Winning design
Wingårdh Architects
Swedish Embassy
Washington, DC
"The transparency of the building will reflect Sweden's desire for openness and dialogue in the most important capital in the world."
Jan Eliasson
Swedish Ambassador to the USA
Image courtesy Wingårdh Architects
The Swedish Embassy, referred to as "The House of Sweden", will be built on the Potomac River - in the heart of Georgetown - north of Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Besides functioning as an arena for the diplomatic process the House will be open to the public for events, exhibitions, seminars and cultural activities.
Architects Gert Wingårdh and Tomas Hansen from Wingårdh Architects, Gothenburg, Sweden, designed the winning entry in the Swedish competition.
Gert Wingårdh, one of the most recognized architects in Sweden, also won the 1996 design competition for the Swedish embassy in Berlin.
Image courtesy Wingårdh Architects
Image courtesy Wingårdh Architects
The winning design is a fairly simple structure adapted to the city's grid, but enhanced by an intriguing belt of balconies for two floors of private residencies above the embassy offices. The building also includes a conference center with exhibition areas and an auditorium.
Image courtesy Wingårdh Architects
Image courtesy Wingårdh Architects
"Basically, our building is a modernistic glass construction, which is encompassed by an intricate belt of wood character. The combination of an exterior cladding of screened glass with a layer of wood veneer on glass sheets behind give the building a modern, Scandinavian touch which, through its translucency, becomes a built image of that openness which Sweden would like to present to the world,"
Gert Wingårdh/Tomas Hansen
Image courtesy Wingårdh Architects
Image courtesy Wingårdh Architects
Landscape architect Johan Paju has designed a five-part setting for the building that includes the winter terrace, the barren rocky garden, the meadow, the forest pond and the beech forest; each inspired by the Sweden's landscape.
Construction start: 2004.
Completion scheduled for 2006
Chief Architect SAR/MSA Peter Ohrstedt
Swedish Property Board
Wingårdh Architects:
Architect SAR/MSA Gert Wingårdh
Architect SAR/MSA Tomas Hansen
Landscape Architect: Johan Paju, NOD