Landskrona Art Hall
Photo: Boberger / Bengt Oberger / CC BY 3.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden at Landskrona konsthall is a small atrium garden inside the modernist art hall building in Landskrona. The city’s visitor information describes it as a Japanese exhibition garden created by garden architect Ulla Molin in 1989. It sits in the middle of the art hall, so it functions as both a garden and part of the architectural exhibition experience.
History
Landskrona Art Hall was built in 1963 for the City of Landskrona’s 550th anniversary, originally as an exhibition hall for industrial design. The building was designed by architects Fritz Jaenecke and Sten Samuelson, and is known for its glass walls, concrete language and integration with the surrounding park landscape. Its architecture includes a small inner atrium, which later became the setting for the Japanese garden.
The Japanese atrium garden was created in 1989 by Ulla Molin, one of Sweden’s most influential garden writers and designers. Landskrona’s official tourism page states that it was laid out in connection with a memorial exhibition for Nobu Uta Hilding. Later Swedish garden-history material describes it as a wintergreen, Japan-inspired atrium garden and a living piece of garden heritage.
Because it is placed inside an art hall rather than in an outdoor public park, the garden should be treated as an exhibition garden / architectural atrium garden. It is not a strolling garden in the usual sense, and not a temple-style dry garden either. It belongs to that elegant but mildly annoying category where “garden”, “art installation” and “architecture” all sit at the same table pretending the taxonomy won’t notice.
Design features
The garden is a compact Japanese-inspired atrium composition, designed to be viewed from within the art hall’s transparent modernist interior. Available descriptions emphasise its role as a Japanese exhibition garden rather than giving a full plant or stone inventory. Its enclosed atrium setting, evergreen character and visual relationship with the building make it best classified as a modern Japanese-inspired garden.
Garden elements
Stones
Other elements
Current status
Extant Japanese exhibition garden in the atrium of Landskrona Art Hall. It remains accessible during the art hall’s exhibition opening hours.