Meet: 42 Architects
Johan Berglund, the founder of 42 Architects, who hails from Stockholm, admits that he is still figuring out how to be a practice
'It started with a one-year experiment to see if it was even possible, and we're still here,' he says. 'I think to some degree it still feels like an experiment that could end any second.' The secret of the practice's diverse portfolio he says is not to specialise in a certain type of project, but 'almost taking anything that comes through the door'.
The Hyttgårdsparken skatepark in Falun, Sweden; Photo Credit:42 Architects
Yet what comes through the door hasn't been just 'anything', rather a broad spectrum of small public projects ranging from skateparks and port developments to fashion shows and shop interiors, all demonstrating an attention to craft and context. 'We do all sorts of things we're not officially trained for,' says Berglund.
Over the past couple of years, the practice has been designing the show spaces used by Topshop and the British Fashion Council for London Fashion Week. Last year, for Topshop's Autumn/Winter show held in the Tate Modern Tanks, 42 Architects created a curved high-gloss black wall on to which an Eadweard Muybridge-style motion sequence of models was projected. For the latest Topman show in January, a sprinkler system showered the models as they walked down the runway in the Old Sorting Office, where designjunction is held each year.
Last year, 42 Architects was one of three practices commissioned to draw up designs for a contentious new skatepark under Hungerford Bridge on London's South Bank. The space was planned -- before mayor Boris Johnson's objection in January -- as an alternative to the current graffiti-covered undercroft at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, to make way for Feilden Clegg Bradley's overhaul of the Southbank Centre (now on hold).
42 Architects was chosen for the South Bank competition because it had already designed a new skatepark on the site of a former copper mine in Falun, Sweden - and Berglund is a skateboarder.
The first stage was completed in January 2012. The ground of the 6200 sq m site is carved out to expose the geometric, sunken concrete surfaces that form the park's skateboarding areas. The second stage, confirmed as Blueprint went to press, will provide more skateboarding pits as well as green spaces and bespoke benches to integrate the park with the rest of the site. Berglund describes 42 Architects as the type of practice that 'designs everything on a project down to the nuts and bolts'.
While Berglund's dream project would be a library, for the moment the practice is focused on small public projects and 'avoiding doing house extensions, [which pose] a danger for small practices to get stuck'. Berglund notes that it is difficult for a practice being based in London but not coming from London. 'London is a relentless place because you can't rely on anyone but yourself,' he says. 'It's quite fostering in that sense.'
His adopted city will be welcoming an exhibition of 42 Architects' work this spring as part of Buro Happold's Emerging Architects series.
