Wingårdh & Wingårdh AB - Öijared Executive Country Club

Wingårdh & Wingårdh AB
Öijared Executive Country Club
Nääs, Gothenburg

Photo: Stefan Hallberg

Arising out of the Ground
by Claes Dreijer

In recent years the architectural trade magazines have been full of vacant appointments. The exoticism displayed by these advertisements, apart from the regulation qualification requirements, seems to stretch to demand that applicants should be enthusiastically interested in CAD, and with modern office's thinking with regard to business and production. But is working from an architectural platform, having a common gestalt objective, and an united intention - are these less important contentions?
On the other hand, it is probably more common today to find the prospective client searching for a suitable architect by Judging the architect's attitude to architecture.
The Öijared Executive Country Club building is an example of this.
The club house proprietors had decided ideas concerning the appearance and design of the building. They contacted a number of architects, observed how their ideas were received and how the architects reacted.
Gert Wingårdh's reaction was fired with enthusiasm, understanding and appreciation for the client's concept and, after a brief period, produced drawings and pictures related to the mitral idea. This reaction decided the client's final choice.

Photo: Thomas Yeh

The club building is set in the typical wooded surroundings of western Sweden. Having left the E6 route at N??s Manor House with Its pastoral surroundings, one takes a narrow, twisting road through a primeval forest filled with large stately trees. The road then passes the earlier golf course and Öijared Estate, (home of the proprietors) and ends at an opening in the forest between bare, rocky hills, typical of western Sweden.

Photo: Thomas Yeh

Here is the modern cave, excavated from the rough hillside, kneaded and stretched around the building like skin, in similar fashion to the flexible concrete shell with which Saarinen covered his famous TWA terminal. Having seen the building it is difficult to imagine another solution which would grip this barren countryside and provide it simultaneously with an aura of exclusivity. The exterior gestalt bears an expression of primeval originality; Earth, grass, stone, burnished wood and red limestone. The glass sections sit fragile and flexible, screening the inside from the outside like a delicate spider's web at the entrance to a tunnel. The entrance to the cave is through a stitch in the web. Once inside, one finds oneself surprised by the sense of space, airiness and warmth, and the welcoming atmosphere of the limestone "Wright" walls and floors.

Photo: Thomas Yeh

The interior consists of one large reception room which climbs the hillside m steps, forming irregular levels for seating groups. "Mountain formations" upholstered with voluminous cushions form inviting sofas. On the way up one passes by an open fireplace and a sell-service restaurant and at the summit, one finds a restaurant and a number of small conference rooms. During this journey up through the various levels the coarse-cut limestone of the entrance successively gives way to increasingly finer and more polished surfaces until, finally, ending in a soft fitted carpet of the same colour is the red limestone.

Photo: Thomas Yeh

At over the top a surprise awaits the newly laid golf course and, at the same time, a view down into the terra-cotta colored swimming pool. This provides a carefully calculated effect, and once at the top one understands that the different levels conceal the fitness centre, changing room, showers and sauna, all neatly fitted beneath the beautiful stone floor.
There is a constant sense of increasing refinement the further penetrates into the cave. The sophistication and exclusive details increase. In the lower regions the refinement is characterized by architectural design accustomed to applying the most exclusive interior workmanship. The changing rooms have, using simple methods, been furnished with a warm and articulated atmosphere. The lockers are beautifully made in oak and teak, the saunas display stylish carpentry and the whole is complemented by the original design of the swimming pool, lined in terra-cotta and blue tiles. An ambiance of earthy paganism has been implanted here. The architect himself admits that he has deliberately tried to reproduce the imagery of a woodland lake, a choice which suits the Scandinavian sauna much better than any continental or tropical imagery often used in exclusive swimming pools. The atmosphere of the cave is all prevailing in the swimming pool.
The postmodernism displayed by the Öijared Country Club is example of the postmodernism we should understand as a modernism dialectic, or an inner revaluation in the spirit of modernism, to paraphrase Wilfried Wang from the Museum of Architecture symposium, 1987. The modernistic influence is plain to see, primarily that of Wright and Pietil?. If we compare with the latter's Student Union Building in Helsinki, Dipoli, we can see how the club house "reevaluates" the brutal aspects of Dipoli's interior. Dipoli's heavy concrete ceiling expresses load bearing and mouldability. Öijared's ceiling is, on the other hand, light and sprightly and perforated with innumerable, small halogen lights, which lend the ceiling the look of an imaginary heaven.
When I conversed with Gert Wingårdh in regard to his work the Öijared project, his modernistic background was plain to see, although his is a modernism bereft of Swedish influence. Gert prefers to keep his distance from Swedish matter-of-factness and instead emphasizes the poetical and the need for strong character, element of surprise; on architecture in poetical control of reality. Site-suited, communicative modernism, an architecture clearly beholden to the consumer but simultaneously supporting the opportunities provided by modern society, the "new age".
Claes Dreijer
Architect with ABAKO i Göteborg, Sweden
A member of 1988 Kasper Salin jury.

