Architecture for Everyday Life

EVERYWHERE
EVERYONE
ARCHITECTURE FOR
EVERYDAY LIFE
EVERYBODY
EVERY TIME
SUSTAINABILITY BY SWEDEN

Sveriges Arkitekter, Swedish Association of Architects

Produced by the Swedish Association of Architects, 2010
with support by the Delegation for sustainable cities

Project leader: Pehr-Mikael Sällström
Editor: Tomas Lauri, Katarina Nilsson
Translation: Roger Tanner, John Krause
Layout: Ina Flygare
Printer: TSRB Nanjing

ISBN 978-91-978353-5-0

Cover photo: Kastrup Sea Bath by White architects.
Photo: Ake Eson Lindman

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Architecture and Sustainable Welfare 2
Architecture matters 3
Open to changes 8
Township without empty gestures 18
The magnetism of style 27
A system of the future 32
The Strategist 39
The Politician 41
The Planner 43
Examples from the municipalities: Planning for everyday life 46
Examples from practice: Sustainable architecture and planning 63
Directory of architects 107

Architecture and sustainable welfare

Sweden is a nation with a long tradition of comprehensive planning and of using architectural guidelines as a means of enhancing the quality of everyday life for our citizens while conserving our natural resources for future generations. In the 1960s and 1970s, to be sure, we had some very negative experiences of planning processes that damaged large parts of our historical city centres, but we have learned a lot from our mistakes. The Swedish Government is convinced that to build a sustainable society, many parties must be involved and work together to find innovative and more resource-efficient technical solutions to our social needs.

Architecture has a crucial role in this as a bridge between human needs and technical solutions. But also as a means of cultural development and of communicating more sustainable lifestyles. Architecture can make such lifestyles more attractive and easily accessible for everyone.

Opportunities for citizens to develop and be productive members of society wherever they live are a fundamental aspect of sustainability. Spatial organisation can include or exclude. We have a strong belief in the open society. It is our experience that this has resulted in a high degree of participation, initiative and responsibility at the local level, a sense of trust and security which is the basis of our welfare. The right of our citizens to participate in the spatial planning process is laid down in the law. The development process may be time consuming, but makes it possible in the end to produce large quantities of high quality and even unique housing.

Today international delegations visit our urban development schemes and our way of working is regarded as a model by many. We believe that our approach to building sustainable cities, based on great care for the quality of everyday life of citizens, is something that other countries can benefit from. It is our experience that careful planning and architecture are part of the foundation of a sound economy in the long term. In a post-industrial society, increasingly dependent on access to knowledge, the economy will flourish in places where people want to make their lives.

Sweden has long been a nation of industrial exports. We are now entering a new era where the service and knowledge-producing sectors are becoming more important. Architecture and planning provide an exciting example of this new trend. It is therefore our great pleasure to hereby present this catalogue with many examples of how Swedish architects and planners are working to develop a sustainable society.

Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth
Minister for Culture

Andreas Carlgren
Minister for the Environment

Photos: Pawel Flato

Architecture matters

The dream of a better life is what attracts people to move to the city. 2008 was a banner year in that respect. For the first time, more than fifty percent of humanity now lives in urban areas at the same time as the world’s population reached seven billion. The urban population is expected to double in the next forty years, while the total global population grows to ten billion. By then seventy percent of the population will live in cities. The challenge will be to deal with all that growth in the face of diminishing natural resources. Sustainability is going to be about human health and about maintaining productive, profitable ecosystems that can provide for our needs while keeping the planet in good shape even for future generations. Planning and architecture are going to be important tools for creating the sustainable cities and buildings of the future. Tomorrow’s sustainable solutions need to be both technologically smart and attractive for people’s everyday lives, for everyday architecture.

The more people that will live in the city, the easier it becomes to deal with environmental problems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions with smart technologies. But for that to happen, the sustainable city needs to offer its inhabitants a better quality of life. Sustainable technical strategies must be designed from a human perspective while solving the environmental problems. Swedish efforts to develop sustainable cities and architecture are getting a great deal of attention internationally these days. In Sweden there are planning methods and an approach to the work process to achieve holistic solutions, which starts with a balanced integration of social, economic, and ecological demands and conditions. It’s what we call SymbioCity. Our approach to building a sustainable society is anchored in legislation and a regulatory process that gives all stakeholders a voice. That allows a high level of both systematization and citizen participation in our work with planning and design. It also provides good conditions for interdisciplinary collaboration among a variety of actors of complementary expertise. What it means is that the solutions we arrive at are already adapted to local conditions and have the support of the people affected. And that makes the execution of the project much more effective. We call it consensus.

