Gert Wingårdh (1951- )

Sweden's most successful now active architect, Gert Wingårdh, was commissioned to design Universeum. Wingårdh let the building climb up the steep hill towards Liseberg. Right at the top starts a walk down through the interior of the building, which takes visitors through biotopes from all over the world. The walk begins in a transparent room with animals and plants from Northern Europe. It then continues through a compact stone area, where large tanks contain different ocean environments, including fish of different types. The path then enters the magnificent rainforest, which covers most of the hill. Nearest the street is a large area built in wood, with temporary exhibitions and a coffee shop, where the building meets the patterns and angles of the city.

To be able to house everything from fish tanks to rainforests, Universeum needs the very latest in technology. Wingårdh's idea was to turn the entire building into one huge learning centre, with a self-sufficient energy system and advanced closed systems for water and sewage. Universeum fulfils very strict energy requirements, and many parts of the building itself are actually recyclable.

Gert Wingårdh was born in Gothenburg, and his business is based here. He opened his firm straight after his exam in1977 and originally designed private residences, shop interiors, and restaurants. Many of these projects attracted a lot of attention. When he won the Kasper Sahlin Prize for a semi-buried golf club, thirty kilometres outside Gothenburg, and was given the assignment to design Astra Hässle's head office in Mölndal, it was clear that Wingårdh would become a dominating name in Swedish architecture. Today, he is Sweden's most successful now working architect, with assignments all over the world. Like many of his generation, he doesn't follow a particular track, to him, every project is unique. His designs often include unexpected and surprising elements. One example is Sweden's newly built embassy in Washington, which has been much talked about because of its transparency and openness, something which is very unusual for an embassy.

Text: Per Nadén