Gert Wingårdh
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| Gert Wingårdh | |
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| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Name | Gert Wingårdh |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Birth date | 26th april 1951 |
| Birth place | Skövde |
| Working Life | |
| Practice Name | Wingårdhs AB |
| Significant Buildings | Öijared Executive Country Club, Lerum, 1988, Astra Zeneca R&D Site, Mölndal, 1993, Swedish Embassy, Berlin, 1999, Universeum Science Centre, Gothenburg, 2001, Auditorium and Student Union at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 2001, Arlanda flight control tower Arlanda, Sigtuna, 2001, Aranäs Senior High School, Kungsbacka, 2006, House of Sweden, Washington, 2006 |
| Significant Projects | Müritzeum visitors centre, Mecklenburg, Astra Zeneca R&D Mölndal site, Mölndal, Malmö Arena, Malmö |
| Awards and Prizes | Kasper Salin Prize 1988, 1993, 2001 and 2006, ECSN European Award for Excellence in Concrete 2002, Prince Eugen Medal 2005, Mies van der Rohe Award nominee 2006 |
Gert Wingårdh is a Swedish architect with his main office in Gothenburg and a second office in Stockholm.
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[edit] Personal life
Gert Wingårdh was born 1951 into a wealthy family in Skövde, Västergötland county, as the only child[1]. 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 Gert Wingårdh was ten years old the family moved to Gothenburg. Wingårdh still lives in metropolitan Gothenburg, near Marstrand in Kungälv Municipality[2].
[edit] Education
Gert Wingårdh studied art history and architecture in the 1970s at Gothenburg University and Chalmers University of Technology and has in interviews stated that it was a visit to the Pantheon, Rome [3], that made him decide to become an architect. He received his degree in architecture from Chalmers in 1975.
[edit] Career
Wingårdh started as an interior decorater [4] in the 1970s. After graduating he joined a 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 Washington and Berlin. Most of his realized buildings, however, can be found in Sweden and in particular in the area of metropolitan Gothenburg. Wingårdh is generally considered the most renowned living Swedish architect. [5]
In the public debate in Sweden Wingårdh has been known to be an advocate of skyscrapers [6].
[edit] 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 intergrates the surrounding landscapes into the projects[7]: "His buildings do not stubbornly adhere to one style but are a response to the task in hand and the surrounding environmental conditions. Swedens [sic] rich tradition of building with wood and a strong ecological awareness are combined with high tech expertise" [8].
[edit] 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. 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 [9].
[edit] Influences on architecture
This is too early to say, but Gert Wingårdh has definitely had an impact on the domestic architect scene in Sweden; by his personality [10] and awarded projects he has shown that a Swede could have "starchitect" qualities - the country's contributions up to this date to the international scene has been rather modest, with a few exceptions such as Gunnar Asplund and Ralph Erskine.
[edit] Se also
[edit] Notes and References
- ^ From an interview with a Swedish company
- ^ Interview in Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish)
- ^ From an interview with a Swedish company
- ^ Article on Wingårdh at NE, the Swedish National Encyclopedia (in Swedish, password needed)
- ^ Article on his fourth Kaspar Salin Prize in Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish)
- ^ Interview in Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish)
- ^ Interview on website about building design and construction
- ^ About Wingårdh on Arcspace website
- ^ Info on Wingårdh homepage under Wingårdhs/Gert Wingårdh/Awards
- ^ Portrait by Leo Gullbring, a Swedish architect reviewer (in Swedish)
[edit] 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)