For this catalogue, we have gathered together a number of talented writers to describe the Swedish model in more detail and from several different perspectives and to discuss what it means to work with Swedish architects and planners. We have also invited municipalities and complementary firms to explain how they work. Several of the contributing architects also present some of their international work. These Swedish architects can and will contribute to building sustainable buildings and cities around the world. Sweden has a long history as an export nation. We can contribute the knowledge and expertise it takes to find solutions that always are based on local conditions. What makes us so successful is our ability to come up with new solutions. We are a country built on innovation.

We would like to give warm thanks to the Swedish government whose investment in exporting sustainable cities has provided the support needed to produce this catalogue. We also want to thank all of the companies and municipalities who made the effort to make this unique compilation possible. The Swedish Association of Architects

Laila Strunke
President of Swedish Association of Architects

Photo: Urban Orzolek

EVERYWHERE
EVERYONE
ARCHITECTURE FOR
EVERYDAY LIFE
EVERYBODY
EVERY TIME
SUSTAINABILITY BY SWEDEN

Photo: Alas Esen Lindman

Open to changes

Sweden stands for a socially conscious architecture. It is an architecture of wood, of prefabrication, and of nature, with roots that extend back to the industrial revolution and the will to create a united and participatory society.

EVERYONE
"It seems we all agree."

That's how every successful meeting in Sweden is summed up. Everyone is on the same page. All of the Nordic countries can be described as consensus democracies. The stability of their development during practically the whole of the 20th century is rooted in a policy of consensus which has been both unusual and victorious. This pursuit of consensus has been most energetic in Sweden. A good solution is a solution for everyone.

The policy of general welfare is visible in what has been built and planned. The general means that Sweden has never had any specific social housing production for the poor. All homes must satisfy the same requirements, and so Sweden today has the world’s highest housing standard in terms of square metres per inhabitant. The greater part of Sweden’s housing stock materialised in the second half of the 20th century, with the assistance of state funding. To qualify for the favourable credits and grants on offer, a certain standard had to be met, not only spatially but also in terms of urban planning. The good home was defined in codes and regulations. Since the market took over the task of providing the country with new homes, the importance of the codes has diminished, but the vision of the home as the nucleus of the welfare society lives on.

Consensus between citizens and government requires confidence. The perception of the state as good for one’s own welfare goes back to more indigent times than our own. Thanks to a reasonable symmetry between taking and giving, a process of urban construction was able to slowly evolve. Civil registration in Sweden, the very foundation of governmental planning, dates back to the 17th century, making it the world’s oldest. And in the local community at that time, decision-making bodies already existed which were consensus-based.

The ironworks quickly became the pioneers of urban development. Industrialists with strategic acumen organised not only production but also their employees’

Photo: Mauro Borgiano

Photo: Akira Eson Lindman

lives in accordance with rational principles. With standardised homes in straight lines and with church, school and medical care underpinning people's upbringing and well-being, the lucrative iron industry has planted responsible industries long before the breakthrough of industrial society.

During Sweden's industrialisation process and its concomitant transformation from one of the poorest countries in Europe to one of the wealthiest, society was strengthened by a host of institutions, all of them fashioned by a new professional category – consulting architects. The schools, hospitals, railway stations, courthouses and churches of the 19th century left an imprint on Sweden which lasted well into the next century and which to a great extent still is strong. The image of the Swedish town is historic, even through more than half of all the country's buildings are under 50 years old.

The humanism of the 20th century also rested on rational foundations. Optimum production requires sound management of resources, a category in which both raw materials and people could be included. Organised working conditions, organised communities and hard-to-follow guidelines for both enterprise and citizens. Industry once again set the pattern of planning. Whereas big 19th century workplaces – breweries, for example – could be modelled on medieval castles, functionalist architecture inverted the ideals, modelling people's homes on the pragmatic structures of factory buildings.

These developments were not confined to Sweden. Germany had led the way as regards both industrialisation and the radicalisation of architecture, but it was Sweden that succeeded in creating national programmes out of the housing policy endeavours of the 1920s. Unaffected by direct damage after the Second World War, the strong state was able to work for the country's transformation into an efficient welfare society. Architects occupied the forefront, planning suburbs where the neighbourhood ethos would be the cement joining people together. A sceptical view was taken of the middle and apparent disorder of the city.

