Today Architects Sweden announced the nominations for the 2018 Kasper Salin Prize, and two of the four are Wingårdh projects.

“It is both a great honor and incredibly gratifying that we got these nominations,” says Gert Wingårdh. “Malmö Saluhall and Nationalmuseum are two separate projects with several similarities. We were given the task of refining and renovating on both projects, and both have been big successes with the public. It’s particularly rewarding to see that visitors are coming in—they’re the ones we’re designing for. I’m both happy and proud.”

Nationalmuseum, on Blasieholmen in Stockholm, was designed by Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler, and his original drawings were the basis for a collaborative effort between Wingårdh and architect Erik Wikerstål to open up, restore, and modernize the building. Since the museum reopened in October 2018 it has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and received several honors.

The old freight warehouse west of Malmö Central Station was no more than a roofless shell when the siblings Nina Totté Karyd and Martin Karyd bought it for the purpose of creating a market hall. In 2013 they hired Wingårdh Architects to transform the ruin into a marketplace for about twenty merchants and restaurateurs.

“The fact that the market hall has been nominated shows that a building’s design and function play a significant role in the city,” says Maria Lyth, Wingårdh’s lead architect on the project. “The market hall gives the city more than just a popular building; it has also created new public spaces in a formerly abandoned area. Together with Nina and Martin and the stakeholders in the building we’ve been able to create a new destination in Malmö. We got to bring the clients’ dream to life, which has been so much fun.”

Every year Architects Sweden awards the Kasper Salin Prize to a Swedish building or group of buildings of high architectural quality. Wingårdh Architects has been nominated thirteen times and won the prize on five of those occasions.

The winner will be announced at the organization’s Architecture Gala on March 19.