved to be a great success in the village; children make rapid progress and the school also attracts students from the surrounding villages. The need for classrooms is extensive across the whole region.

The building’s robust concept derives from a modular frame system across three dimensions. This provides opportunities to create spaces for the stairs, entrance balconies, canopies and solar protection within the same system.

The school is built entirely by local builders and craftsmen, thus creating much needed local livelihoods. The building’s foundation is in place and the classrooms will be ready for the start of term in September.

The project is volunteer based and carried out pro-bono by Kjellander Sjöberg.

Nordic team finalists in Malmö

Sustainable lifestyle in a climate-smart block

Kjellander Sjöberg has been selected as one of the four finalists in the design competition”Sharing for Affordable and Climate Smart Living”. The competition aims to find climate-smart solutions for Sege Park which will become Malmö’s new showcase for sustainable urban development, comprising 800 new housing units, within ten years. Sege Park is one of six in the Nordic competition series “The Nordic Built Cities Challenge”.

KS has together with the Danish landscape practices Sted and BOGL, along with LTH students and Atkins consultancy, developed the proposal It Takes a Block. It focuses on the lifestyle aspects of creating a sustainable society and how it can be supported by the built environment.

The second phase of the design competition will be carried out in the spring of 2016, in parallel with a land transfer competition for the area, offering a possibility for collaboration across both processes.

The four finalists will be exhibited at the Form/Design Center in Malmö from 3rd February until 6th March 2016.

Klara Strand becomes an urban node

KS transforms key property in central Stockholm

Kjellander Sjöberg is commissioned by NIAM to develop the Klara Strand block into a new welcoming urban node. The block is strategically situated near Stockholm Central Station.

By means of renovation and extensions, the vision for Klara Strand is to increase the intensity and range of activities in the area as well as integrate the building more clearly into the cityscape. By focusing on urban qualities and by opening up towards the surrounding urban fabric, the property is established as an important key point within the city.

The project works across various scales and dissolves boundaries between landscape, city, building and interior. The first phase of the project comprises a vivid bazaar with shops and cafés that open towards the Klarabergsgatan street, as well as a new interior street with meeting places for both the public as well as for private and commercial use. Estimated completion of the first stage is June 2016.

KS Woorkbook

Kjellander Sjöberg, 2015

Kjellander Sjöberg Workbook is our tool to reassess and improve the way people interact with the built environment, in order to create sustainable architecture and urban design.

KS’s work method emphasizes the process itself and is based on an open dialogue and close collaboration within both project teams and with our clients and partners.

Kjellander Sjöberg has, over a long time, established an extensive experience base and a particular approach to sustainability in its broadest sense. In order to raise the quality of resource-conscious projects, Kjellander Sjöberg has developed the KS Workbook – a unique tool and a process guide for a wider cooperation on forming the physical environment; for architecture and urban planning processes where sustainability is fully integrated in each step. The KS Workbook introduces a way of initiating a broader dialogue and means of achieving common goals using critical thinking and direct reflection, leading to more specific input and higher value to the end result.

Introduction to the KS Workbook
Today’s society has a unique opportunity: to imagine and create built environments and contemporary, inclusive lifestyles, that exist within nature and resource constraints. The search is on for new forms of human settlement, business, and culture based on long-term visions and adaptive potential.

KS believes that many – close to all – answers can be found in meaningful, precise and sensitive design of the urban fabric. Good architecture and planning often inherently achieve material sustainability. It also provides the spatial context for thriving public space, and the social dynamics of progress and renewal. We have a strong belief in teamwork and the collaborative process, and we seek simplicity and clarity in complex issues, involving many stakeholders and diverse objectives. This book is our tool to strengthen the design processes we participate in, by helping us and our clients to reveal the new potential in resources, space, and society. It is also a contribution to a shared process – for broader dialogue, critical thought and reflection – leading to better-directed interventions and more valuable projects.

KS Workbook has been developed in collaboration with John Manoochehri at Resource Vision.
Design by THIS IS Studio, London.