EVERYWHERE

Sweden long remained a faintly urbanised society. It was not until the mid-1950s that the urban population exceeded its rural counterpart; by the turn of the century, one inhabitant in four was a country-dweller. Much of Sweden's earlier was generated in the forests, in the mountains and through the energy obtainable from a waterfall. But the move towards ever more large-scale structures caused the towns and cities to outdistance the countryside growth-wise. State-subsidised housing production was a locomotive of the national economy in the mid-20th century.

Now building too began to be industrialised on a large scale. Sweden was already exporting prefabricated houses before industrialization, and the expanding timber industry was already exporting house kits worldwide in the 19th century. Factory housing production was already a big number in the 1930s, and today nearly all housing is made up of more or less prefabricated sections.

Prefabrication favoured a largeness of scale which culminated in the 20th century. Industrial methods now set the tone, not only of construction but also of planning. To husband governmental resources, planners and responsible citizens long before the breakthrough of industrial society.

EVERYWHERE

Nature today is also leaving its imprint on more large-scale building development. Natural materials like wood are now being used in every connection, and woodland or lakeside prospects are valued assets in the planning context, not least where urban development is concerned.

EVERY TIME

A good building must be long-serving, in terms of both form and technology. Functionalism, introduced in Sweden in 1930, remains the basic ideology of architecture, even though the forms are no longer the same. The knowledge base demands both research and scrutiny. Government commissions concerning practical, hygienic homes were already initiated in the 1920s, and Swedish

building research has left few fields unexplored. The research findings became recommendations and regulations, implying for example that everyone, regardless of age or disability, must be able to go everywhere and use every building.

Much knowledge has also been gathered concerning the best ways of caring for old buildings and environments. Historic buildings make an important difference to people’s sense of belonging. Demolitions are therefore avoided to the utmost extent possible, with the result that building conservation has also become a part of modern architecture. Good care augments the sentimental value of buildings, and knowledge of the way in which old buildings should be looked after is widespread. Often the function of a building can be more worthy of preservation than details of its design, and so knowledge of ways in which old structures can be modernised has grown increasingly important. The same goes for the city as such. Several neighbourhoods which at one time were condemned can now boast the country’s foremost urban qualities. The slowness of change has an intrinsic value.

In recent decades the art of restoration has been developed into a safe haven for craftsmanship in building. At the same time, the ideology of preservation has found itself in complicated situations, in that Modernist buildings and developments are now also in need of restoration. In addition to the technical structures being hard to preserve, there are many environments here which do not inspire the same umailoyed devotion as sustenere farm cottages or graceful summertime retreats. Most debates on architecture and urban development of late have been concerned with the limits of preservation and with who should make decisions affecting the city—the general public, experts or politicians.

On a deeper level, however, there is a broad consensus in favour of our common environment confirming that we are human beings and not just consumers or temporary visitors on this planet. To these humanist values a new environmental objective has been added,

"This is not so much a matter of religion – Sweden is one of the world’s most secularised countries. Daylight, natural materials and greenery were and remain universally uncontested values."

Photo: Anna-Lena Mattson

namely that of the built environment not impacting on ecosystems. Nearness to unspoiled nature has played a very important part in gaining support and understanding for the environmental objectives. The sense of nature as a common asset was leaving its mark on planning long before sustainable development became a topic of discussion. The ancient right of moving freely on other people's land among other things led to prohibition of Sweden's coasts and lakesides. This has preserved the landscape as a common asset and a common responsibility.

EVERYDAY

Improved co-operation has long been the essence of the Swedish model. This concept, like the Swedish Welfare State metaphor, dates from the inter-war years and marks the beginning of the Social Democrats' long tenure of power. The idealisation of everyday life was mirrored by the campaign to eliminate the rural custom of keeping the best room in the home closed except for celebrations and holidays. Everyday life used to be lived in the kitchen. The new homes no longer had “fine rooms” or sitting rooms. The heart of the home was now called the “everyday room”, i.e. living room. Then in 1955 the boundary between kitchen and living room was eliminated with the launching of the all-in-one room. That boundary disappeared simultaneously with the middle-class convention of having domestic servants.

