Gert Wingårdh (born 1951) is a Swedish architect whose company, Wingårdh arkitektkontor, maintains an international practice.Gert Wingårdh; Thirty Years of Architecture, Mikael Nanfeldt (ed.) (Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, 2008)
Early life Gert Wingårdh was born 1951 into a wealthy family in Skövde, Skaraborg County, as the only child.Interview with company Forbo Flooring Accessed 3 November 2006 His father owned the local cement factory and the family's house was built on a limestone mountain. Both cement and limestone are materials Wingårdh later has used in his work.
When Wingårdh was ten the family moved to Gothenburg. After moving to Gothenburg he was bullied by other children for a while."Överraskningarnas mästare" Profilen, No 3, September 2006. Retrieved 27 October 2007 As a teenager he discovered an interest in art and cinema.
Education Wingårdh studied economics, art history and architecture in the 1970s at University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology, and has in interviews stated that it was a visit to the Pantheon, Rome, that made him decide to become an architect.Interview with company Forbo Flooring. Accessed 3 November 2006 Before deciding to become an architect he had plans to be an art-gallery owner.
He received his degree in architecture from Chalmers in 1975.
Career
Gert Wingårdh started as an interior decorator in the 1970s.Nilsson, Fredrik "Gert Wingårdh", article on Wingårdh at the Swedish National Encyclopedia (password needed) Accessed 5 June 2005. After graduating he joined an architectural firm for a short while before setting up his own office in 1977. He had his big breakthrough as a regular architect with the Öijared Executive Country Club outside Gothenburg in 1988. The building rendered him a Kasper Salin Prize.
He has had a number of assignments in the United States and Germany in recent years. Wingårdh is also the creator of the Swedish embassies in WashingtonKiser, Kirsten "Wingårdh Architects. Swedish Embassy" Arcspace, 26 May 2003. Retrieved 27 September 2007. and Berlin. Most of his realized buildings, however, can be found in Sweden and in particular in the area of metropolitan Gothenburg. In 2007 Wingårdh won a major international competition for a large new shopping centre in Malmö,Carlsson, David "Shopping center by Gert Wingardh" David Report, 20 March 2007. Retrieved 4 April 2007. and in the same year seven of the twelve hottest architecture projects in the capital Stockholm – listed by a Swedish national daily – were designed by Wingårdh.Sundström, Anders "Nu ska staden växa på höjden igen" Dagens Nyheter, 29 October 2007.
Several spectacular projects have created considerable attention but remained unexecuted, such as a conference centre in Östersund, Jämtland, on the top of a mountain, called Breath of Life.Carlsson, David "Gert Wingårdh in the mountains" David Report 1 June 2007. Retrieved 15 October 2007.Homepage of Breath of Life. Accessed 15 October 2007. Features developed in these experimental projects do occasionally return in built projects later, such as the curved glass facade that is realized in the shopping mall Emporia in Malmö 2011.Gert Wingårdh : thirty years of architecture through four decades / edited by Mikael Nanfeldt; [translation: Roger Tanner and Angela Barnett-Lindberg; photographs by Andreas Ackerup...]. – 2008. –
Because of his skills, his way of constantly attract the media attention and the many prizes he has received, he is generally considered the most renowned living Swedish architect.Andersson, Elisabet "Flitig provokatör dominerar arkitektscenen" Svenska Dagbladet, 25 November 2006. Retrieved 26 November 2006. His role as a public figure is not without controversy, though. He has for example been known to be an advocate of skyscrapers which has made him a subject of critique from some (Swedish) colleagues.
He became PhD (HC) at Chalmers University of Technology in 1999 and received the Prince Eugene Medal in 2005. In 2007 Gert Wingårdh was appointed adjunct professor in building design at the architecture faculty at Chalmers.Nystås, Michael "Gert Wingårdh new professor at Chalmers" (Newsletter from Chalmers) 15 August 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
The Wingårdh office has circa 170 employees (2022).
Architectural style
Gert Wingårdh started as a Postmodernist in the 1980s, as one of the architects who broke away from the strong Functionalist (International style) norm that held sway over Scandinavia longer than in other countries.
He is known to pick up new trends in architecture quickly and interpret them with a personal expressive language which integrates the surrounding landscapes into the projects:"Gert Wingårdh – Natural Habitats" Design Build Network, 1 August 2006. Retrieved 27 November 2006. "His buildings do not stubbornly adhere to one style but are a response to the task in hand and the surrounding environmental conditions. Sweden's rich tradition of building with wood and a strong ecological awareness is combined with high tech expertise".Kiser, Kirsten The Bookcase: Gert Wingårdh, architect Arcspace, 30 September 2001. Retrieved 5 May 2004.
