Johan Sundberg

Sweden

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PROFILE

Johan Sundberg began his practice while still a student at the Lund School of Architecture, shifting from graphic design into interiors and small houses. By the time he had graduated – and bagged a Swedish best debut project award for the Villa Bergman – the 33-year old was practically an established name. Currently collaborating (and office sharing) with Blasberg & Andréasson Architects, he also teaches. Sundberg's approach is pragmatic. 'I would say that form, space and order surpasses any kind of conceptual ideas or beliefs,' he explains, 'but ultimately, what after some serious thought feels right, is usually right.' Taking inspiration from his students, as well as the work of Zumthor and Utzon – 'but I could just as well say Jackson Pollock' – Sundberg's work is crisp, refined and shot through with common sense.

URBAN ROW-HOUSE

A proposal for a three-storey house on a site in Malmo's old town, Sundberg's design displays its 'moral clarity' through a simple material palette, beginning with a solid concrete ground floor and gradually becoming more open as it rises. The 'stuck-on' facade references the 18th and 19th-century structures around it, only the new proposal uses glass, steel and timber panels that can be folded back to open it up to the street if needed. The proposal is unnamed, 'otherwise it would suggest that there was an underlying theme that rises above all else,' says Sundberg, 'I don't believe in that sort of thing.' Instead, the architect describes the houses as a symphony of 'spaces and functions, material and structural consistency, light and emotion', all brought together in order to 'create a whole larger than the sum of its parts.'


http://www.johansundberg.com

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