Erna Vestmann

Force4 Architects

Force4s strength lies in identifying the specific requirements of different users and translating them into functional, beautiful and sensuous architecture. The senses are alpha and omega when it comes to orientation and navigation by oneself. By engaging the various senses in our approach we are able to create a more meaningful and enriching architecture that can and will benefit and delight all of the users. The studio has a broad experience with designing housing for society's most vulnerable groups such as those with physical and cognitive disabilities and psychologically vulnerable people. Over the past 10 years the studio has been working intensively with a number of projects where accessibility and welfare technology is used as the foundation of the design process. We work with issues such as; how to best combine passive and active solutions and how to unite architectural design with holistic accessibility, in an elegant and natural way, in all projects as well as those specifically concerning accessibility. For our work with accessibility, for all disability groups, Force4 received the Bevica Foundations Accessibility Prize 2014 "for a unique effort within the field of accessibility for disabled people." The studio is a big believer in regionally anchored architecture, inspired by the local context and conditions, which in turn imparts our architecture with a sense of contextual belonging.