Since its founding in 1962, Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design (ArkDes) has amassed one of the world’s largest archives of modern architecture and design. Gunnar Asplund, Ralph Erskine, Malene Bjørn, Sigurd Lewerentz, Hillevi Svedberg, and other practitioners all have ephemera at the historic Stockholm gallery.
ArkDes reopens to the public this week after a 10-month comprehensive renovation. Arrhov Frick provided architectural services, and A.M. revamped ArkDes’s graphic identity. Both local offices reimagined ArkDes’s main entry on Skeppsholmen and redesigned exhibition spaces. New bright lighting was installed inside street facing windows to guide visitors inward. Designers said the renovation was about “creating an elegant new interior from a radical approach to reusing materials.”
The refurbishment started in January. Now, ArkDes and its research and library center are back online, and works by contemporary practitioners coalesce near ArkDes’s permanent collection. “These projects foreground the spaces of the museum as an open platform to understand the influence and potential of architecture and design for society in the past, today, and into the future,” ArkDes said in a press release.
To christen the gallery’s reopening, ArkDes has staged a number of exhibitions. Power of Places is on view inside the new entry space designed by Arrhov Frick and A.M. The show, curated by Daniel Feldman, Anna Sokoloff, Sumayya Vally, and María José Arjona, examines the development of Malmös’ Nyhamnen district.
Models and drawings by architects Léonie Geisendorf and Abelardo Gonzalez will also be on view for the public. The Geisendorf and Gonzalez show will happen not far from an installation curated by Joar Nango. The Nango piece traveled to Stockholm from the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, where it was first showcased. Designing Motherhood, a separate show that’s touched down in Philadelphia, Boston, and Seattle, makes its first appearance in Europe at ArkDes as well.
In addition to renovating the interior galleries, attention was also paid to improving the outdoor spaces where large-scale installations can be displayed. Utsikten by MYCKET was installed outside the ArkDes, a public space meant to encourage play and and spark young peoples’ imaginations.
ArkDes officially reopens on September 27.
