Archinect - News

‘World’s largest wooden city’ designed by Henning Larsen and White Arkitekter in Stockholm

2023-06-26T11:13:00-04:00

Plans have been unveiled for the reportedly “world’s largest urban construction project in wood” in the Swedish capital. Named Stockholm Wood City, and designed by Henning Larsen and White Arkitekter, the scheme will extend over 2.7 million square feet across several buildings.

Image credit: Atrium Ljungberg / Henning Larsen

The development will hold 7,000 office spaces and 2,000 homes through what the team calls a “vibrant urban environment with a mix of workplaces, housing, restaurants, and shops.” Spurred by the European Union’s wider European Bauhaus environmental movement, the team believes the prevalence of timber in the development will improve air quality, reduce stress, and increase productivity among users.

Image credit: Atrium Ljungberg/White Arkitekter

"This is not only an important step for us as a company but a historic milestone for Swedish innovation capability," says Annica Ånäs, CEO of the project’s developers, Atrium Ljungberg. "Stockholm Wood City manifests our fut...

Foster + Partners-led team chosen to design new mixed-use Stockholm Central Station

2022-01-18T14:51:00-05:00

A team led by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Swedish firm Marge Arkitekter has been unveiled as the winners of the competition for the development of Stockholm Central Station in Stockholm, Sweden. The pair is joined by LAND Arkitektur, Thornton Tomasetti, Ramboll, Wenanders, and TAM Group. Together their proposal will see the creation of an integrated transport hub for a new pedestrian-friendly mixed-use urban district.

“As the world’s collective focus shifts to more sustainable ways of living, working and traveling, it is vital that we enhance and redevelop our transport nodes and repair and connect the urban fabric around them,” said Luke Fox, Head of Studio at Foster + Partners. “We look forward to developing these proposals with Jernhusen, Trafikverket and the City of Stockholm over the coming months.”

Originally opened in 1871, Stockholm Central Station sits in the heart of the city, serving as Sweden’s largest transportation hub. The new district will accommodate fut...

Mayors of three Nordic capitals declare their commitment to cleaner construction site practices

2019-10-23T02:00:00-04:00

The push for cleaner construction methods to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution on building sites has increased in recent years due to the worsening climate crisis. Nations across the globe have expressed their intent in finding better solutions for addressing the negative impacts the architecture and construction industries have on the environment.

Earlier this month, the mayors of Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm made a public pledge to enact various policies and regulations to ensure the following issues are addressed. According to a press release from C40 Cities, the mayors promise to:

Purchase biofuels and emission-free machinery for the city’s own use
Demand fossil-and emission-free solutions in public procurement and city supported projects
In Oslo, all city-owned machinery and municipally-owned construction sites will operate with zero emissions by 2025

Executive director of C40 Cities, Mark Watts, shares in a statement, "The world’s cities are growing fast, wi...

Refik Anadol's exhibition of algorithmic streetscape imagery is now open in Stockholm

2019-07-09T18:51:00-04:00

Fotografiska, the celebrated photography museum in Stockholm, Sweden, is now exhibiting a site-specific installation by Turkish media artist and director Refik Anadol.

Scene from Latent History, by Refik Anadol.

Titled Latent History, the exhibition mainly consists of an interpolation of hundreds of thousands of photos of Stockholm's streetscapes onto a 180-foot-wide screen in Fotografiska’s large exhibition hall. Put simply, the film is "a machine’s interpretation of information from the City of Stockholm’s archives, Stockholmskällan, and the Swedish National Heritage Board’s archive, K-samsök, also known as SOCH (Swedish Open Cultural Heritage)," according to the curators of the exhibition. The film, in other words, images of Stockholm are fed into an algorithm of Anadol's design that 'reveals' the images in between them.

Scene from Latent History, by Refik Anadol.

As Anadol explains, Latent History explores "photographic memories from the past 150 years and offer the viewer a chan...

BIG's 79&Park “wooden hillside” residential building inaugurated in Stockholm

2018-11-09T15:15:00-05:00

It's been a big week in architecture for the city of Stockholm. In addition to the OMA/Reinier de Graaf-designed Norra Tornen, Stockholm celebrated the inauguration of Bjarke Ingels Group's 79&Park residences yesterday.

In 2011, Oscar Properties commissioned BIG to design the multi-residential development, which appears like a “gentle hillside” rising from the edge of the Gärdet national park. The cascading building, which comprises of 3.6m x 3.6m cedar-clad modules organized around an open green courtyard, “combines the splendors of a suburban home with the qualities of urban living,” Bjarke Ingels said in a statement.

Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.

