Bank palace turned movie house - urban development award to Kino in Lund

One of Lund's most historic buildings, located on one of the city's most important street corners, has been opened up to Lund residents and visitors and contributes with culture and architecture to a vibrant city center. Lund's Urban Design Award 2025 is awarded to Kino cinema together with Stena Fastigheter and FOJAB, for the transformation of a former bank into a cinema and bistro.

Close collaboration between Kino, the property owner Stena Fastigheter and the architect FOJAB has resulted in a complete movie house with four movie theaters of different sizes, stages for talks, lectures and live music, and a bistro. The ambition has been to create a coherent whole where film, culture and meetings interact.

- Kino is a nicely condensed project that reflects the municipality's strategy for the development of the city center, Stena's ambition to develop the property, Kino's ambition to expand its contribution to Lund's cultural life and where FOJAB has contributed with a strong spatial concept and a design that opens up and connects the inside with life in the city space, says Kjell Adamsson, architect in charge of the assignment.

FOJAB has been the responsible architect and interior designer from feasibility study, system document, building permit and FFU to finished building document. The starting point for the remodeling was to retain as much as possible of Carl Bergsten's national romantic bank from the early 1900s, both in terms of materials and architectural potential.

A central idea was to make the building accessible and to enliven its place in the city center. The large arched windows, which during the bank's time were largely covered and protected from view, have been opened up to the new bistro inside and give life to the street space well into the evening. "Lund has become safer, more attractive and more fun," noted the jury for the Urban Design Award.

From the jury's statement:

The Lund Urban Design Award 2025 is awarded to a project where the importance of creative and ambitious collaboration is crucial to a good end result.

Kino's cinema business has been the focus of the redevelopment of the auditoriums integrated with a new restaurant in one of the city center's most crowded streets. The previously closed corner at Lilla Fiskaregatan has been opened up and a public atrium has been created between the salons and brought to life by Kino's activities.

Through close collaboration with the organization, including volunteers who participated in the restoration and transformation, unique interior details have been reused, made visible and complemented.

The transparency between the building's interior and the city's public space brings welcome life to the urban space even in the evening. The project responds well to Lund's ambition to make our living environments a little safer, more attractive and more fun!

Read more about how we worked with movie house cinema.