“Rules are meant to be broken,” or so goes the contrarian adage. But in cases of code and zoning, bending is sometimes the best an architect can do. When commissioned with the design of a multiuse recreational facility on a constraint-laden parcel in Kviberg, a suburb of Gothenburg, Sweden, local practice Wahlström & Steijner found clever ways to make the most with the least. Here, the municipal government has been busy redeveloping a former military barracks into a community athletic campus—with the Kvibergs Parks Is och Sporthall as its centerpiece.

For starters, “the footprint couldn’t exceed 8,000 square meters,” or about 86,110 square feet, explains firm principal and cofounder Jürgen Wahlström. Accordingly, the plan he and his team devised includes an envelope that is tightly wrapped around spectator seating and a subdividable gymnasium (large enough to fit two handball courts) on one end and, on the other, a smaller ice rink, resulting in the venue’s tapered oblong shape. “We came in at 7,999,” he adds with a smile.

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