The structure's tallest corner rises up to 35 meters to maximize the inflow of natural daylight and provide views of the Gärdet and the nearby Frihamnen port for most of the residential units. The modules then cascade all the way down to its lowest profile at 7 meters. The central courtyard i...

OMA completes first residential tower for Norra Tornen project in Stockholm

2018-11-08T15:49:00-05:00

The Innovation Tower in Stockholm designed by OMA/Reinier de Graaf has opened this morning. It is the first of two residential towers designed by the Dutch firm that will comprise the Norra Tornen project. Rising 30 and 35 stories high, the twin towers will become the tallest residential project in inner Stockholm.

Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA

The design of the towers is based on a modular system of prefabricated elements made from exposed concrete. In a tribute to brutalist architecture, the towers are characterized by bay windows (a precious asset in a country with scarce daylight for half of the year) and recessed terraces laid out to create a rising zigzag pattern reminiscent of Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67 in Montreal.

Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu, Courtesy of OMA

Norra Tornen represents a milestone achievement for the firm, who wanted to introduce a new way of living in a city center with a housing stock large...

An Apple town square? Stockholm says no, thank you

2018-11-01T14:31:00-04:00

Kungsträdgården is the most important park in Sweden, [...] It is the thread that pulls together the historical power of the monarchy with the commercial blocks of Hamngatan and the working-class districts of Södermalm. This is very important for democracy because it has to do with power, symbolically and spatially.

Stockholm, Sweden's beloved capitol is home to stunning landscapes that keep residence and visitors mesmerized. Its cobblestoned streets are lined with amazingly preserved buildings, beautiful open water views, and public spaces. Nestled in the heart of Stockholm is Kungsträdgården, one of the most treasured and valued parks in Sweden. Revered by its inhabitants, once word got out that Apple had plans to "transform" their beloved space by creating a "town square," the people of Stockholm made their voices heard.

Proposed store rendering. Image © Apple / Foster & Partners

We get it, Apple has already taken over our lives by transforming daily communication, productivity, etc. But, does Apple have the leverage to transform public spaces? Town squares are defined as open, public spaces located at the heart of a city. To a trillion-dollar tech company like Apple, their intention of redefining the relationship between public and private spaces is exactly what they are aiming for in build...

David Chipperfield Architects finalizes its Nobel Center interior design

2018-05-29T15:28:00-04:00

David Chipperfield Architects' Nobel Center, criticized by some as dominating, has developed its final design for the interior of this new Stockholm space. The firm added a number of new public exhibition areas that will be free of charge with a design aimed at strengthening the vertical connections between levels and activities while creating an open atmosphere.

Nobel Center exhibition areas, by David Chipperfield Architects. © Nobelhuset AB. Architecture.

From the exhibitions on the entrance level to the restaurant on the top level, with a panoramic view of Stockholm, the entire space has been created to facilitate open circulation.

Nobel Center auditorium and restaurant, David Chipperfield Architects. © Nobelhuset AB. Architecture.

Several levels at the Nobel Center will house temporary thematic exhibitions and permanent exhibitions about the Nobel Prize, the Laureates and Alfred Nobel.

Nobel Center new public park, David Chipperfield Architects. © Nobelhuset AB. Architecture...

UMA proposes a kilometer-long infinity pool for Stockholm's waterfront

2017-05-23T12:22:00-04:00

There’s long lap pools, and then there’s UMA’s design for Stockholm—a kilometer long infinity pool that serves as tourist attraction, recreational facility, and even infrastructure. The idea is to extend a walkway stretching from the northern part of Söderman to the eastern point out over the motorway that currently takes up most of the waterfront.

Perched on a load bearing structure made of a repetitive steel console structure bolted to the bedrock, the infinity pool would contain water pumped from the Baltic Sea and cleaned in a small treatment plant. The water would be heated with waste heat. According to the designers, you could even swim in parts of it during the spring and fall. In the winter, meanwhile, the temperature would be lowered to the point where the water freezes over, enabling ice skating.

According to the designers, the pool would create the illusion of an unobstructed connection between the waterfront and the adjacent Baltic Sea. Dressing rooms, showers and other f...

Construction begins on major Foster + Partners project in Sweden

2016-07-05T20:35:00-04:00

Construction has started at New Slussen, a major Foster + Partners project in the center of Stockholm. One of the largest urban projects in Sweden, the SEK 12 Billion project is intended to “create a dynamic urban quarter, responding to its historic context and transforming the city centre,” according to the press release.

Slussen was originally built in 1642 as a lock separating the ocean from the freshwater Lake Mälaren before being covered by a concrete “four-leaf clover” structure in 1935. The deterioration of the concrete structure made a new master plan an urgent necessity.

