Life Behind Bars: Two Apartment Houses in Jönköping

The shores of three lakes – Vättern, Rocksjön and Munksjön – determine the topography of the south Swedish city of Jönköping and offer plenty of space for living by the water. In 2009, architects Tham & Videgård won the competition to build two new apartment houses along the Munksjön promenade. The two six-storey blocks are based on a simple floor plan: a larger cube encompasses a smaller one: the central stairway, which accesses five or six apartments on each floor. Most of the apartments are arranged at corners so that residents can enjoy views in two directions. The stairwell is square in one building and circular in the other, with Piranesian staircases. From the outside, the buildings – created for two different clients – can be distinguished by their colours. The façade and surrounding balcony railings are in anthracite on one building and gold-bronze on the other. In order to break up the strict square geometry, the architects chose to offset the structures slightly. Above all, they added a whimsical touch with the aluminum balcony railings. Their inverse arch pattern resembles fishing nets or bedsheets hung up to dry. In some places, their rhythm is determined by the glazed enclosures; in others they develop their own, less regimented order. The architects used the curtain motif even on the ground floor in order to delimit the private terraces from public space at street level.

more information: Team: Eric Engström, Mårten Nettelbladt, Helene Amundsen, Karolina Nyström, Marcus Andrén, Andreas Helgesson, Dennis Suppers Floor area: 10900 m²