Designed to lift spaces as well as people

For the past several years, the renowned Swedish designer Alexander Lervik has been designing  the next generation of Aritco lifts. This year, he took on the challenge of designing Aritco’s newest public lift, Aritco PublicLift Access, with a strong emphasis on design than enhances its surroundings.

“The world of elevators hasn’t had design as a key point, especially with platform elevators,” Alexander says. “They have been more about the function and production possibilities. You could say that architects put in an elevator because regulations required it, but they didn’t especially want to put one in. So the goal with our work has been for the architect to want to put the lift in because it’s a nice design that can lift their spaces in a way.”

Because of the simplicity Scandinavian design has, the lifts work well with all different architectural styles. If you put one into an old building, like an old castle, it will work together with that because it is so clean. It doesn’t take over,” Alexander explains. “That’s one of the more important things. If you have a lift where the design takes over, like some fantastic piece of Italian furniture, that sort of takes over the room. And this would be a problem with a public lift. The lift needs to melt into the spaces around it.

Although regulations put a lot of restrictions on the design, Alexander Lervik came up with some creative solutions. “I always try to bring light into my projects. I love to work with that,” he says. “So the surface behind the panel is a strong detail in the design.

“Also, in other models, we had different colors on the handrail, the door handle, and the door inside. I’ve tried to have one color overall, except on the parts where the regulations require certain colors. Just to make it more simple and clean.”

There will also be the possibility to have a video art wall as an option. “The owner could buy video from local video artists, for example, to bring in something extra,” Alexander says. “In a shopping center, it could be advertising.”

In addition to a new design expression and safety focus, the focus has been on making the elevators easy to install. They are also designed, packaged, transported and installed in a sustainable way. The new lifts have a new control panel, new electric locks and new doors. There is also an extra battery in the event of a power failure and an alarm button connected to an alarm number. And Aritco has updated the drive system so that the new public lifts have a smoother ride.

“Developing a new lift at Aritco is about the team looking for the optimal solution in terms of design, durability, economy and experience,” says Product Manager Petra Lind. “With Alexander Lervik’s help, we were able to  create Aritco PublicLift Access and Aritco HomeLift Access with new features and a beautiful design.”

Among other things, the new lifts have a new control panel, new electric locks and new doors. There is also an extra battery in the event of a power failure and an alarm button connected to an alarm number. Read more about the new Aritco lifts here.