WAF World Architecture Festival Awards 2016

“Paradise is the term for a place of timeless harmony”

In Somalia, a simple flue often means death. Especially if you are young or newborn. The death-rate among children is the highest in the world.

Sweden has a high influx of Somalian refugees.
The Somalian community is concentrated at Bergsjön, a suburb of Gothenburgh. A private health clinic has been highly successful by giving rapid treatment to anxious mothers. It needed to expand.

The parking in front of the existing clinic provided a new plot for a new clinic, a new construction above the cars.
The drab surroundings of precast concrete, it is basically “a project” of 60s social housing, needed some colour and flair. The new building was conceived as a gift, carefully wrapped in elaborate glass. It should stand out and empower the community!
Somalia is a very arid country where the idea of paradise is lush gardens, literally paradise or the garden of Eden.

We decided to surround the waiting area with four walls of dense, damp and excessive (in time) vegetation, a rain forest.
The exterior walls are clad with unique pieces of screened glass. There is a different pattern on the inner pane. The two patterns are juxtaposed. This creates the illusion of movement.

A flag of colors slightly shifting in the wind.
A celebration of color.