Location: Stockholm, Sweden.

Architect: Wingårdhs and Wikerstål Architects.

Wingårdh Architects and Wikerstål Architects were jointly commissioned to plan the comprehensive renovation of the Nationalmuseum in 2012. The project brief was to create an enduringly functional museum by reclaiming opportunities for daylight and views to the exterior, reclaiming for public use several areas that had previously been used for internal activities, improving the logistics through alternative circulation patterns for the public and separate and secure routes for the art, replacing and augmenting all technical systems, and achieving all these enhancements with respectful consideration for the building’s architecture and cultural historical value. Most of the new design is derived from the painstaking work of the building’s original architect, Friedrich August Stüler, and the lion’s share of the work has been to ensure we meet the new technical and operational requirements while remaining true to the building’s own inherent qualities. The renovation of the Nationalmuseum included the addition of an elevator shaft wrapped in a weave of patinaed brass. The elevator shaft’s kinship to the new mechanical building recently constructed in the museum park is acknowledged by giving both a similar woven cladding.

The lower portion of the elevator shaft can be opened on the sides to reveal a large video screen that can transform the atrium into a lecture hall. The atriums are lit from above by vaulted glass roofs that are shallow enough to avoid changing the building’s silhouette. The glass roof structures are built up of many small pyramids to give the atriums the best possible acoustics. The neutral gray color of the walls enhances the quality of the incoming daylight, which benefits the surrounding gallery spaces. Raising the atrium floors 175 centimetres created space for large mechanical rooms and united the atriums with the building’s other public spaces.