Tham & Videgård Wins Competition to Design Mess
Building for Military Academy in Stockholm
Tham and Videgård Arkitekter is a growing and contemporary office practicing in Stockholm that focuses on architecture and design, from large-scale urban planning to buildings, interiors, and objects. distinctive context and specific conditions of each project. The TandV team works and realizes various public, educational, exhibition, and commercial buildings and has experience in managing projects that meet the highest international standards for climate, safety, and long-term sustainability. This means that the practice is ideally equipped to meet and organize the various requirements and conditions associated with complex program structures and specialist functions.
About the Entry
Tham & Videgård Arkitekter won the competition with the winning entry to design the expanding Stockholm Military Academy at Karlberg Castle. When developing the new cadet building, the team took into account the historical context and the nearby park from the 17th century. the final design takes the form of an independent volume consisting of four gently curved façades of tall columns. In general, the project is determined by the interplay of space-defining arches, the horizontality of its facades, and the verticality of its columns. The rhythmic colonnade encloses the exterior and interior spaces in a balance of mass and emptiness, light and shadow.
Design
Karlberg Castle, built in 1630, was converted into a military academy in 1792, and the park was open to the public. Inspired by the historical site, Tham and Videgård Arkitekter designed the dining room building as a compact structure with symmetrical planimetry. The dining rooms, dining rooms are an essential part of the military training environment, as they provide a necessary socialization space. In this sense, the project with its peristyle-shaped columns creates a dialogue with the environment at the same time, which characterizes outdoor meeting rooms.
Tham & Videgård Arkitekter won the competition with the winning entry to design the expanding Stockholm Military Academy at Karlberg Castle. When developing the new cadet building, the team took into account the historical context and the nearby park from the 17th century. the final design takes the form of an independent volume consisting of four gently curved façades of tall columns. In general, the project is determined by the interplay of space-defining arches, the horizontality of its facades, and the verticality of its columns. The rhythmic colonnade encloses the exterior and interior spaces in a balance of mass and emptiness, light and shadow.
Retaining the Identity
Tham and videgård arkitekter designed the Stockholm Military Academy building in such a way that it is in dialogue with the classical castle order. The new restaurant building has a clear and calm presence that blends in with the surroundings while maintaining a distinct contemporary identity. The square base creates a compact volume with efficient use of space and tight internal connections. Within the symmetrically arranged level, there are two main entrances at opposite ends of a functional east-west axis.
The team from tham and videgård arkitekter organized their dining room in the southern side of the Military Academy building. The room has direct access from the service area and a south-facing outdoor dining area. Its generous double-height room represents a possible future increase in dining capacity by adding a mezzanine floor. To the north are the kitchen, storage, and logistics areas. A staircase next to each main entrance leads to a hidden upper floor, where offices and meeting rooms benefit from an unobstructed view of the park and a sheltered inner courtyard.
Philosophy and Ideation
“Architecture is about the future. A building stands for hundreds of years, so inevitably it is not only contemporary but also a form of continued history projected into the future. Seen from this perspective, all the ordinary circumstances affecting the conception of a new building or a new urban environment, are secondary to the lasting impact and quality of the construction: its long term environmental effect, its architectural integrity, and function, its capacity to convey the ideas and ideals of society. The result is the only thing that matters.”
As quoted by the firm, the practice of tham and videgård draw inspiration from the inexhaustible context, The physical and the ideological environment, Observational skills are needed for a design to work. Architecture, in its essence, is more about creating and organizing space. Over the millennia, architecture has evolved from a primitive refuge to an art form that encompasses several cultural layers, a complex and diverse building culture. Comfort and adaptation to site-specific conditions have produced different solutions for the same need. At the same time, each region developed its own identity, in which philosophy, religion, and law created a framework for a society that gave rise to different cultural contexts which today, together with the physical context, form the basis of all architecture. By understanding its context, good architecture can celebrate both the international and the local, using climate, cultural history, and endemic knowledge as filters for globalization.
References
- https://www.designboom.com/architecture/tham-videgard-winning-competition-entry-military-building-mess-hall-stockholm-07-15-2021/
- https://www.archdaily.com/965095/tham-and-videgard-wins-competition-to-design-mess-building-for-military-academy-in-stockholm
- https://www.floornature.com/tham-rd-arkitekter-8243/
- https://www.thamvidegard.se/studio/profile/