The Foster + Partners plan includes new transportation links as well as new commercial buildings and cultural amenities. The plan is intended to maintain the historic scale of the area, while adding new public spaces as well as pedestrian and bicycle routes. It also will expand the capacity of the lock five-fold to minimize the threat of flooding.

“This is a once in a life time undertaking in a uniquely signif...

Sweden's king voices disapproval of Chipperfield's Nobel Center design

2016-06-03T13:09:00-04:00

[King Carl XVI Gustav] said the sprawling brass-clad structure, designed by the British architect David Chipperfield to house the Nobel Foundation and host its prestigious annual prize ceremony, would dominate Stockholm’s celebrated 19th-century waterfront... ‘The size of the building is determined by what is necessary for a Nobel Centre. It’s not exploiting the value of the land or something – it’s not a developer building, an office building or a hotel...’ [Chipperfield said.]

King Carl XVI Gustav isn't favorable toward Chipperfield's dominating design plan for the Nobel Center, which inevitably has sparked opposition. But, supporters of the project beg to differ.

Previously on Archinect:

David Chipperfield wins Nobel Center architectural competition

Nobel Center competition shortlists three teams to move on to stage two

Eleven renowned architects present proposals for Stockholm’s future Nobel Center

Future sustainable skyscrapers will be made of...wood?

2016-05-18T12:29:00-04:00

Proponents of the material, called cross-laminated timber, or CLT, say it can be used to erect buildings that are just as strong and fire-resistant as those made from steel and concrete. Those qualities have helped excite the passions of architects and environmentalists, who think it could unlock a greener method for housing the world’s growing population, and timber producers, who hope to open a U.S. market for the value-added good.

Right now the structures are mainly proposals, but CLT could be the principal element of a 100-story tower nicknamed "The Splinter" in London as designed by PLP Architecture, while there's an ornamental 40-story timber tower in Stockholm on the boards, as designed by Anders Berensson Architects:

These aren't your grandfather's skyscrapers:

Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair opens to the public

2016-02-11T16:57:00-05:00

If you're in Stockholm, you have until February 13th to head over to the Stockholm Furniture and Light Fair, which features designs and talks from Barber & Osgerby, among other furniture and lighting giants. Here are some pics of the fair in progress, courtesy the venue's Facebook page and Instagram account:

Will tall towers and sky walks populate the Stockholm of the future?

2016-01-12T13:34:00-05:00

Could roof-straddling “sky walks” soon be coming to Stockholm? A new plan proposed for the Swedish capital would see a large slice of its city center built over with densely packed towers, joined at their peaks by a dramatic zigzag of tree-lined, open air gangways... Sweden’s capital is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe... If it isn’t going to sprawl unmanageably or become overcrowded, it’s going to have to find somewhere to put everyone...

Proposed by Anders Berensson Architects, the "Klarastaden," or "clear city" plan, was commissioned by the Swedish Center Party, a center-right party with an environmental focus and neoliberal bent. The Swedish capital is poised to grow 17 percent in the next nine years, putting pressure on its historic infrastructure and architecture.

If you want to avoid sprawling out, you're best options are to go in and up, increasing urban density and height. The Klarastaden proposal does just that, weaving together a matrix of towers of different heights and widths with a series of pathways. Following what is increasingly becoming the go-to trend for marking a project as "green," the building roofs would support a fragmented park.

But, as is noted by CityLab, the Center Party isn't in power at the moment. So Anders Berensson Architects have also crafted a diagram for how their strategy could be retooled as a retrofit instead of a massive development.

Related:

Left to rot: abandoned Swedish mid-cen...

Stockholm's Vision Zero offers idealistic concept of car-free cities

2015-03-25T09:19:00-04:00

As the Vision Zero conversation widens, a new dimension is emerging to the approach. Increasingly, planners and advocates are talking about creating cities rich in human interaction, cities that provide a healthier environment that puts people above cars in a variety of ways...[At the same time,] Stockholm is already focusing on walkability, even if not under the Vision Zero rubric.

The latest details on OMA’s Norra Tornen twin towers in Stockholm

2014-12-12T23:51:00-05:00

OMA recently revealed new details on the Norra Tornen twin towers -- formerly titled Tors Torn -- since they won the competition in 2013. The distinguishly faceted 100-meter towers, which are named Helix and Innovation, are being designed to be the third tallest twin skyscrapers in the Hagastaden neighborhood of Stockholm. The mixed-use buildings will consist of private residential apartments, a bar and exhibition space, and public amenities...The project is scheduled to break ground in 2015.

