White Arkitekter

Our offices create deep connections to nature through planting, natural materials and views.

In London, the retrofit focused on a simple palette of light timber, extensive indoor planting and a deep green wall in the meeting room. The Uppsala office’s timber structure is fully exposed. In Gothenburg, teams meet to exchange plants and seeds. Stockholm’s office — with sea views — has a roof terrace with food-growing planters and beehives producing our own honey.

In 2025, our Stockholm office hosted The Guardians’ Boardroom — a Vinnova-funded exhibition exploring how forest industry decision-making could become more regenerative and inclusive, bringing nature-based systems thinking directly into our working environment and open to the public.

An internal competition run each year allows a team member to enjoy a free holiday in a rural nature-based retreat setting.

With a strong track record in low-carbon natural materials — primarily timber — we have extended this to a ‘right material, right place’ approach. In 2025, 27% of building projects used timber structures, up from 23% in 2024.

The Erven in Hoofddorp pioneers this at neighbourhood scale: CLT, straw insulation, hemp fibre, reed, lime and recycled aluminium panels — all designed for disassembly. Lumi in Uppsala reused materials down to plasterboard, achieving the world’s highest LEED Platinum office score. Stockholm Wood City sets ambitious targets for bio based city masterplan.

With EU funding we are advocating for low carbon materials for energy renovation of historically significant buildings. We have also published a Wood for Health guide which shares research on timber in healthcare across seven European countries and are looking to develop this further for the UK sector, and our new holistic sustainability consultancy, embeds material stewardship advice from earliest of design stages.

We meet living wage for all employees with a fair salary ratio between all levels. As an entirely employee owned company, and part of the Swedish system that is unionised – salaries are fair and moderated by unions.

With the employee owned organisation model it means that the balance of profit share goes to all shareholders and all staff have the opportunity to purchase such shares, with 78% of employees being co-owners.

We discourage overtime, and have a culture of respecting working hours, and flexibility.

In 2025, we initiated pro-bono work for a children’s rehabilitation hospital in Ukraine, supporting children affected by the war. As part of an international collaboration through the Nadija Foundation, contributing architectural expertise toward post-conflict recovery.

We also support the Go Down Arts Centre in Nairobi, where we maintain an office presence.

We run a learning programme inviting 10 students annually from disadvantaged suburbs of Stockholm for work experience, working with municipal schools characterised by low educational progression rates. Each student receives mentoring, undertakes design tasks, presents to the office and receives a written certificate. We have maintained this partnership with Husby school since 2012.

In London team members volunteer in supporting mentoring of future designers, this including RIBA Mentoring and Young City Makers programme.

Deep community engagement shapes our projects from the outset. The Gascoigne Estate in London won ‘Best Place’ through schools workshops and community design review panels.

Västergårdsparken in Solna was designed following extensive dialogue with local residents — directly resulting in dedicated teenage girls’ areas with specifically designed hanging furniture, and sports courts without competitive markings to encourage spontaneous inclusive movement.

The Arena District in Gothenburg is structured around three sustainability strategies developed from engagement; inclusion, resource efficiency and biodiversity — with public squares and a rooftop park accessible to all.  The Erven in Hoofddorp was developed with four community-themed quarters — Relax, Grow, Create and Play — reflecting residents’ values.

Our Places for Girls programme developed co-design methods with teenage participants and local politicians, using theatre to open dialogue on public space from girls’ perspectives — generating methods now applied across broader urban projects.

We create locally valued, connected places with social value as a central consideration.

At Gascoigne Estate, porous courtyards open to existing housing — local residents were delighted that newly landscaped gardens were shared rather than closed off.

Stockholm Wood City’s Nobelberget Block 7 — the first residential block in what will become the world’s largest timber urban district — integrates lush shared courtyards, child-centred play and intergenerational social spaces across the 80 apartments.

Södermalmstorg at Slussen in Stockholm, creates a major new public square reconnecting the city with the waterfront and supporting the local communities, won Stenpriset 2025.

The Climate Innovation District in Leeds is often showcased as an exemplar neighbourhood which contributes positively with promotion of sustainable active travel, open landscape design and continued soical interation and community engagement, as highlighted in these guides;
‘Design and placemaking planning practice guidance’,
‘Design Council: design for neighbourhood’ and ‘New Towns Taskforce Report’.