For the redesign of the City of Gothenburg’s Urban Development Departments at Kvarteret Traktören, Nils Andréasson Arkitektkontor invited local designer Emma Harling to create a 15-metre-wide curtain for the session chamber.

The curtain was designed around a simple but demanding brief: to work with deadstock fabrics available in limited lengths and quantities, while filtering natural light and maintaining privacy. In keeping with Gothenburg’s Environment and Climate Programme, the interiors use 94% reused, upcycled, or recycled materials and furnishings.

Harling’s restrained geometric composition draws on minimalist art, Swedish quilting traditions, and architectural details from the surrounding neighborhood. Four fabrics from Astrid and Ludvig Svensson are combined in subtle shifts of color and texture, sewn locally with concealed seams.

The project also marks a homecoming for Harling, who recently returned to Gothenburg after 12 years in New York, where she worked with companies such as Proenza Schouler, In Common With, and Parma Tile. A Gothenburg native for five generations, the project offered a fitting way to reconnect with her hometown.

Project assistant: Costantino Perone

Photos: Emma Harling and Jonathan Hökklo