Gert Wingårdh

Several spectacular projects have created considerable attention but remained unexecuted, such as a conference centre in Östersund, Jämtland, on the top of a mountain, called Breath of Life. Features developed in these experimental projects do occasionally return in built projects later, such as the curved glass facade that is realized in the shopping mall Emporia in Malmö 2011.

The Wingårdh office has circa 150 employees (2010).

At the 2008 World Architecture Festival in Barcelona Wingårdh was declared the ”clear winner” in the shopping category for the K:fem building in Vällingby, Stockholm. At the 2012 World Architecture Festival in Singapore, Victoria Tower in Stockholm was the winner in the hotel category. And at the 2013 World Architecture Festivale in Singapore the Emporia shopping center in Hyllie outside Malmö was declared the winner in the shopping category.

He has had a number of assignments in the United States and Germany in recent years. Wingårdh is also the creator of the Swedish embassies in Washington and Berlin. Most of his realized buildings, however, can be found in Sweden and in particular in the area of metropolitan Gothenburg. In 2007 Wingårdh won a major international competition for a large new shopping centre in Malmö, and in the same year seven of the twelve hottest architecture projects in the capital Stockholm – listed by a Swedish national daily – were designed by Wingårdh.

The Washington embassy also received the Kasper Salin Prize 2007, making it Wingårdh's fifth Kasper Salin Prize—which places him in a league of his own among Swedish architects.

In 2006 Wingårdh also was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award for Mimer's house in Kungälv. House of Sweden was awarded the American Architecture Awards by the Chicago Athenaeum 2007.

He became PhD (HC) at Chalmers University of Technology in 1999 and received the Prince Eugene Medal in 2005. In 2007 Gert Wingårdh was appointed adjunct professor in building design at the architecture faculty at Chalmers.

His building for the Öijared Executive Country Club, Lerum, was awarded the Kasper Salin Prize in 1988, and the Astra Zeneca R&D Site, Mölndal, was awarded the same prize in 1993. He received the ECSN European Award for Excellence in Concrete in 2002 for the Arlanda air traffic control tower. Other buildings include the Universeum Science Centre, Gothenburg (2001), and the auditorium and Student Union at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (2001), the latter also received the Kaspar Salin Prize. And in 2006 the Aranäs Senior High School in Kungsbacka was awarded the same prestigious prize. He was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal for architecture in 2005.

Gert Wingårdh started as a Postmodernist in the 1980s, as one of the architects who broke away from the strong Functionalist (International style) norm that held sway over Scandinavia longer than in other countries.

He received his degree in architecture from Chalmers in 1975.

Wingårdh studied economics, art history and architecture in the 1970s at Gothenburg University and Chalmers University of Technology, and has in interviews stated that it was a visit to the Pantheon, Rome, that made him decide to become an architect. Before deciding to become an architect he had plans to be an art-gallery owner.

Gert Wingårdh started as an interior decorator in the 1970s. After graduating he joined an architectural firm for a short while before setting up his own office in 1977. He had his big breakthrough as a regular architect with the Öijared Executive Country Club outside Gothenburg in 1988. The building rendered him a Kasper Salin Prize.

Gert Wingårdh (born 1951) is a Swedish architect whose company, Wingårdh arkitektkontor, maintains an international practice.

Gert Wingårdh was born 1951 into a wealthy family in Skövde, Västergötland county, as the only child. His father owned the local cement factory and the family’s house was built on a limestone mountain. Both cement and limestone are materials Wingårdh later has used in his work.