El Croquis 217 includes the volumes El Croquis 217 [I] Arrhov Frick 2015 2022 and El Croquis 217 [II] Groupwork 2012 2022. Both will be added to your shopping cart automatically when you select either of them.
Johan Arrhov (1979) and Henrik Frick (1977) met around the age of 15. Music, art, painting, and table tennis were often the daily activities. After various studies in economics, philosophy, art and painting, studies began at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in the early 2000s. Together they did their Diploma years under the supervision of Professor Ana Betancour. The studio was progressive, and research-based. Half of the jury praised the thesis, while the other half had a negative attitude to it as it lacked buildings. Instead, it presented a critical discussion about corruption, societal, cultural and environmental issues, locally made constructions and microeconomies in developing countries.
Around 2009 both were on parental leave and during some walks and nights, an architectural competition proposal was developed for a public building an hour north of Stockholm. The proposal was awarded first prize and provided for a small start-up capital to open their own studio in 2010. Carlos Nieto Cid (1977) joined the studio in 2013 and became a partner in 2017.
Working with a diversity of projects, the process is much like during the studies with careful in situ observations of conditions as a continuous part of the process. The main objective is to do architecture that makes life better for the people. An ambition that architecture and planning should be developed from the existing. An ambition that buildings should be simple to construct and easy to maintain. They should be pleasant to live in and to discover. The buildings as places or flexible infrastructures that can support ideological and programmatic freedom to encourage sustainability and longevity in the construction sector.
In parallel to the studio, an involvement in the academic discourse as critics in juries and universities around Europe is important. They frequently lecture throughout the world and their work is widely published in several international magazines and books. They have been exhibited at, among others, the Venice Biennale in 2016 and nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award in 2019. The same year they had a teaching studio at the Porto Academy.
Since 2021, Johan Arrhov is appointed as visiting professor at the Accademia di Architettura Mendrisio, holding a research-based studio addressing questions of necessary changes in needs and behaviours as a tool to achieve relevant architectural proposals.