Elle.se: Stockholm's nightlife gets a colorful and stylish boost when Trädgården opens Vingården, a restaurant and wine bar designed by Gustaf Westman.
On May 5th, the doors opened for this year's season at Trädgården, an institution in Stockholm's summer nightlife. And this year there is a new, interesting addition to the area.
It's none other than the architect and designer (and Eye-catcher of the Year in the ELLE Deco Design Awards 2021) Gustaf Westman who has developed a new restaurant and wine bar.
His playful furniture's round and wavy shapes and pastel colors have charmed design lovers around the world, and will now take their place in the specially designed section called Vingården.
- The garden had an area that they knew they were going to redo and they liked our style. We have not done this type of large project before, we have mostly worked with smaller objects. It felt like a really exciting assignment to take on," says Gustaf Westman.
The concept for the restaurant focuses on wine and pizza, and will be a slightly quieter watering hole for visitors to the Garden this summer, with room for seated conversations for those who don't want to club.
- It feels very exciting to be able to make our own restaurant and see how it will be used," says Gustaf Westman.
What was your thinking when you designed these surfaces?
- There are a lot of different places inside the Garden, as it is very big. I think it's important that each part has its own identity. I have worked a lot with the color scale, when you enter this part, you should really feel that it stands out, that it differs from the rest. I've worked with large brushstrokes, with a few, very clear shapes, which should be easy to remember and perceive.
Vingården's color palette is in tones of cornflower blue, red and light pink. The shapes are the large, bulbous and rounded ones that have become Gustaf Westman's signature.
- I've been looking a lot at Verner Panton's restaurant work. They have that kind of slightly darker colors, which I think fits very well in a restaurant environment.
When it comes to the shapes and furniture, they are recognized from Gustaf Westman's previous furniture and objects, although they are adapted for both the restaurant and outdoor environment when it comes to, among other things, the choice of materials.
- I try to scale down as much as possible and try to find the core of an idea. So that it should be very easy to perceive a shape.
- There are a lot of different places inside the Garden, as it is very big. I think it's important that each part has its own identity.
As well as being Gustaf Westman's biggest project to date, Vingården is also the first time he has made outdoor furniture.
- The furniture is specially designed. There is a chair, a table and we have made an armchair with outdoor fabric. Then there is a lot that is custom built. We have a conversation pit that is cast in situ and a chambre separée area that is also custom designed, built in situ and very large. So that's my style, but very upscale.
- "It's been very challenging in the sense that it's the most complex job my team and I have done in terms of size, but it's also gone well," he says.
The armchair designed by Gustaf Westman for the Garden is already on sale for indoor use and the chairs will also be available for purchase.
Gustaf Westman says that he himself has spent a lot of time at the Garden in the summers of previous years, and it is very possible that you can meet him there again this year.
- It will be very exciting to go there and see how people move. See if you have thought right. I have almost not dared to think about it. If something doesn't work, you don't know, we'll see.
