Designing for longevity

Thomas Sandell – about design with an enduring appeal

The highly regarded Swedish architect and designer, Thomas Sandell’s career spans over more than three decades, in which time he has created everything from stools to schools and housing, with the theme of longevity running throughout his work.

THOMAS SANDELL

Thomas Sandell has been at the forefront of architecture and design in Sweden and beyond for over thirty years. Sandellsandberg Arkitekter, the practice he founded in 1995, is now one of Stockholm’s most high-profile studios.

KRYSSPALLEN

Design longevity

We begin our conversation by talking about Sandell’s famous design for the restaurant Rolfs Kök in Stockholm. Designed in the late 1980’s together with Jonas Bohlin, when Sandell was a student, the restaurant interiors are still fit for purpose and cherished today. Sandell says, “Not all restaurateurs think that the restaurant should last forever – but when they do, then it becomes more expensive. It must really be sustainable, and it needs to be hard wearing too: chairs that last, plates that do not break.”

Longevity in design is something that greatly interests Sandell, “The longer I work, the more I try to make furniture that I believe could fit into my own home.” One of his most recent furniture designs is Krysspallen for Palmgren, a company renowned for modern Swedish craftsmanship. “You want it to be a piece of furniture that is almost anonymous,” he says, adding that the combination of functionality and quieter aesthetic means it can become a design classic.

HOUSING PROJECTS

Design as if you live there

Sandell takes the same long-term approach with housing projects, “When you design a residential area – if you say to yourself that you’ll actually move there – it becomes easier to incorporate functionality and longevity. I believe that the time of drawing houses that only look cool in pictures is over; they become unfashionable and are ultimately not sustainable. It’s incredibly important to design buildings that will not be demolished!”.

UMAMI PARK

Housing work

Alongside his work in furniture design and the hospitality sector, Sandell has worked on numerous housing projects, among them KTH student housing in Stockholm and the mixed use scheme at Umami Park in Sundbyberg in greater Stockholm. Umami Park will eventually be a vibrant district comprising 800 apartments, 13,000 sqm of offices and 10,000 sqm of retail. “It was important that the social spaces work,” Sandell explains, referring to the areas between the buildings. He wanted to replicate the sense of community found in nearby independent grocery stores, which is why the focus was on food.

He likes the idea of architecture allowing life to carry on around the buildings, rather than dictating the style or function throughout their useful life . “Old industrial buildings are a good example, “They were suitable for manufacturing, with high ceilings for machines. After that, they worked great as studios for artists, and then advertising agencies. The simple formula is large windows and high ceilings. The buildings can be used again and again.”

Central to Sandell’s design thinking is not only this idea of longevity through, for instance, the use of long lasting materials, but also a sense of universality. We might have very different needs as people in some areas of our lives but in the way we use space and objects, there is a lot that unites us.

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Underpinned by our Scandinavian design heritage, we bring you regular stories about architecture and interiors, exploring natural materials, acoustics, and the creation of safe and harmonious environments.

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