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Architecture studio Norell/Rodhe have transformed the interior of a historical building for The Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, a leading art school located on the island of Skeppsholmen. The project is part of a restoration after the institute lost several ateliers and workshops to a severe fire in 2016. In its aftermath, the school decided to expand locally, utilizing the existing building stock on the island.

As a pilot project, Norell/Rodhe were tasked with transforming the interior of an old 450sqm navy building into a new home for faculty and students working with photography, multimedia and moving images. The design approach follows a new teaching model whereby hierarchy between professors, workshop staff and students are dispersed by uniting them around a disciplinary subject, rather than a focus on academic rank.

Originally constructed as a single-storey structure in 1732, the building had since undergone many shifts in function, including a mine factory for the navy and a hub for cultural workshops. For the new design, Norell/Rodhe sifts through the historical layers of the site, juxtaposing them both against each other and against new additions. The layout spans in sequence from discursive spaces such as seminar and lecture rooms, to spaces for production such as film studios, video editing rooms and a digital dark room.

The front section of the building is characterized by a series of diagonally braced timber columns that date back to a vertical extension in the 1800s. Windows facing out toward the quay are transferred onto the wall behind the timber columns, allowing daylight directly into the seminar rooms. The back of the building has a more industrial character. Facing a hill, it features skylights and an overhead crane containing spaces for production. Thanks to blinds, curtains and flexible furniture, several rooms here are available for film screenings.

The architects articulated key existing elements with colour throughout the project, such as the pastel yellow braced columns. Bespoke fittings and furniture have a monolithic materiality, including a cast concrete communal table, shelving, cabinets and vitrines made of pigmented particleboard, and ceilings with exposed white installations. Chairs and stools in the seminar rooms and communal spaces were reused from the institute’s main building. Swedish furniture designer Åke Axelsson specially designed the Lilla H chair (“Lowercase H”) and Ateljépall (“Atelier stool”) for the institute in the 1990s.

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