KS wins in southern Stockholm

Mix of urban and nature qualities

Kjellander Sjöberg has won the urban design competition for the Magnolia site by the centre of Sköndal in southern Stockholm. The design increases the openness of the area, connecting the adjacent urban fabric with valuable cultural and natural surroundings. The supplementary urban fabric generates a rich mixture of housing typologies, programmes and activities, creating a new network of public spaces and parks as destination points for the whole city of Stockholm.

The design proposal seeks to redevelop the public realm and consists of a new square, a pocket park, a shared-street and four new blocks with approximately 200 residential units in mixed forms of tenure, along with care and nursing homes. The development will focus on generating inclusive life conditions, ecosystem services and an environment that gives priority to pedestrians and cyclists.

The site is owned and managed by the Foundation Stora Sköndal, which is an idea driven, non-profit organization, engaged in diaconal-social work. KS’s commission is to develop a structural plan with programming and a guideline document in collaboration with the City of Stockholm and the Foundation Stora Sköndal.

The public hearing for the DDP is due in the spring of 2016 and construction is planned to commence on site during 2017.

View from Stadshagsberget

Kjellander Sjöberg’s and Wallin’s latest collaboration

KS is, in close collaboration with the developer Byggnadsfirman Erik Wallin, developing two new housing volumes with 90 apartments. The project is situated in the Stadshagen district on Kungsholmen in central Stockholm. Stadshagen is characterised by its open green structure, its rich recreational possibilities and the vicinity to the waterside. The building volumes are designed to overlook the Karlberg creek and the rooftops of Vasastan with both nature and urban life just around the corner.

The project is a part of the new Stadshagen masterplan; which is a growing extension of the dense city center around St. Eriksgatan and Flemminggatan. The project’s small and compact housing units have got strong, efficient floor plans and high end interior design finishes.

The detailed development plan is currently going through public hearing. It is estimated for approval in the early 2017. Construction is due to commence in 2018.

KS opens new office in Malmö

Kjellander Sjöberg is proud to establish a new branch in Malmö!

The practice has won several competitions and is continuously receiving more architectural and urban planning commissions in the Öresund region, therefore the time has come for the Stockholm based architects to open up the doors to a new office on Saltimporten in Malmö.

Malmö is an important city due to its strategic urban visions and its explicit focus on quality in architecture and urban design. KS is impressed by the city’s expansion and the energy with which the city addresses current issues concerning social opportunities, sustainable development and the focus on creating an interconnected city, which provides a higher quality of life for all citizens.

We look forward to a successful collaboration Malmö!

KS at Almedalen

The new urban life

Kjellander Sjöberg takes their dicsussion platform Think Tank to Almedalen 2015. This session is about “The new urban life – Better principles, better cities”

What type of urban qualities should we allow for while planning new neighborhoods and improving existing urban environments? What should be included in the public space of the city, who should be able to participate and how? This edition of Think Tank is about the city’s communal spaces as a public resource – about its content and interstitial spaces.

As cities are built more densely, new lifestyles and needs emerge. New programmes, dreams and urban behaviour combine to create new cities, with possibilities to improve social interaction, quality of life and climate issues. Shared public resources must be utilized to their full potential – for multiple uses and activities simultaneously. Boundaries between work, housing, education, leisure and the private and public spheres should be more flexible.

What are the implications of the above on the urban fabric? What role should be assigned to public meeting spaces? Who should have the right to use them? We focus on the social potential, on involving local communities in the planning process, on urban greenery, food and culture. The aim is to achieve a more open and tolerant programming of urban spaces, where spontaneous events and temporary activities can take place, in brief: a generous and rich urban environment.

What are the underlying principles such a city is shaped by?

The focus is on the following driving forces:
Community potential & participation – Christer Larsson, Director of City Planning, Malmö municipality
Food & culture – Jan Åman, Atelier Slice / Atelier Food, founder and cultural entrepreneur
Urban greenery & ecosystem services – Mattias Gustafsson, URBIO, landscape architect and CEO

Time and place:
10-11 am, 30th June 2015
Arkitekturträdgården, Strandgatan 16A, Visby

The event is open to all.