Architectural award for visitors’ pavilion in Linnaeus Garden
The visitors’ pavilion in the Linnaeus Garden has won the Kasper Salin Award from Architects Sweden. The award is regarded as Sweden’s oldest and most recognised architecture prize. Photo: Tobias Sterner.
The new visitors’ pavilion in the Linnaeus Garden has received the Kasper Salin Award from Architects Sweden. The citation includes the following: “Designed with such assurance that it needs no explanation.”
“We are extremely pleased and proud at the Linnaean Gardens of Uppsala that the visitors’ pavilion in the Linnaeus Garden has been recognised with the Kasper Salin Award and that the culturally and historically interesting environment has thus acquired an additional attraction,” says Anders Backlund, Director of the Linnaean Gardens of Uppsala, which include the Linnaeus Garden.
The visitors’ pavilion serves as a new entrance to the Linnaeus Garden in central Uppsala and contains a ticket office, shop and café. The pavilion was erected by the National Property Board of Sweden in close cooperation with Uppsala University. The pavilion was designed by Hidemark & Stintzing Arkitekter and opened to visitors in May 2024.
The jury particularly appreciated the way in which the architect, by skilful craftsmanship, has addressed contemporary functional needs, without detracting from the magic of the place.
The award citation reads: “Resisting the temptation to use grand architectural gestures on this site is a mark of true professional conduct. Using apparently simple means, it provides a skilful example of architectural craft that addresses contemporary functional needs, without detracting from the magic of the place. The winner is a building of modest dimensions, which now joins the company of other small masterpieces in the history of architecture. Designed with such assurance that it needs no explanation.”
Opens for the season on 1 May
Architects Sweden presents the annual Kasper Salin Award to a Swedish building or group of buildings of high architectural quality. The award is regarded as Sweden’s oldest and most recognised architecture prize.
The visitors’ pavilion has previously received the Uppsala Municipality Architecture Prize.
During the summer of 2024, the number of visitors to both the garden and the shop in the visitors’ pavilion increased. The hope is, of course, that this award will now encourage even more people to make their way to the Linnaeus Garden.
The Linnaeus Garden opens for the season on 1 May 2025.
Anders Berndt