Nowadays the all-in-one room is taken for granted, just like the sharing of housework and child care between both parents. Weekdays are no longer contrasted with “holy days”, meaning a day of rest reserved for churchgoing and formal dinners, whereas now we have a day of leisure. Just as the all-in-one room demolished the boundaries between classes and sexes in the home, so has everyday living broken down the barriers in the city. The bastions of old-time highbrow culture, such as museums and concert halls, now address themselves to all ages, but above all perhaps to the young. Rafael Moneo’s Modern Museum (1990-98) was a large and significant cultural building project in the heart of Stockholm. When completed it was criticised for its conventional view of the museum visit as a silent, contemplative and introverted activity. Today, if anything, the opposite is expected of new cultural institutions. Museums are expected to be public living rooms.

The outdoor environment today is also being planned with reference to everyday use. Parks formerly intended for walking in are now settings for games and picnics, which means new demands on their resilience. In streets and squares today, outdoor cafes and events are claiming more and more space, now that Swedes have adopted more Mediterranean social habits. Intensive living in a close-knit city is a powerful ideal which has augmented the pressure on the traditional city and its fringes. Housing has become a choice of lifestyle, with the inner city one among several options. Even in Stockholm one can choose to live in the country without needing to spend more than an hour travelling to work.

Swedish architecture has made great headway in making life convenient and rational. We know how parks, streets, homes and workplaces can be made secure and practical. We have created strategies for making everyone a participant in construction and planning processes. We have reached agreement concerning which buildings and which environments are to be safeguarded.

The challenge today lies in preserving all these good things and at the same time allowing buildings to affect people in their everyday lives, in such a way that they will see their lives in a new light and have the courage to break with the consensus. Architecture has the potential to both reaffirm and provoke. The forms vary. Today we are building copies of historic towns as well as abstract additions to towns which really are historic. If the aim is to create environments in which people feel both accepted and challenged, both options are workable. Everyday architecture can sometimes be a matter of not doing anything at all, waiting for the right opportunity and the right building. The good society is an open one. Open to changes.

RASMUS WERN
architect SAR/MSA and architecture critic

"The sense of nature as a common asset was leaving its mark on planning long before sustainable development became a topic of discussion."

Illustrations: Gabriel Wenz

Township without empty gestures

Three architects discuss what it means to be a Swedish architect and urban planner. “We are sharp-witted on the human level,” says Johannes Tovatt, one of the participants.

Johannes Tovatt (JT) heads Tovatt Architects & Planners, one of Europe’s leading practices in urban planning. Credits include urban development plans in London, Vienna and St. Petersburg, among other places.

Hans Murman (HM) has made himself known for an architecture in which national tradition is blended with international concepts. At the 2009 World Architecture Festival in Barcelona he received an award for a restaurant in the Swedish mountains.

Monica von Schmalensee (MvS) is CEO of White Arkitekter, one of the largest architecture practices in Europe. They were one of the designers of the Hammarby Sjöstad township, widely noted for its sustainability. The firm recently won an international competition for a new research hospital in Stockholm.

“We are very practical.” says Hans Murman about Swedish architects.

What services can Swedish architects offer the international market?

JT: All services. Of course there are some where it is harder to compete with the local architects. There is a huge amount of very specific knowledge in various countries which outsiders do not possess. What we offer has to be something specifically Swedish, in either a cultural or a professional sense. I’m inclined to believe that the cultural is what we can offer. There we have our big opportunity and business concept. One can speak of a Palme legacy (editor’s note: Social Democratic Prime Minister of Sweden, 1969-76 and 1982-86). We have a sense of fairness in Sweden. That might sound a bit cocky, but I believe it. We are sharp-witted on the human level.

MvS: It’s never that easy to say “we can export this”. There isn’t any package. But the Swedish model is still something people turn to Sweden for. We know about society, welfare and quality. It’s our heritage, because for a long time now our everyday life has been caringly shaped. We also know how to achieve this. We have a process to offer. There is much to be gained from finding an interlocutor who can handle issues of this kind. I think it’s important to understand that a new society cannot be built hastily. Planning, implementation and management take time. Today, with everything having to be immediate and look good in pictures, there is a danger of our not allowing the process time enough for issues and consequences to be properly illuminated. It’s important here for cities, policy-makers and officials to possess genuine knowledge. Sweden has been fortunate in that respect. We have been able to devote great care to the constituent parts.

"We have non-exclusive systems. We include everybody," says Johannes Tovatt.

Is it true to say that there is a specific Swedish architectural culture? What are its distinguishing characteristics?

MvS: Most often, if one is to generalise, we work in a user perspective, from the inside outwards. This differs from a working approach which begins from the outside and sometimes never reaches the inside, the small part, such as the organisation of a workplace. It is important that we also have to find a solution for the inner part.

