2011-2022 

Nina Lundvall joined Caruso St john Architects in 2011 and became an Associate Director in 2016. She was project architect for the refurbishment and extension of Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Stockholm City Library, a new HQ building for the German furniture maker Deutsche Werkstätten and most recently Arkdes Lewerentz Exhibition, Stockholm, Sweden.

Photographs of Liverpool Philharmonic Hall © Helene Binet

Photographs of Arkdes Lewerentz Exhibition © Malmsten Hellberg & Nina Lundvall

Illustrations of Liverpool Philharmonic © Nora Walter & CSTJ

Nina Lundvall was part of an international jury of experts within the field of urban planning, architecture and landscape architecture.

“Europan is a thematic competition of ideas / projects, a tool for European cities and urban actors to find and develop innovative strategies for their sites in transformation and a platform for young professionals of urban, landscape and architectural design” (Europan-Europe.eu ‘website’).

Photography © Europan 16 Norway

Since 2018 James has curated a lecture series, hosted by The Cass, entitled ‘Formgivers’. This was set up to celebrate a new generation of European architects. The series has so far invited 14 architects from Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland and the UK as well as two architects from Sweden, Dehlin Brattgard and Arhov Frick.

James has written extensively for journals including Architecture Today, Building Design, Werk, and Oris. He has also contributed to the Phaidon Atlas of 20th Century Architecture with research text summaries of many key works of Scandinavian modernism.

James Payne Profiles Johan Celsing, Brick Bulletin, Autumn 2012

Contained Geometries, House in Balsthal, Pascal Flammer, Oris, issue 76 (Zagreb, Croatia)

House in Balstahl, Pascal Flammer,
Architecture Today 226, March 2012

Independently Minded, Haworth Tompkins’ London Library,
Building Design, 02 July 2010

John Glew Architects Gloucester Crescent House, Architecture Today 208, May 2010

Paper, Scissors, Rock, Beate Hølmebakk of Oslo-based Manthey Kula
Building Design, 07 May 2010

Interview: Geurst & Schulze, Brick Bulletin, Spring 2010

Opening of SANAA’s Rolex Learning Centre at the EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, Architecture Today 206, March 2010

Interview: Schools of Thought: Herman Herzberger, Architecture Today 205, February 2010

Back to the Land, 3 Young Norwegian architects speak at the Architecture Foundation
Building Design, 22 January 2010

Returning Hero, review and interview of David Chipperfield at the Design Museum, Building Design, 30 October 2009

James R Payne reviews ‘Nordic Architects Write: A Documentary Anthology’, Architecture Today 194, January 2009

Dow Jones Architects has designs on London’s waste line, Building Design, 17 October 2008

Baltic Brutalism, a rocky Swedish island provides fertile architectural territory for Johan Celsing’s latest project, finds James R Payne
Architecture Today 192, October 2008

Munkenbeck & Partners finds room at the top for the Jrwood Space, Building Design, 13 June 2008

Exquisite precision is more than skin deep at Peter Zumthor’s Diocesan Museum, Architecture Today 182, October 2007

Brunswick Centre refurbishment by Patrick Hodgkinson, Building Design, 06 October 2006

Team 10 book review by James R Payne, Architecture Today 167, April 2006

Phaidon World Atlases of 20th and 21st Century Architecture

A Research Project on Post-War Suburban Housing around Stockholm by KTH Diploma Unit 4 (Mikael Bergquist, Nina Lundvall and James Payne) in 2018.

During this academic year these precedent studies were carried out to support the development of a design thesis for the studio of a responsive landscape urbanism. These ‘territorial typologies’ in suburban areas around Stockholm belong to a particular moment in time with the expansion of new settlements into the landscape around the city. Mostly constructed in a period of around 20 years, before the relentless ‘Million Programme’ dominated housing production from the mid-sixties, another alternative tradition of modernism existed, a gentle and responsive way of making places to live.

The 1977 manifesto ‘Berlin – a Green Archipelago’ by O.M. Ungers proposed ‘Cities within The City’ of coherent but isolated fragments within a metropolis partly reclaimed by nature. A landscape urbanism of dwelling apartments with the advantages of the detached house, but with greater density. Certain post-war suburbs around Stockholm embody these qualities, with their own unique atmosphere and sense of place. They all enjoy an architectural coherence and subtle relationship to landscape, embracing the mysteries of nature with a strong sense of community.

The draft book of research uses archive material and on-site surveys to produce an overview of Stockholm territorial typologies, their relationship to landscape and the qualities of the places they form. Focussed on a selection of post-war satellite city communities, with housing typologies by architects such as Backström and Reinius and Ralph Erskine. Students made guidebooks for each of these areas and designed walking tours to discover the secrets of each one. Housing areas were represented through careful drawing, photography, models and writing. The aim of this research was to rediscover rich architectural precedent, to learn from these often radical or obscure typologies how life has unfolded in the timespan of a couple of generations since they were built, and to provide new interpretations to provoke fresh ideas for living.

While initially designed as a preparatory exercise for the studio, the material produced was of a very high standard and worthy of a wider audience. By presenting these examples of architecture and landscape in a compelling new way, students uncovered the unique qualities, successes and failures of these living environments around Stockholm. These studies lead directly to their own proposals for working on new housing in these areas, making new communities while respecting the existing placemaking.

We hope to further develop the draft research book with the intention of publishing a book entitled “Territorial Typologies.” As Stockholm is increasingly seen as one most socially divided cities in Europe, this book aims to celebrate these peripheral communities and the quiet architecture that supports the diverse communities that call them home.

