Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects is a Swedish architectural partnership, founded in Stockholm in 1995, by Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune. More than three decades later, Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects is now an internationally-acclaimed, multi-disciplinary office with a wide-ranging body of work spanning architecture, interiors and design.
Getaway House (2023)
Completed architectural and interior projects include civic and cultural buildings such as Sfera Building (2003), art spaces such as Inde/Jacobs gallery (2015) in Marfa, Texas, hotels & spas including Nobis Hotel (2010) and K5 in Tokyo (2020), private homes such as Ingegerd Råman’s house and studio (2002), vacation houses such as Getaway House (2023), a yacht, offices such as Sony Music Swedish headquarters (1999), restaurants, bars and cafés such as Frescohallen (2023) in Norway, factory and headquarters such as Offecct (2005), a film studio building, flagship stores and showrooms such as Unimatic (2023) in Italy, along with a large number of fair stands and exhibitions.
Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects is the first Swedish office selected for the international section at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004.
Sfera Building (2003)
Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects furniture and industrial designs feature in the collections of more than 80 international companies: Arflex, Artifort, Baleri Italia, Barovier & Toso, Boffi, Cappellini, DUX, Fontana Arte, Frezza, Ikepod, Kasthall, Living Divani, Muuto, Nikari, Offecct, Orrefors, Paola Lenti, Swedese, Tacchini, Time & Style, Ton, True, Unimatic, Wästberg+ among others.
Iconic designs include Pebbles (2001) for Cappellini, Continental (2011) for Swedese, Kin (2011) for Skultuna, Io (2015) for Fontana Arte, Cone (2015) for Wästberg+, Hug (2013) and Yuzu (2023) for Arflex, Midsummer (2024) for Orrefors. Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects designed the Swedish Cancer Society Trophy (2016) and the Swedish Television Prize ‘Kristallen’ (2005).
Pebbles (2001)
Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects has received more than 100 national and international awards for design excellence.
In 2021, King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf presented the founders with The Prince Eugen Medal for outstanding artistic achievement in architecture (2020). In 2015, they received the ‘Bruno Mathsson Award’, the highest honour in furniture design in Sweden and the Scandinavian region.
Other notable accolades include Red Dot Design Award – Best of the Best 2024 and 2014 ‘Best Hotel Conversion’ for K5 hotel, Tokyo, in the Asia Ahead awards, 2021; Designer of the Year and Best Seating 2014 by Elle Decor Italia; ten American Good Design Awards 2009 – 2018; the Designpreis Deutschland (Gold and Silver) 2011 by the Federal Republic of Germany.
Designs by Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects are found in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago, USA, Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA and Nationalmuseum – Sweden’s museum of Art and Design, with three further designs added in 2022; Wafer chair, Sfera chair and Font table.
King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf presenting Mårten Claesson with
The Prince Eugen Medal for outstanding artistic achievement in architecture (2020)
In 2021, Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects architectural work was presented in its own retrospective exhibition entitled – Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects – at The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, October 16 – December 13, 2021, and was accompanied by a 400-page architectural monography, published by Birkhäuser, Basel, (2020).
Portrait reportages and feature articles have been published by architectural, design and general press including, Abitare, Architecture & Urbanism, Domus, Interni, The New York Times, Surface, Vogue and Wallpaper.
In 2024 Rizzoli published a new monograph – Claesson Koivisto Rune. In Transit – comprehensively covering the firm’s thirty years of practice. To date, 28 books have been published focusing exclusively on the work of Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects.
Claesson Koivisto Rune. In Transit (2024). Rizzoli New York (publisher)