Architecture competition Pavilosta Poet Huts 2nd prize winners - Blank Arkitekter

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the winners of the 2nd prize of our “Pavilosta Poet Huts ” competition - Karl Zetterholm, Linnéa Holmberg and María Torrent from Sweden!

Team Blank Arkitekter from Sweden

Blank Arkitekter is a Stockholm-based architecture firm and was founded by Linnéa Holmberg and Karl Zetterholm in 2018. The office currently employs three people. Linnéa most recently comes from aBlast Arkitekter which she ran between 2010 and 2018. Previously, she has been working as a teacher at the School of Architecture at KTH in Stockholm. Kalle comes from two years of running Society Arkitektkontor that he started after a Europan win in 2015.

Maria joined the team in 2018, just after its inception. She’d previously worked for offices in Barcelona.

We have Masters’ degrees in architecture from KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm and Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, and Karl has a postgraduate degree from KKH in Stockholm. We have also studied architecture at Tu Delft in the Netherlands and EtsaB in Barcelona. Besides architecture we’ve studied art, art history, music and fashion. We’re continuously trying to learn and develop.

We have had the fortune of being able to work with projects on a wide array of scales and phases ranging from master plans to housing and interiors.

We have an ongoing collaboration designing the interiors for restaurant chain Holy Greens all over Sweden. Parallel to that we’re working on a 200, 000 m2 master plan in Nacka, just outside Stockholm, converting an oil harbor to a new mixed-use neighborhood and a range of smaller exiting housing projects.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture is ideally a frame for life that can assist in creating meaning and offer a sense of belonging, agency and comfort. It is a concrete way of willing a different world into existence. We’re viewing ourselves as an information node that can bring different expertise together in order to synthesize a wide array of knowledge into a common vision.

Why do you participate in architecture vision competitions?

Our aim is to enter at least two open competitions a year with different programs and scales. It is a way for us to practice agile thinking, a chance to play, a way of developing a collective thinking and of connecting to a larger international architecture community. We always enter with the goal of winning.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture vision competitions?

Consider why you’d do a competition and what you want out of it. Choose a competition wisely, make sure there’s an overlap between what the competition asks for and your interests. Spend enough time to make something outstanding.