Nina Lundvall was awarded the RIBA Silver Medal and Serjeant Award for her Diploma Project ‘London Bridge Caravanserai’. Tutors: Professor Florian Beigel & Professor Philip Christou, London Metropolitan University

“The ancient Caravanserai, a stop-over for merchants and travelers, is relevant to the site – a railway station in London – and the provision of temporary accommodation for modern travelers. Transition and movement are an intrinsic part of the place and the tradition of Borough High Street Inns.

Through the use of different media, initially photography and model making, I tried to gain a feeling for the project before it was actually designed through a careful study of materiality to make a transition from the busy city site to the intimate. The main element of the Caravanserai is a deep plywood roof structure, which visitors are invited to inhabit. The experience from within is a close up and intimate relationship with space, the material and a generous view of London from above.

Staying at a Caravanserai always meant engagement with the place, fellow travelers and the landscape around it. My London Bridge Caravanserai questioned our engagement with the city, not in the anonymity of a hotel but as temporary citizens participating in urban life.”

Jillian Jones & James Payne present a joint lecture on the work of two Scandinavian architects: Sigurd Lewerentz and Jørn Utzon. The lecture is part of Second Floor, a new series in partnership with Metropolitan Architecture Student Society (MASS) at London Met. The series includes lectures by each of the school’s unit tutors, in which they present the work of an architect that has influenced their practice.

In 2014 James organised a symposium and curated a major exhibition of young Swiss architects making public projects as part of the London Design Festival, supported by The Swiss Embassy in the UK.

Photographs © Nina Lundvall

As part of the New Architects: Finland_UK exchange programme The Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki hosted a public lecture on the 14 February, 2012, showcasing the work of the three young UK practices Archipelago, Pie Architecture and Studio Polpo. Following the recent Public Lecture at The Architecture Foundation where Finnish practices ALA Architects, Anttinen Oiva Architects and Avanto Architects presented their work to a sold out crowd, the practices will act as ambassadors for the UK architectural scene in an evening of presentations and discussion.
The exchange focused on the theme Cities and Water exploring case studies in both London and Helsinki and follows on from successful Architecture Foundation New Architects programmes in Italy, Turkey, Norway, Poland, and Portugal.

In partnership with
The Finnish Institute in London
The Museum of Finnish Architecture (Helsinki)

Pascal Flammer with James Payne of Archipelago Architects, AE Foundation for Architecture & Education, supported by The Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment, RGU

“Conversations is a first attempt to bring together interesting emerging architects to discuss their work and their ideas in detail and to demonstrate to students the importance of being able to communicate clearly. The two are architects first and teachers second. They have to persuade and convince a number of different individuals of the validity of their work as creative individuals and professionals. Unlike the common perception that the architect is either a commercial pragmatist or a creative genius, shrouding their work in mystery, our invited architects aim to confound these stereotypes and to explain that the novel in their work is based in a deep understanding of the rational. Architecture can be explained and can be understood by everyone. Flammer and Payne represent a new generation of European architect and although similar in age, their distinct attitudes are the result of specific schools of thought, ones that have developed in parallel but with very different results. Bringing them together should offer an insight into the inner workings of these schools through the medium of their architecture.” (https://aefoundation.co.uk/Posters)

2002-2007

James Payne joined Caruso St john Architects in 2002. During his four years with the practice, he worked on the British Museum exhibition Medicine Man: The Forgotten Museum of Henry Wellcome (Project Architect), the expansion of The Stephen Friedman Gallery in West London (Project Architect), the Gagosian Gallery Kings Cross offices, Downing College, Nottingham Contemporary and other projects.

Photography © Helene Binet

James Payne, Robert Lisle & Robert Squibb

‘Shadrach Meshack Abednego’ (making a part of the city)’

“Our project was an affirmation of the city, and more specifically London. The contingent and unconscious development of the city and the feeling of being in a city informed our search for an appropriate architecture for making a part of the city.

Initial research projects focussed on agglomerations of buildings and their materiality. The presence and continuity of these examples led us to devise a set of rules for our own project. A relaxed but coherent arrangement enabled us to act as different architects without the need for a masterplan, allowing the project to materialise in many different and sometimes unforeseen ways.

We were interested in how a simple architecture could do complex things at many different levels. An intense mixture of many different spaces and experiences, generic and specific, was the result.”

2003-2010

Nina Lundvall worked for seven and a half years with Tony Fretton Architects as Project Architect and Architectural Assistant. Projects she worked on include The British Embassy, Warsaw 1&2, the Kapoor House, Camden Art Centre, V&A Courtyard competition, Fuglsang Kunstmuseum competition and project, Denmark, retail concept & flagship store, Celine Fashion House, Galleri Per&Kajsa, Bodø, Norway, In The Face of History Exhibition, Barbican, V&A Courtyard Competition

Photography © Helene Binet

With Richard Henson

Lost Garden City Found defends and enriches the Garden City environment of Milton Keynes at the same time as increasing density and diversity. The process of densification underway in the city centre follows a familiar pattern of loft-style apartment living for the disposable income urbanite. The proposal develop communal and private outdoor spaces as well as providing flexible and generous apartments. Three buildings sit as objects within a communal garden defined by a low and deep hedge, paths cross the garden and car parking is contained within the hedge. The garden clearly belongs to the group of apartment buildings but is not gated or fenced off and is visually open to the outside. The solid wood construction is dense enough to provide thermal mass and good sound insulation.

Walmer Yard for Baylight Properties

 James Payne was Project Architect on Walmer Yard, four houses set around a shared, open courtyard in West London. Developed by Crispin Kelly. https://walmeryard.co.uk/thebuildings/

Photography © Helene Binet

2010-2011

Nina Lundvall was the Project Architect on the temporary office for David Chipperfield Architects in London Waterloo.

Photography © Nina Lundvall