Facts:
Architects:
Wingårdh & Wingårdh AB
Gert Wingårdh, Architect SAR
Executive, Sven Magnus Sjögren, Architect SAR
Assistants:
Häkan Albeman, Architect SAR
Patrik Nilsson, Architect
Foued Hajjam, Architect.
Statics:
Flygfältsbyrån AB, responsibility of Staffan Nordén. Executive, Mats Franzon.
Ground planing and geotechnics:
Flygfältsbyrån AB with Göran Böhr.
Water supply:
Bengt Dahlgren AB, responsibility of Jan Kilnäs. Executive, Jan Olson.
Electrical:
Elkonsulter ELK AB, responsibility of Bo Renhult.
Future proprietor:
Öijared Executive Country Club, responsibility of Jonas Brandström.
Contractors:
NCC (prev, ABV Väst), responsibility of Rolf Frii.
Resident engineer, PO Svensson.
Construction cost including projection work:
SEK 29 million.

Wingårdh arcspace features





				Features
		Wingårdh & Wingårdh AB Öijared Executive Country Club Nääs, Gothenburg Photo: Stefan Hallberg Arising out of the Ground by Claes Dreijer In recent years the architectural trade magazines have been full of vacant appointments. The exoticism displayed by these advertisements, apart from the regulation qualification requirements, seems to stretch to demand that applicants should be enthusiastically interested in CAD, and with modern office's thinking with regard to business and production. But is working from an architectural platform, having a common gestalt objective, and an united intention - are these less important contentions? On the other hand, it is probably more common today to find the prospective client searching for a suitable architect by Judging the architect's attitude to architecture. The Öijared Executive Country Club building is an example of this. The club house proprietors had decided ideas concerning the appearance and design of the building. They contacted a number of architects, observed how their ideas were received and how the architects reacted. Gert Wingårdh's reaction was fired with enthusiasm, understanding and appreciation for the client's concept and, after a brief period, produced drawings and pictures related to the mitral idea. This reaction decided the client's final choice. Photo: Thomas Yeh The club building is set in the typical wooded surroundings of western Sweden. Having left the E6 route at N??s Manor House with Its pastoral surroundings, one takes a narrow, twisting road through a primeval forest filled with large stately trees. The road then passes the earlier golf course and Öijared Estate, (home of the proprietors) and ends at an opening in the forest between bare, rocky hills, typical of western Sweden. Photo: Thomas Yeh Here is the modern cave, excavated from the rough hillside, kneaded and stretched around the building like skin, in similar fashion to the flexible concrete shell with which Saarinen covered his famous TWA terminal. Having seen the building it is difficult to imagine another solution which would grip this barren countryside and provide it simultaneously with an aura of exclusivity. The exterior gestalt bears an expression of primeval originality; Earth, grass, stone, burnished wood and red limestone. The glass sections sit fragile and flexible, screening the inside from the outside like a delicate spider's web at the entrance to a tunnel. The entrance to the cave is through a stitch in the web. Once inside, one finds oneself surprised by the sense of space, airiness and warmth, and the welcoming atmosphere of the limestone "Wright" walls and floors. Photo: Thomas Yeh The interior consists of one large reception room which climbs the hillside m steps, forming irregular levels for seating groups. "Mountain formations" upholstered with voluminous cushions form inviting sofas. On the way up one passes by an open fireplace and a sell-service restaurant and at the summit, one finds a restaurant