One can also think in terms of a larger scale. Take a city, for example. Is it to be built from the facades or from the residents, street life, activities, everyday happenings ...?

HM: We are very practical. And we have a great understanding of function. For that reason we are leading in the world when it comes to something like designing office workplaces. Also, and this is clearly apparent from a lot of new Swedish architecture, we have learned that the exterior has an important role, as a symbol creator, as marketing and for the way the architecture is experienced. We're dealing with a holistic entity, with the external and internal interacting.

In fact, because we are mindful of both the interior and the exterior, we have an extraordinary chance of creating something really powerful.

Isn't this "inside knowledge" you speak of quite difficult to get across? How do you make a picture of the practical?

JT: The core issue here is interesting. For example, if you look at open international competitions and who

wins them, it’s rarely the biggest practices. Very often it’s young ones. They’re good at images and concepts. I have a difficulty in seeing how Sweden as a culture can compete with these concepts and images. Basically this is a question of mentality. And that, I think, is something we can be proud of.

MvS: I don’t think one should overstate any antithesis between our way of creating architecture and an international way. What you say is rather the way things used to be.

HM: Once again, our strength lies in our ability to combine function and aesthetic.

MvS: It’s interesting sometimes to see the comments to the winner of an architecture competition. We won the competition for the Karolinska research hospital. That was an international design competition. But outside Sweden it was our ideas about focusing on the patient, about care, that people paid tribute to. There is so much more to it than the mere outward appearance of the hospital. Basically the point is that we have raised hospital issues to a different level. That, as I see it, is very Swedish. What we have highlighted are typically Swedish ideas about social values. When we base things on our heritage, our tradition, they turn out well.

What are the implications of engaging a Swedish architect?

JT: As an architect you are often expected to be more authoritarian than you are. In my experience, it is more positive than negative to be non-authoritarian. Clients feel that they can step into the project, be a part of it. This creates an opportunity for doing something together. For many years now we have had a major urban development project in Vienna (editor’s note: Flugfeld, Aspern). When they twigged our non-authoritarian attitude, we found each other in a new way. The non-authoritarian is not to be confused, of course, with the absence of any standpoint. Not laying the law down from beginning to end does not mean that you cease guiding, directing and running a project.

MvS: Often it’s a matter of a different kind of authority.

JT: There is a danger in seeing a weakness in not having all the answers. We know what we are out to achieve. That imparts security, stability, to the process.

What Swedish architects do is offer a process mentality, leadership for a process. Correct?

MvS: We have many foreign visitors who come to look at Hammarby Sjöstad. I usually give them a description of our working approach. First I describe what things often look like. Disciplines are pigeon-holed – you’re an architect, you’re a structural engineer, you’re a politician, you’re an electrical consultant, and so on. All the pigeons toil away in their separate holes to the best of their ability. But the processes, such as the planning process, move in the other direction, cutting straight through the pigeonholes. The big challenge lies in working a little more holistically, overarchingly. Instead of linear thinking one can put the vision at the centre of things. As in the case of Hammarby Sjöstad: sustainability. Then everyone can relate to it. All the time, one’s attention is focused on the vision, or the project. That has you working in a different way. With that kind of shared focus, moving a process forward comes easily. And moving processes forward is the thing we are best in the world at.

JT: A successful process is founded on personal involvement. If you spend two days sitting with a Russian oligarch, as I did in St. Petersburg, and get him to consider simple matters, you have made a lot of headway. He has bought land for a billion roubles and wants a two-billion payback. Those are the frames. But then it has to be workable. Olga must be able to get her bagful of shopping from the metro to her flat. We also have a class problem to deal with. All these things are manifested in the new township. How are we to solve it all? This is where my knowledge comes in. It’s a matter of the personal aspect, knowing how to do things, what architecture can do. Most people I have met, whatever their social standing, take it for granted that this personal side is more important than the billion roubles. That means we can add four or five points beyond the financial aspect. Those points are about the way we see each other here in Sweden. It is universally human and an extraordinary business philosophy.

Does a Swedish architect care much about the everyday side of things?

JT: Yes. And everybody wants to care. No one enters into a major urban development process without caring. I think that’s what makes it so hard to approach things from the other direction, if one has been reared in an authoritarian culture, accustomed to seeing things from outside, to assert that one cares about the little things, about Olga and her walking home with a bag of shopping. That’s something we can do with authority.

