SPIRA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER BY WINGARDH ARKITEKTKONTOR

The building is situated on an artificial peninsula jutting out into Lake Munksjön, right in the center of downtown Jönköping.

Spira has four different performing arts venues: a main concert hall that seats 910, a 450-seat theater, a 200-seat black box, and a 200-seat café stage.

The layout follows from a foyer that opens to the west and the sun as it sets over the lake, and from the four main halls strung together along the foyer.

To the east lie workshops for everyday activities, and another public building will eventually be erected adjacent to Spira’s east side.

The elevations are vertically striped in opaque bands of white and orange, with transparent bands of clear, orange, and yellow-tinted glass.

It is the color of molten glass as it leaves the furnaces of a glassworks – a celebration of Sweden’s glassmaking region. The interior is finished in warm wood, with a concert hall wrapped in wood beneath a starry night sky in the most traditional way.

The foyer meanders along a façade that overlooks the lake. After opening big, the space is soon quelled by stairs that lead to the upper seating.

Beyond this constriction, the foyer takes on a more intimate character. The building won first prize in an invited competition in 2007, and the design was turned into reality by 2011.

Location: Jönköping, Sweden

Architects: Wingårdh Arkitektkontor

Project Team: Andreas Henriksson, Peter Öhman, Claes Berglöf, Viktoria Wallin, Josefine Kastberg, Foued Hajjam, Therese Ahlström, Aron Davidsson, Anna Palm, Dan Danielsson, Helena Toresson, Sara Helder, Viktor Alm, Björn Nilsson, Anna Nyborg Lafveskans, Charlotta Rosell, Jennie Stolpe, Daniel Frickeus, Fredrik Gullberg, Pål Ericksson, Ola Frödell, Robert Hendberg, Peter Sierts

Acoustics: Akustikon, Norconsult AB

Stage equipment: Teaterkonsult Hasselblad

Landscape: Ramböll

Structure: COWI

Electrical: WSP Systems

Lighting: WSP Ljusdesign

HVAC: Sweco Systems

Contractor: PEAB

Area: ca 15 000 sqm

Year: 2011

Client: Landstingsfastigheter

Photographs: Ulf Celander, Åke Eson Lindman, Gert Wingårdh

KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET AULA MEDICA BY WINGÅRDH ARCHITECTS

The abstract building cladded in six different types of glass stands like a bowl at the core of medical university Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

It's been baptized as Hagastaden and includes the gigantic New Karolinska University Hospital designed by White and Tengbom Architects as well as the yet completed twin towers Tors Torn by OMA.

These two skyscrapers will become the third tallest buildings in Sweden. Wingårdh has designed the building, the form and geometry of which contrasts with the traditional low-rise brick buildings on the campus.

Aula Medica was completed in the summer of 2013 and houses a 1,000-seat auditorium, office space for 90 staff, 100 conference seats, two restaurants and a café.

As Karolinska Institutet selects the Nobel Prize laureates in medicine or physiology, there has been a demand for a large venue for their lectures.

With its 1,000-seat auditorium, Karolinska Institutet's new lecture hall complex, Aula Medica, enables the university to arrange major public events, such as the Nobel lectures, which attract audiences from around the world.

This iconic jewel formed in gold and black glass hosts the new lecture hall, classrooms and offices for the university community. It also hosts one of the most impressive over vert leaning facades in Europe.

The façade of glass on a glulam structure is wrapped around the building that leans heavily over the highway, announcing the presence of research and education in the cities of Stockholm and Solna.

An environmental programme has been produced to ensure a green build. Highly energy-efficient solutions have been devised following investigations into choices of system.

For example, the carcass of the building comprises triangular elements that form an airtight, energy-lean façade.

Location: Stockholm, Sweden 
Architect: Wingårdh Architects 
General contractor: NCC Construction 
Premises space: 10,000 sq. m 
Commencement: September 2010 
Completion: June 2013 
Client: Akademiska Hus 
Photo: Ulf Sirborn, Ola Fogelström