Wingårdh has himself described his architecture as "high organic", combining high tech with organic architecture.Att bygga ett land. 1900-talets svenska arkitektur, Claes Caldenby (ed.), Byggforskningsrådet, 1998, p.186 He also has been described as a "maximalist" rather than a "minimalist", his buildings being "a kind of modern baroque".Gert Wingårdh, architect, Rasmus Waern, Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, 2001, p.11 He has shown influences from and kinship with such different architects as Frank Lloyd Wright, Hans Scharoun, Carlo Scarpa, Frank Gehry and Peter Zumthor. Another paradoxical description states that his buildings are both "playful" and "strict".Nilsson, Fredrik "Gert Wingårdh", article on Wingårdh at the Swedish National Encyclopedia (password needed) Accessed 25 November 2007.
A feature of Wingårdh's is to surprise the visitors of the buildings, keeping the entrance of a building low and then "heighten the sense of space and drama when entering the main rooms".Gert Wingårdh, architect, Rasmus Waern, Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, 2001, p.33 He also has a good knowledge of details as well as an understanding of intricate building structures, which requires good knowledge of sociological processes and human behaviour."Gert Wingårdh, Architecture" (Chalmers on professor Wingårdh) 21 August 2007. Retrieved 30 November 2007.
Awards
His building for the Öijared Executive Country Club, Lerum, was awarded the Kasper Salin Prize in 1988, and the Astra Zeneca R&D Site, Mölndal, was awarded the same prize in 1993.Homepage of Wingårdh's (under Wingårdhs/Gert Wingårdh/Awards) Accessed 11 November 2005. He received the ECSN European Award for Excellence in Concrete in 2002 for the Arlanda air traffic control tower. Other buildings include the Universeum Science Centre, Gothenburg (2001), and the auditorium and Student Union at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (2001), the latter also received the Kaspar Salin Prize. And in 2006 the Aranäs Senior High School in Kungsbacka was awarded the same prestigious prize. He was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal for architecture in 2005.
In 2006 Wingårdh also was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award for Mimer's house in Kungälv. House of Sweden was awarded the American Architecture Awards by the Chicago Athenaeum 2007.Homepage of The Chicago Athenaeum Accessed 15 September 2007.
The Washington embassy also received the Kasper Salin Prize 2007, making it Wingårdh's fifth Kasper Salin Prize—which places him in a league of his own among Swedish architects.Homepage of the Swedish Association of Architects (pdf-guide) 15 November 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2007.Yeaman, Nanushka Dagens Nyheter, 16 November 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2007.
At the 2008 World Architecture Festival in Barcelona Wingårdh was declared the "clear winner" in the shopping category for the K:fem building in Vällingby, Stockholm.Homepage of the World Architecture Festival 23 October 2008. Retrieved 24 October 2008. At the 2012 World Architecture Festival in Singapore, Victoria Tower in Stockholm was the winner in the hotel category. And at the 2013 World Architecture Festivale in Singapore the Emporia shopping center in Hyllie outside Malmö was declared the winner in the shopping category.Homepage of the World Architecture Festival 2 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
Influences on architecture Gert Wingårdh's awarded projects and his contributions to the public debate on architectureSee for example Dagens Nyheter 28 December 2010 https://www.dn.se/debatt/sa-bygger-vi-hogklassigt-for-vanliga-inkomsttagare/Gullbring, Leo "Gert Wingårdh" (Portrait) Form, No 2, 2002. Retrieved 2 July 2004. have contributed to a changed image of architecture and architects in Sweden.Lena From "Sensualism articulate" in Mikael Nanfeldt (ed.): Gert Wingårdh. Thirty Years of Architecture through Forty Years. Birkhäuser (2008) A will to create new solutions for every new task has enhanced the variation in the production but reduced his impact as a stylistic beacon.Harri Hautajärvi "An architectural chameleon" in Mikael Nanfeldt (ed.): Gert Wingårdh. Thirty Years of Architecture through Forty Years An ambition to "give the client what they did not know that they wanted"Olof Hultin and Claes Caldenby: "Samtal med Gert Wingårdh" Arkitektur 2:1995 reveals a will to provoke as well as to adapt.
Personal life Wingårdh still lives in metropolitan Gothenburg, near Marstrand in Kungälv Municipality with his family.Andersson, Elisabet "Gert Wingårdh lever inte som han lär" Svenska Dagbladet, 27 July 2004. Retrieved 11 August 2004. His home, an old cottage in the picturesque setting of an ancient village, contrasts sharply with the modernist style and skyscrapers with squares and sharp edges that he designs in his professional life.
Notes and references
Selected books about Gert Wingårdh Gert Wingårdh, architect, by Rasmus Waern (Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, 2001) Nordic by Nature, by Stefan Ostrowski (Natur & Kultur, 2001) Gert Wingårdh; Thirty Years of Architecture, Mikael Nanfeldt (ed.) (Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, 2008) Crucial Words. Conditions for Contemporary Architecture, Gert Wingårdh and Rasmus Waern (ed.) (Birkhäuser Publishers for Architecture, 2008) Falk Jaeger: "Wingårdhs", JOVIS Verlag Berlin 2010,
External links Wingårdh AB website Photos of the House of Sweden in Washington, DC. Some works by Wingårdh AB