Putting it the other way round and looking at Swedish architecture from the outside, is there a typically Swedish idiom?

JT: Recently I passed by a newly completed development, Anmedal, in a Stockholm suburb. It has 20 or 30 blocks, all by different architects. Even though it is not an authoritarian by design, they do what architects here always do and always have done. As if we had a collective code. You can see the same thing in Hammarby Sjöstad. A tremendous, innate discipline. Everything is neat and good-natured and meticulously, caringly executed. I don’t think that could happen anywhere else. At the same time, in the middle of it all, there is a vein of acceptance for the personal. What we see in the successful Swedish projects is this very mixture of the personal and the general.

MvS: Sometimes, when called upon to speak in another country about Swedish architecture, how we go about things and so on, it’s hard not to expound the history of Sweden – our being a small country, the way our thinking is geared to nature and, not least, to light. All those dark winters and bright summers. And we have never been wealthy. We have created architecture on a sheostring. To this is added all our social schooling in the 20th century. We come from a country which has had an institute which developed skills for the layout of a kitchen. We have a conscious way of relating to schools, medical care and so on. We have a social commitment.

I am myself surprised that foreign visitors never tire of going to see Hammarby Sjöstad. And time and time again I hear the same thing said. They wonder how it works. Being able to live on top of each other in flats and still be blessed with so many spatial qualities. They talk about the apartment layouts, the way they admit daylight and the way the courtyards are a part of the buildings. The interesting point is that few visitors look specifically at the appearance of the buildings. What they look at is the way people live. Somewhere along the line it’s all about the relation between the residents and the architecture. That, I venture to say, is typically Swedish.

HM: The link to nature that you mentioned is, I think, significant. Often we achieve things which are specifically Scandinavian or Nordic by making nature our starting point. What I have in mind is not purely aesthetic utterances but also the fact of our then broaching issues that are deeply rooted within us, issues which are a part of our cultural heritage, issues which make us unique.

You keep referring to Hammarby Sjöstad. What makes it such a powerful urban development project?
HM: A powerful vision has a lot to do with it. That means the presence of a holistic concept. Firstly, the apartments are bright and attractive. Then the surroundings are well cared for. And, not least, everything works. It’s practical. At the same time, Hammarby Sjöstad looks good.

What do people experience in Hammarby Sjöstad?
HM: Essentially, you have the prerequisites of urban living: play areas, shops, cafés, restaurants, communications and schools, among other things. But then you also have a striking milieu: the water the quaysides, the canals. It all adds up to much more than just a dormitory town.

MvS: One can speak of a whole 24 hours’ activity having been assembled round an infrastructural node, the tramway. Which is not to say that you necessarily have to live, work and find recreation in one and the

"We work from a user’s perspective, from the inside outwards." says Monica von Schmalensee.

same area, only that all the different levels are present and that there are people coming and going at all times of the day and night.

JT: The glorious thing about it is that here we have a township without empty gestures. There may be a few jarring instances of blue ceramic tiling, but that's all. Architecture and urban development the world over are full of empty gestures. But here they are absent. You have a strong wholeness unsubverted by individual details. The secret lies in this super-traditional perception of the street space. Street, pavements and house front, or shop. There is another thing that makes an important difference to the experience. There is no question of fencing in, of creating a gated community. We don't go in for that kind of thing. Hammarby Sjostad is an example of how much better things turn out if you allow the roads to continue and join up with their surroundings, no matter whether you are talking about industrial facilities or housing.

What can you say about environmental technology in Hammarby Sjostad? What does the interaction between different consultants and architects look like in Sweden? How do we address environmental issues? Is there a specifically Swedish way of making sustainable cities?

MvS: When I show people round there, the concluding questions are usually about the environmental aspects. All the general systems which the township is based on: the tranway, the car pool, the biogas system, the vacuum suction refuse collection system, the stormwater management system. But people are also hugely interested in the process. How did we get everyone to pull in the same direction? Adding all the parameters together, there are of course a lot of good things to be learned. This is a unique instance. One source of amazement to many foreign visitors is the fact of our working on such a co-ordinated basis, the fact that we as architects work with all the consultants from the start so as together to achieve the best solution between space and technology. We are not always in the front line of a particular technology, but when it comes to application we occupy a very different position. We arrive at robust solutions.