and a number of small conference rooms. During this journey up through the various levels the coarse-cut limestone of the entrance successively gives way to increasingly finer and more polished surfaces until, finally, ending in a soft fitted carpet of the same colour is the red limestone. Photo: Thomas Yeh At over the top a surprise awaits the newly laid golf course and, at the same time, a view down into the terra-cotta colored swimming pool. This provides a carefully calculated effect, and once at the top one understands that the different levels conceal the fitness centre, changing room, showers and sauna, all neatly fitted beneath the beautiful stone floor. There is a constant sense of increasing refinement the further penetrates into the cave. The sophistication and exclusive details increase. In the lower regions the refinement is characterized by architectural design accustomed to applying the most exclusive interior workmanship. The changing rooms have, using simple methods, been furnished with a warm and articulated atmosphere. The lockers are beautifully made in oak and teak, the saunas display stylish carpentry and the whole is complemented by the original design of the swimming pool, lined in terra-cotta and blue tiles. An ambiance of earthy paganism has been implanted here. The architect himself admits that he has deliberately tried to reproduce the imagery of a woodland lake, a choice which suits the Scandinavian sauna much better than any continental or tropical imagery often used in exclusive swimming pools. The atmosphere of the cave is all prevailing in the swimming pool. The postmodernism displayed by the Öijared Country Club is example of the postmodernism we should understand as a modernism dialectic, or an inner revaluation in the spirit of modernism, to paraphrase Wilfried Wang from the Museum of Architecture symposium, 1987. The modernistic influence is plain to see, primarily that of Wright and Pietil?. If we compare with the latter's Student Union Building in Helsinki, Dipoli, we can see how the club house "reevaluates" the brutal aspects of Dipoli's interior. Dipoli's heavy concrete ceiling expresses load bearing and mouldability. Öijared's ceiling is, on the other hand, light and sprightly and perforated with innumerable, small halogen lights, which lend the ceiling the look of an imaginary heaven. When I conversed with Gert Wingårdh in regard to his work the Öijared project, his modernistic background was plain to see, although his is a modernism bereft of Swedish influence. Gert prefers to keep his distance from Swedish matter-of-factness and instead emphasizes the poetical and the need for strong character, element of surprise; on architecture in poetical control of reality. Site-suited, communicative modernism, an architecture clearly beholden to the consumer but simultaneously supporting the opportunities provided by modern society, the "new age". Claes Dreijer Architect with ABAKO i Göteborg, Sweden A member of 1988 Kasper Salin jury. Facts: Architects: Wingårdh & Wingårdh AB Gert Wingårdh, Architect SAR Executive, Sven Magnus Sjögren, Architect SAR Assistants: Häkan Albeman, Architect SAR Patrik Nilsson, Architect Foued Hajjam, Architect. Statics: Flygfältsbyrån AB, responsibility of Staffan Nordén. Executive, Mats Franzon. Ground planing and geotechnics: Flygfältsbyrån AB with Göran Böhr. Water supply: Bengt Dahlgren AB, responsibility of Jan Kilnäs. Executive, Jan Olson. Electrical: Elkonsulter ELK AB, responsibility of Bo Renhult. Future proprietor: Öijared Executive Country Club, responsibility of Jonas Brandström. Contractors: NCC (prev, ABV Väst), responsibility of Rolf Frii. Resident engineer, PO Svensson. Construction cost including projection work: SEK 29 million. Wingårdh arcspace features