Kjellander Sjöberg 20 years
Our anniversary catalogue exhibits reflections on the first 20 years of our office and our view on architecture, believing that all cities have a soul. It presents that, rather than prestige, we value content and presence. It shows our will to make sustainable projects where we can tell their story, talk about places, life and people. It has been two incredible decades during which we have gradually gained recognition and acknowledgement within architecture and urban design for our work with the urban environment.
“So, time to summarize our journey so far.
It has been an incredible adventure spanning two decades; with a fantastic, creative, engaged, competent, nerdy and fun team; with diverse and exciting projects, close and dynamic collaborations with clients, planning offices and other actors involved in built environment processes.
Winning a competition in Malmö in 1998 led to unexpected events, meetings, challenges and achievements.
It took us to new places and settings we have been able to study, interpret and contribute to in our way. Cities we truly appreciate and enjoy hanging out in, such as Stockholm, Malmö and London, where we operate from today.
What is the meaning of architecture? What drives us?
We generally say that all cities have a soul. Or rather have a logic based on their individual parts and characters. We call this urban fabric; a clear organisation or structure. The built form that is usually a response to local conditions and historic evolution; to climate, culture, economy and agreements; a response to rules. Our role as architects (still a word full of promise) is to try to understand, repair and improve. To expand on.
Style or prestige have never been important to us. It is content and presence, making sustainable projects where we can tell a story of a place, life and people. We have come a long way, but still have an exciting journey ahead. Our aim is to improve living conditions and environments – the important small details which can be touched, experienced and get inspired by. Local districts and neighbourhoods where we meet, forming a community. The city as such is the foundation of all our projects. A place where there is always something to do.
We are the happiest when we walk down a street and feel all has turned out quite well. The buildings and places we helped to shape land in a setting, are inhabited, in use and a part of the ongoing urban life in real time; offering spaces for daily life, flexibility, diverse experiences and raising expectations. A city where a street, the common public space, is the key.
We will always be attracted to materials that work, are durable, which are joined together in a skilled, crafted manner with intent, conceptual vigour and timelessness. Physical qualities that enhance our sensory experiences and accentuate meanings.
This catalogue is a collection of impressions, a series of places we have visited which inspired us, processes we had the privilege to participate in. Of reflections and strategies for emergent situations with inherent eternal questions. It could be viewed as a personal reflection on a city with diverse buildings, spaces, alleys and passages. Imprints of a reality and its qualities perceived.
Architecture, to us, means presenting possibilities; to allow. To create places that can be and are to be used. Spaces that people want to inhabit. But also, an opportunity to dream, create alternatives and complementary stories, propose new lifestyles, suggest communities, other societies and social settings.
About what kind of life could take place.
Sometimes these dreams become reality but almost always in a different way than we originally anticipated and imagined on the drawing board. Proportions, intensity… The result becomes larger, richer, clearer and more palpable. Just like the physical world is.
Thank you all who made the first chapter possible!”
Stockholm, November 2018
