Johan Sundberg Arkitektur AB works with clients throughout Sweden on private residences, multiple-family homes, interiors and special projects.

The firm has its roots in Johan Sundberg’s architectural work. The firm got off to a running start when the 2006 project Villa Bergman Werntoft, which was originally a thesis project, was nominated for the Swedish architecture magazine Arkitektur’s 2007 Debut Prize. Many projects have followed. The firm was selected as one of the world’s most interesting young architectural firms for Wallpaper Architects Directory 2010. Today, Lund-based Johan Sundberg Architecture shares many of the firm’s daily responsibilities with a number of associate architects, and their finished projects are featured in architecture press from all around the world.

Johan Sundberg also teaches at the Architecture Department of Lund University’s Faculty of Engineering (LTH). Many of the firm’s employees have been educated at the same institute.

About our architecture

‍Consulting an architect should be a matter of course when investing in a construction endeavour. Instead of a standard solution, the result becomes an aesthetically and functionally coherent composition. Architect-designed houses are more than merely site-specific plans; they are also charged with positive emotion for the clients. In addition, the houses’ sentimental and economic value augments steadily over time.

Dialogue with the clients is the natural point of departure in the studio’s design process. The architect is an analyst, composing a holistic solution that combines the necessities of everyday with memories of the past and dreams of the future. In collaboration with our clients, we follow the project from the initial sketches to the housewarming party. Unlike other actors in the construction industry, we take responsibility for the project in its entirety along the way.

The architectural project should accommodate many diverse uses for many generations to come; that’s why it is vital that no one element dominates the others. Architecture is a means to an end, and the objective is to build opportunities for a rich and versatile life on the site.

”Anything but banal”: Interview with Johan Sundberg

Johan Sundberg does not have a recipe for his architecture. Extensive dialogue with clients is a matter of course, and the houses he designs are an expression of his clients’ needs and dreams. So is exceeding their greatest expectations. How do you work?
– Creating good architecture is like weaving. What does the client need now, what are their aspirations? We also need to take the site into consideration, and sometimes – but not always – building traditions. It’s a little like breathing life into a story, harnessing vitality in as many elements as possible and creating a unique and open-ended experience – an architecture where there are always new details to discover. Essentially, architecture is the projection of space and light; it should be sensuous, close to nature and bathed in sunlight.

Many Swedish architects insist on right angles and clean surfaces. Does it ever seem that form is more important than function?
– Many try in vain to reinvent architecture time and time again, to present something the world has never seen at all costs – a perfect picture. I want to avoid the banal and create houses that last a lifetime, houses to experience with all of the senses – a contemporary reinterpretation of a building tradition that inspires to a kind of open-ended architecture, one that leaves room for adaptations in the future. That might make me sound like a minimalist, but for me it is merely about accentuating the essential. It’s not unlike reducing a sauce in the kitchen, adding just the right ingredients to create a unique high-quality end product.

– At first glance, my houses might seem scaled down, but what’s inside can be more heterogeneous. I try to avoid using straight lines, and I definitely prefer more complex floor plans with an element of collage. Building a house is like building a little town – it needs to work on a regular day, but it also needs to work during a festival. All of these aspects are woven together, and that is the core of what we do.