New Offices for Akademiska Hus in the Old Veterinary School

The project is a refurbishment of the listed Old Veterinary School designed by Joel Lundekvist and Gunnar Asplund in the city district of Kräftriket in Norra Djurgården on the bay of Brunnsviken. Constructed in 1942-1944 as part of the Veterinary School, the building comprised departments of surgery, parturition, and animal testing.

The project’s starting point has been that any additions should be well balanced and carried out in dialogue with the existing building, without becoming historicising. Externally, the challenge has been to open up the building – particularly the attic – to increase the daylight without impinging on the cultural-historic value. The section facing the street has been subject to very few interventions: primarily glazing in existing openings such as doors and feed hatches. Facing the courtyard, discrete skylights have been introduced in harmony with the inclined tiled roof with no intervention in the original structure. Thus, all the interventions are reversible, which enables a possible, future reversion to the building’s original design.

Internally, we have modernised and accentuated much of the building’s original character, which had been heavily distorted by previous refurbishments. The structure of the building with thick load-bearing walls has been emphasised and new additions are in toned-down natural materials. The original plan for animal husbandry with pens of various sizes have been retained to best preserve the character of the building. The committed and close collaboration with our client, Akademiska Hus, has been a prerequisite for creating a sustainable workplace for the company’s employees based on the building’s specific conditions. As Marge Arkitekter was responsible for the refurbishment project (A) and the tenant adaptation (IA) we were able to tailor solutions that both reduced the material consumption and effectively increased the reuse of existing materials. By calculating the room acoustics together with the furniture, we have been able to avoid new ceilings, allowing us to achieve the same acoustic results with less material consumption. Material from the demolition of the MDF wall panels have been dismantled and reused for cabinetwork, including wall dividers, tables and new storage furniture. The existing furniture has largely been reused. The unused furniture has been sold on, and existing plants have been retained, replanted and planned into the new interior design. New furniture for the project has been primarily procured for the large social areas: the dining room and the large meeting place – “The Ring”.