Kungsholmstorg
“When I first showed my father round, he said it was too big and in too bad shape,” Andreas Martin-Löf chuckles, recalling an early site visit to his prospective new home in the former headquarters of AB Aerotransport, in the 1936 building overlooking the waters of Riddarfjärden. Specifically, they were looking at the apartment that belonged to Carl Florman, the airline’s charismatic founder, who Martin-Löf describes as finding curiously compelling for his: “Al Capone-like image - fond of hats and double-breasted suits”. The architect reminded his father that he is still young and has a lot of energy and, after 1.5 years of renovation, the apartment is now his home.
From “Taking Flight” article in Wall Street Journal, 2020.
This project features 03 Sinus Single 550 and 03 Sinus Dual 1050 and bespoke version of 01 Cone Wall 160
Martin-Löf’s father is presumably quite used to looking around potential homes with his son. In the past fifteen years, he has lived in five different places, each designed by himself. It’s a nomadic restlessness that sounds tiring, so it’s maybe no surprise to hear Martin-Löf say that he expects to stay put for quite a while longer in his current abode. And it’s not hard to see why. The 480 metre-square duplex space, complete with 6 balconies, is a rare modernist gem in Stockholm that the architect has poured characteristic heart and soul into balancing renovation and redesign, while bringing it to life as an exquisite home.
It’s not hard to trace an autobiographical journey through Martin-Löf’s former homes. In each, there is a feeling that he lives both in and through his own work – from the young, successful ingenue of The Hat Factor to the sensory escapism of the Aspvik summer house to the high-ceilings and refinement of the Lyceum. The archival research, the hands on craftsman-like process, the careful material choices, the forensic detail and the jigsaw of the physical, the mental and the emotional capacity of home – each project develops the architect, teaching and providing for him in equal measure. “Architecture is a play of two acts: it’s about creating something new and killing something old at the same time,” he says wistfully.
If work and life are metaphorically intertwined for Martin-Löf, in his latest home they are literally too. His architecture practice is based on the upper floor of the duplex, a proximity he finds convenient rather than suffocating or stressful. “Friends and family have warned me of the dangers of having no work-life balance,” he says, “but I think it’s no different historically from the baker or carpenter living above their place of work.” He points to a string of creative folk who have lived in or above or under their workplaces, and successfully embodied their life principles in their practice as a result: Andy Warhol, Donald Judd, Ilse Crawford. “I take the internal staircase between my apartment and the studio at the weekend, and use the public staircase on weekdays, so there are some thresholds,” he says.
There’s a sense that Martin-Löf is settling domestically and professionally. “After a decade of very intense and quite varied work, I’m entering a period where I feel more in control,” he says. “I’m working with quite a few private residential clients who are coming to me for architecture, rather than solving large floorplans or only working with standard solutions. Working at a more bespoke level allows for greater learning and creativity, and ultimately more interesting results.” He is a model of discretion when talking about private clients, but a brief internet search offers up Daniel Ek, founder of Spotify, and younger members of the Swedish Royal family.