Barcelona wins Grand Prize in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge for Europe

2014-09-23T21:32:00-04:00

Michael Bloomberg's Bloomberg Philanthropies revealed the winners of its first European edition of the Mayors Challenge. More than 150 top cities from 28 European nations entered the competition, which asked participants to send their most innovative ideas that address Europe's timely pressing issues like unemployment, energy efficiency, obesity, aging, and improving government efficiency.

Barcelona took the Grand Prize for Innovation and €5 million to help implement their proposal, Collaborative Care Networks for Better Aging, a digital and community "trust network" for each of its at-risk elderly residents.

Innovation prizes of €1 million were also given to the following cities:

Athens, Greece: Synathina, a Public Platform for Engaged Citizens
Kirklees, in Yorkshire, United Kingdom: Kirklees Shares
Stockholm, Sweden: Biochar - for a Better City Ecosystem
Warsaw, Poland: Virtual Warsaw - Urban Information System for the Visually Impaired

In addition to prize money, each winning city will receive technical assistance, expert coaching, and a trophy specially designed by renowned artist Olafur Eliasson.

Michael Bloomberg congratulated Barcelona via a surprise phone call from Paris in the video below.

Learn more about the winning ideas on Bustler.

The future of urban farming belongs to the bugs

2014-06-13T13:21:00-04:00

Some people might mentally retch that the United Nations, believing the world's population could hit 9 billion by 2050, thinks we should prepare to eat bugs. Not the folks at Sweden's Belatchew Arkitekter, though: They want to fast-track the insect-munching. Thus they've whipped up plans to build "vermin farms" upon Stockholm's major intersections, so that by 2018 everybody in the city will be guaranteed plentiful rations of six-legged foodstuffs.

David Chipperfield wins Nobel Center architectural competition

2014-04-09T12:52:00-04:00

David Chipperfield's "Nobelhuset" is the winning design for the new Nobel Center in Stockholm, after a unanimous jury decision. Back in Fall 2013, Chipperfield was one of 11 famous architects who submitted proposals for the future Nobel Center.

In the second stage, the competition narrowed down to three proposals from: Johan Celsing - Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor (Sweden); Gert Wingårdh - Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor (Sweden); and of course, David Chipperfield and Christoph Felger - David Chipperfield Architects Berlin (Germany).

The Nobel Center will be built to become an architectural representation of the Nobel Prize and serve as a space to promote the Prize's ideals of forward thinking and innovation.

Here's more detail into the winning design:

"According to the statement of the jury, the proposed building has an elegant, timeless and attractive external appearance with a clear identity of its own. The revised façade design, with its shimmering vertical brass elements and glass, has a l...

Berg | C.F. Møller & DinellJohansson propose world’s tallest wooden skyscraper for Stockholm

2013-12-17T18:58:00-05:00

Berg | C.F. Møller and DinellJohansson recently won the competition to design a future residential landmark for Stockholm. Hosted by Swedish real estate group HSB, three competing teams were required to propose three innovative residential buildings for three central locations in the city. The winners will work with HSB to develop and build the residential complex by 2023, in time for HSB's 100th anniversary.

Here's a glimpse of Berg | C.F. Møller and DinellJohansson's proposals:

Hagastaden:

Västerbroplan:

Fleminggatan:

Nobel Center competition shortlists three teams to move on to stage two

2013-11-15T15:22:00-05:00

Three proposals have been chosen to move to the second stage of the architecture competition for the Nobel Center, the new Nobel Prize headquarters in Stockholm. In case you missed our previous post, 11 big-name architects submitted designs under anonymity — and we asked if you could guess who designed what!

The three shortlisted firms are:

A P(a)lace to Enjoy – Wingårdh Arkitektkontor, Sweden
A Room and a Half – Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor, Sweden
Nobelhuset – David Chipperfield Architects, Berlin, Germany

Previously: Eleven renowned architects present proposals for Stockholm’s future Nobel Center

...

Eleven renowned architects present proposals for Stockholm’s future Nobel Center

2013-10-04T13:46:00-04:00

The search has begun for the design of the future Nobel Center in the Blasieholmen peninsula in Stockholm. As an architectural representation of the Nobel Prize, the Nobel Center will serve as a space to promote creativity and innovative thinking in finding solutions for the world's major challenges of today and of the future. For stage one, 11 big-name architects submitted their proposals under anonymity to the competition jury on Oct. 3.

