Sven-Harry's Art Museum
Sven-Harry's Art Museum is a mixed-use cultural building in Vasastan, Stockholm, developed for art collector and construction entrepreneur Sven-Harry Karlsson. The project combines a public art museum, galleries, apartments and commercial premises within a compact urban block facing Vasaparken. Its most distinctive feature is the shimmering facade clad in a gold-coloured copper alloy, a contemporary interpretation of the gilded architecture found throughout Stockholm's historic city centre. Completed in 2011, the building houses both Karlsson's private art collection and a full-scale replica of his former eighteenth-century manor house on the top floor.
Sven-Harry's dream
In 1998, Stockholm was the European Capital of Culture. The builder Sven-Harry Karlsson had built a townhouse in the city's exhibition area. We were the architects, and took a liking to each other.
Sven-Harry moved into the exhibition house and became, with himself, his home and his art, a very popular visitor destination. The line between private and public became slightly blurred — as did the border between building, architecture, art and the art of living.
Sven-Harry otherwise lived at Ekholmnäs on the island of Lidingö, with an exquisite collection of paintings, sculptures and furniture and an unbeatable view. When key works were on loan to some important exhibition, they never left gaps on the walls. There was always something else in the vaults.
A new plan was drawn up for the demolished boiler room by the Sabbatsberg Hospital. It requested the two lower floors be public, while the three floors above could be let as private residences.
Sven-Harry thought about letting his entire home become a museum. He probed the council for several properties; the boiler room by Vasaparken was likely the right one. Could the architect get sketching on this, he muttered.
I immediately saw Ekholmnäs on the roof — the little house on top of the big one. Framed by a roof terrace amidst Vasaparken's tall tree crowns, all the rooms would benefit from natural daylight.
Added were the entrance slit and the golden copper alloy. Gone were the balconies on the building's short sides. Stockholm City gave its approval to an open-planned ground floor with two private galleries, a restaurant and the museum's foyer.
Sven-Harry spent a year in one of the flats in the building. Ekholmnäs was sold, but its interior was recreated to the slightest detail on the roof of the museum. The eighteen residential flats finance the operation of the foundation that is Sven-Harry's museum.
"I think of all design in our daily lives, like clothing. We want to feel comfortable, but we also want a twist."
— Gert Wingårdh
Ekholmnäs on the roof
On the top floor sits a full-scale replica of Sven-Harry's former manor house at Ekholmnäs — its panelled rooms, paintings and furniture rebuilt in detail and opened to the public, the private home turned into the museum's final room.