JT: Much of what one sees, for example, in Hammarby Sjostad, is concerned with general systems. That is a legacy of ours from the development of the Swedish Welfare State. It is something we have been occupying ourselves with for a long time. It is our axiomatic tradition when we set about developing our activities further. As with district heating and refuse separation. We have refined systems of that kind. Many cities are short of them.

HM: We take a down-to-earth approach to environmental systems. Resource conservation is the name of the game. And making residents a part of it.

MvS: There is a kind of intelligibility about the Hammarby Sjostad technical systems. The people living there feel that they are really helping to create a better environment merely by disposing of their garbage. That's a great feeling.

JT: What happens in many countries is that efforts are made to improve the quality of the individual buildings, which is a trifle exclusive. Who can afford it and who can't? It's down to the individual. That makes it private and introverted. We have non-exclusive systems. We include everybody.

Interviewer: TOMAS LAURI

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Photo Åke Essen Lindman

Photo: Alex Evan Lindham

The magnetism of style

Sweden today is a world leader in design. One reason is that Swedish designers stay more up-to-date than most about what’s happening in the world around them.

Norden. Savour the name. Literally Englishized, it is “The North.” Who thought it up? Clearly, someone to the south of us. As if there were a bird, a fish or something midway between on the globe and we were living up at world’s end on the brink of the dragons, a place to which no one in their right mind dared venture in order to ask us what we ourselves would like to be known as. The North or Scandinavia – where exactly do we live?

One of them has five countries, the other has three. All of them are chilly, but they are radically different. But this, perhaps, is of no consequence to anyone in “the South” or “the West” or “the East.”

Instead it is the names as such that have decided our address, our abode. And so the answer is a foregone conclusion. “The Nordic Countries” sounds homepun and magical and downright historic. While “Scandinavia” has a blonde, sexy, urban ring to its rolling of the tongue as fresh and buoyant as a mountain waterfall in the spring thaw. Seductive! But treacherous too. At least, to designers. Ever since the Scandinavian Design concept became a cash cow throughout the western world, many designers have come close to drowning in that mountain force. What began as a fairly literal reinterpretation of a local craft tradition has today been reduced to a style indiscriminately pasted onto product after product as a means of jacking up the price a bit. So formalised, one could well believe it to be the brainchild of a publisher of coffee-table books.

It isn’t, though. Open the coffee-table book and you’ll see that the antecedents of Scandinavian Design are rustic, robust and austere – more unsophisticatedly Nordic than elegantly Scandinavian, if you get my meaning. Even with such a graceful creation as Hans Wegner’s Y chair. That was designed almost 60 years ago, and while the Americans were making glass-fibre furniture and the Italians flashy padded furniture, Wegner took what he found and sawed, sandpapered and glued and strung together an oak chair. Roughly the way people have always done for generations up here on the edge of the world.

Swedish designers in particular have developed an unusually close conspectus of the world at large, possibly with a view to steering clear of formalist Scandinavianism. They are masters of the art of sitting on the job with all ten fingers in the air and grabbing new trends. A curious work posture, but it works well for companies like Hennes & Mauritz.

Page 24-25: Nastqa OMX, interior design by Claesson Koivisto Rune.
Page 26: Renovation of an apartment in Stockholm by Tham Videgard Architects.

Photo: Alex Evans Lendham

In music they call it “sampling.” You know the expression from those hip-hop artists who are always angry and always swearing and always pointing the finger at you on MTV. They were the ones who started it all by borrowing a James Brown groove here and a Kraftwerk beat there and weaving the fragments into something of their own.

This, today, is most designers’ preferred working approach, and not only in Sweden. A no-nonsense method which, in this globalised, computerised era, feels every bit as pragmatic as Wegner’s determination to dig where he stands.

Only it’s a lot less romantic. Whatever became of the great creator? The one whose pen moved over the paper at such length, never blotting a line?

The question is whether he ever existed. “Bolts from the blue” and “divine inspiration” sound today like euphemisms for what a top-level process of creation is really about, namely: meeting cultures, reading the most progressive periodicals, visiting the most innovative trade fairs, forging contacts with the most venturesome producers. In a word: being updated. And Swedish designers are more updated than most.

We Swedes have always considered ourselves a bit more Scandinavian than other Scandinavians. This was confirmed a couple of years ago, when the Stockholm city fathers staged a coup by proclaiming their city “the capital of Scandinavia”—inspired by an article in Newsweek, if my memory serves me right. And whereas Oslo scarcely batted an eyelid (content, perhaps, with the oil and just being one of the world’s richest nations), Co-penhagen blew a gasket. Wegner, Jacobsen, Kjærholmen, Klint—surely, for heaven’s sake, it was they who had put Scandinavia on the map, at least among designers?

