The Malmö Live complex in Southern Sweden, designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, was announced winner of the Mixed-use Completed Buildings category at the 2016 World Architectural Festival in Berlin. Since its opening in Spring 2015, Malmö Live has become a popular cultural meeting place and landmark in the city of Malmö, offering a setting in which the spirit of the city, its diversity and intimacy receive an architectonic expression.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen in team with Skanska Sweden, Nordic Choice Hotels, Akustikon and SLA won the 54,000m2 Malmö Live project in 2010. The project combines three separate typologies; hotel, congress centre and concert hall into one multifaceted entity, enabling the building to adapt to many different functions and activities. The project challenges the traditional understanding of what is considered private-public.
"Malmö Live comprises a concert hall, convention centre and hotel, and was built in a public-private partnership," commented the international jury. "It's a public building in the best sense of the word: open to anyone. Not exclusive and very democratic. It cleverly eliminates the traditional division between front of house and back of house. It's a real piece of the city and an important catalyst of urban regeneration. The architecture is restrained and uncompromising."
Malmö Live consists of cubic areas which are twisted and given different sizes to match the directions and heights of buildings in the surrounding city. The façades are designed with a homogeneous expression to make the composition appear as one architectonic sculpture. The ground floor is fully accessible to the public so people can pass through the building, whether going to a concert, congress, coffee shop, restaurant or just wanting to make a shortcut.
Earlier this year, Malmö Live was also awarded the Swedish Building of the Year award and the City of Malmö's architectural award.