Participating Architects:

Kim Herforth Nielsen, 3XN Architects, Denmark;
Bjarke Ingels, BIG Bjarke Ingels Group A/S, Denmark;
David Chipperfield, David Chipperfield Architects, Germany;
Johan Celsing, Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor AB, Sweden;
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, France;
Lene Tranberg, Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter A/S, Denmark
Marcel Meili and Markus Peter, Marcel Meili, Markus Peter Architekten AG, Switzerland;
Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf, OMA, Netherlands;
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA, Japan
Kjetil Thorsen, Snøhetta Oslo A/S, Norway;
Gert Wingårdh, Wingårdh Arkitektkontor AB, Sweden

UPDATE: Nobel Center competition shortlists three teams to move onto stage two

Can you guess who designed what? Let us know in the comment section below!

↑ Beyond 1210

↑ A Room and a Half

↑ Archipelago

↑ Landing Seagulls

↑ Nobel Sphere

↑ Nobelhuset

↑ PRI...

Summerhouse in Lagnö by Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

2013-08-23T18:11:00-04:00

Need some inspiration as you sketch out that dream summer house? Maybe Tham & Videgård's Summerhouse project in Lagnö, Sweden could spark some ideas...

Project description from Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård:

Summerhouse Lagnö

"The setting is the Stockholm archipelago, natural ground sloping gently down to the sea in the south, mostly open with a few trees and bushes. Unlike other projects we worked on located on more isolated islands in the archipelago without car access from the mainland, this site was relatively easy to reach also with heavy transports. This, together with the client's desire for a maintenance-free house inspired us to search for a way to design the house as an integral part of nature, where the material's weight and color scale connects to the archipelago granite bedrock, rather than a light light wooden cottage..."

"The two building volumes are placed side by side and form a line that clarifies their position in the landscape, just at the border where the ...

OMA’s Twin Skyscrapers Win Tors Torn Competition in Stockholm

2013-06-19T14:51:00-04:00

OMA has been announced as winner of the design competition for Tors Torn in Stockholm. The proposed pair of towers with its facetted facade was designed as the third tallest twin skyscrapers in Sweden.

Twelve Architects to Compete to Design Nobel Center in Stockholm

2013-03-25T19:12:00-04:00

During the winter there has been a selection process to choose the architects who will be invited to participate in the planned architectural competition to design a Nobel Center at Blasieholmen in Stockholm. In total, over 140 architects have been considered by a specially appointed evaluation committee. Of these, 12 have been selected to be invited to the architectural competition.

The Nobel Foundation has announced the following 12 architects selected:

Kim Herforth Nielsen – 3XN, Denmark
Bjarke Ingels – BIG, Denmark
David Chipperfield – David Chipperfield Architects, England/Germany
Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron and Ascan Mergenthaler – Herzog & de Meuron, Switzerland
Johan Celsing – Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor, Sweden
Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal – Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, France
Lene Tranberg – Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter, Denmark
Marcel Meili and Markus Peter – Marcel Meili, Markus Peter Architekten, Switzerland
Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf – OMA, Netherlands
Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa – SANAA, Japan
Kjetil Thorsen – Snøhetta, Norway
Gert Wingårdh – Wingårdhs arkitekter, Sweden

Within the two-stage competition, the architects' task will be to design the building that will become the new home of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm. The building will house the Nobel Foundation, toge...

Mock Firms International Skyscraper Competition 2nd Place Proposal

2011-06-17T02:33:23-04:00

The Mock Firms model aims to help facilitate the formation and function of simulated architectural design firms by collegiate and secondary school students. Entering in its 4th year, the Chicago-based Mock Firms Architectural Competition is already highly regarded on the landscape of student-based design competitions.

Students Brian Ng, Michael Zhang and Grant Cogan of The Danish Institute for Study Abroad and California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo have taken second place in Chicago Architecture Today’s 2011 International Mock Firm Skyscraper Design Challenge with their skyscraper proposal: “Reconcile: The Stensta Tower”

Below is their concept proposal brief:

Skyscrapers today represent social inaccessibility and commercial obsession, completely disengaged from any sense of ethical responsibility. How can the tower, a source of unaccepted scrutiny in Sweden, become good for the people?

In reigniting the social question of architecture, how can the tower reconfigure itself into something that reconciles sites of conflict, catalyzing social sustainability?

The biggest challenge with designing a skyscraper for the city of Stockholm is the “towerphobia” of Scandinavia. Any protrusion in the low, homogenous skyline of Stockholm is seen as a display of power; in the past, the ...

Fire destroys buildings at Stockholm's School of Architecture

2011-05-04T14:58:10-04:00

The fire broke out early Wednesday morning in the institute's architecture school on Östermalmsgatan in central Stockholm with the roof of the main lecture hall quickly filling with smoke. Firefighters battled throughout the day to bring the blaze under control and prevent it spreading to other parts of the university's buildings and there are fears that there is a risk of a building collapse.