Johan Sundberg Arkitektur completes offices that “balance industry and coziness”
Industrial materials are contrasted with “homely” details here head office for Swedish label company StickerApp, designed by local practice Johan Sundberg Architecture.
Located on an industrial estate in Lomma, south Swedenthe building combines StickerApp’s production hall with offices and a restaurant that is planned to be open to the public in the future.
Informed by the company’s non-hierarchical office culture, Johan Sundberg Architecture placed the production hall at the heart of the building, surrounded it with office space and, with the help of large windows, created visual links between the two.
“The culture in StickerApp is very flat and everyone hangs out with everyone; the office staff often go into the production facility to chat or talk about the jobs being printed, and the production staff are also interested in what’s going on in the office,” the practice’s founder Johan Sundberg told Dezeen.
“It makes for a much more interesting experience when using the building,” he continued.
Throughout the building, exposed ducts and metalwork create an industrial feel, most prominently in the double-height production hall topped by a corrugated iron roof.
In the office spaces, pine plywood panels and leather furniture sit under ceilings of exposed services, creating a meeting between the industrial and the homely.
Built-in and bespoke storage, seating and kitchen spaces create pockets for informal gathering, with large curtained windows offering views across and over the production hall.
In addition to these internal sight lines, large windows on the exterior of the building provide the offices with natural light and views of the surrounding landscape.
“Balancing the industrial and the cozy is great fun and is done with the means we have at hand – soft versus hard materials, homey and industrial and so on,” explained Sundberg.
“What else is a normal veneer surface or a leather bench somehow more sensual when set up next to all these metal pipes, steel ladders and big printing presses – maybe this is what Brutalism is all about?” he added.
The restaurant occupies the north-west corner of the site, with full-height sliding doors that open onto an adjacent sheltered terrace.
Externally, a curved pitched roof separates the building’s exposed concrete ground floor from a wood-planked first floor, intended to give a more “urban” and inviting feel to the structure.
“We think the building is urban in the sense that it invites visitors into the restaurant area, and it has these welcoming canopies. It’s also designed to look good from all angles, there’s no back and front in the normal sense,” explained Sundberg.
Other projects recently completed by Johan Sundberg Arkitektur are i.a series of wood-clad apartment buildings in Ystad, and a timber barn on a historic farm in Skåne.
Photography is off Marcus Linderoth.