Exhibition Pavilion

By Caterina Testa - 2 May 2024

Ever since foundation, Volvo has, in its cars, embodied safety, stability, and freewheeling global exploration, incorporating the deeply-held Swedish value of the right to travel into the core of its product philosophy.

To showcase the iconic Swedish brand’s history, tradition, and forward-looking vision on a single site, Volvo Group and Volvo Cars joined forces to create World of Volvo in Göteborg. The brand-new building’s design and structure is distinctively molded by an interplay of rootedness and exploration, tradition and innovation.

Inspired by the inherently Swedish notion of allemansrätten – the fundamental right to roam freely across any land, public or private – in their work the designers at Henning Larsen emphasized respect for nature and fellow beings. More than a mere right, the principle is foundational and central to Swedish ethics. As such, it has been absorbed and internalized by institutions, organizations, and businesses (including Volvo) in the country.

World of Volvo’s circular shape simultaneously evokes care for nature and consideration of others in an old-fashioned, inclusive embrace. Visitors are encouraged to experience the structure inside and out regardless of how they enter the building. The structure’s city location directly connects it with a number of different urban areas; people’s perception of the volume changes depending on speed of travel.

Göteborg’s old town looks northward, to the Gota River; World of Volvo went up in the city’s southeastern events district, squeezed in tightly between the Mölndalsån River banks to the west, and the E6 highway to the east. Parks, museums, and entertainment venues line the river, linked by a road designed for slow mobility and several pedestrian crossings over it – all features that impart a tranquil, leisurely pace to the city district in which World of...