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Despite the impressive size of some of Dive’s completed projects, it is not a large and difficult-to-navigate architecture firm; on the contrary, Dive is a small, flexible, intelligent unit that can quickly shift its perspectives depending on what the assignments require. This is a great strength.
Andy Nettleton and Ia Hjärre
+46 706 554411
+46 730 622244
At the core of Dive is curiosity — an enthusiasm for solving architectural problems across a broad spectrum, from a shopping mall in Liaoning to British Council premises in Khartoum to offices in Stockholm. Founded in London in 2001 by Ia Hjärre and Andy Nettleton, the practice brings together two backgrounds — Swedish and British — that give an extra dimension to every project.
Clients have included the British Council, the London Borough of Southwark, Sheffield Council and Selfridges; in Sweden, the Swedish Bankers' Association and the Swedish Library Association, among others. Despite the scale of some of these projects, Dive remains a small, flexible unit — able to shift perspectives quickly depending on what each assignment requires. The practice has been based in Stockholm since 2008.
Andy's international career began with projects for the German Foreign Office in London, including the German Embassy and the Goethe-Institut. Since co-founding Dive he has led commissions for the British Council across Sudan, Bahrain, Albania, Kosovo and Mozambique, and more recently several projects in China — alongside a growing body of commercial and residential work in Sweden.
Ia leads many of the practice's workplace commissions, including offices for Handelsbanken and Finance Sweden, as well as planning work in Haninge and a commercial renovation on Strandvägen in central Stockholm. Her work for furniture-maker Gärsnäs in southern Sweden — a renovation and new-build — won both the inaugural Glass Pearl Award in 2020 and the Simrishamn Architecture Prize.