But Mother Swea lifted her shield. As if to indicate that a new age had dawned, a new age demanding that the Danish king of design be dethroned and a Swedish one crowned instead. Now it was Sweden—thou free, ancient country, thou high-mountained North—that dominated the design map of Scandinavia, because Newsweek had said so and so had Wallpaper and the New York Times and all the others carrying grandiloquent four-page feature articles in recent years, and the fact is, they were right. For, in a furniture perspective, Sweden today is Denmark’s superior. Test yourself: name one single Danish furniture designer active today (and you mustn’t say Louise Campbell, because she was born and trained in the UK). And then name a Swede. Just one. Will it be Front or Monica Förster or Gunilla Allard or Björn Dahlström or Thomas Sandell or Claesson Koivisto Rune or … IKEA?

Whereas the Danes have had difficulty in shouldering the legacy of Jacobsen and the other titans, the Swedes have been rather like chiefs in Great Britain—with everything to gain and nothing to lose. And while the Danes have been lured into stewardship rather than renewal, the Swedes have been able to move out into the fast lane which has taken them to Milan and the ICFF and all the way up to the Swedish parliament.

Swedish politicians nowadays are head over heels in love with design, so much so that they can’t stop rabbiting on about it. And so much do they rabbit, you could well believe that Swedish design was born yesterday, though it has been of consistently high class all through the 20th century.

The representatives of the people have at last come to realise that in our global era, with the world just one big untidy marketplace where you have to fight for consumers and tourists and investors and students and contractors and sporting and cultural events and Newsweek journalists, design is a hard-pulling magnet.

MARK ISITT
journalist

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Phoenix Kaper Dudrik

A system for the future

When creating the technical infrastructure for a sustainable city, every level must be included, including the social. Sweden is a pioneer in this area.

Sweden has one of the western world’s most decentralised planning systems. True, there are public steering mechanisms operating through a number of national authorities, but the municipal planning monopoly has been the foundation of urban planning, partly through strategic planning measures in the form of comprehensive plans and sustainability and environmental programmes, and also through detailed development plans and the granting of building permission.

Through the first UN Conference on the Human Environment, in Stockholm in 1972, Sweden also acquired a wide focus on environmental knowledge. That has been followed, among other things, by dramatic changes in water purification in several localities. The 1973 oil crisis lent further emphasis to efforts towards readjusting the energy system. Fossil fuels have been 90 per cent replaced by district heating, biofuels and electricity for domestic and other space heating.

In cities like Växjö – named the greenest city in Europe by the BBC in 2007 – deliberate urban planning combined with technical system solutions has helped to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than half since the mid-1990s. Western Harbour (Våstra Hammen) in Malmö is a township which, through a combination of district heating, wind power and geothermal energy, has succeeded in becoming a township with 100 percent renewable energy for heating and air conditioning. In the planning of Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, an eco-cycle model has been developed, aimed at minimising resource consumption and co-ordinating the recycling of energy, waste and water/sewage flows. The next step is now being taken in Stockholm, the idea being for Norra Djurgårdstaden (Stockholm Royal Seaport), one of Stockholm’s three environmental profile zones, to become an entirely fossil-free township in 2030.

Sustainable readjustment of existing settlement, not least as regards the large stock of housing from the 1960s and 70s, has at the same time come in for closer attention. The renovation of the Gårdster district of Gothenburg demonstrates the possibility of combining investments in renewables with social improvements of a social nature. In Brogarden, Alingsås, the energy demand of the existing settlement.

Page 30–31: Townhouse in Landskrona by Elding Occarison Architects.
Page 33: The development Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm has become an international model for sustainable communities.

Photo: Kaper Dudik

Photokatter Expedition

is being more than halved through a holistic grasp of construction engineering, architecture and building function. In all these instances, planning, landscape and building architects have been active from the early stages, and have co-operated closely with technical specialists to integrate the social systems with urban development and architecture.

THE SUSTAINABLE CITY CONCEPT

At the Johannesburg global summit in August 2002, Sweden’s government launched a new concept to show how urban development combined with environmental technology can help to achieve a sustainable society. The concept is based on Swedish experiences from the past few decades. Essentially, it implies a direct linkage of systemic solutions for transport, energy, water and waste management with urban planning, urban development and landscape and building architecture.

The concept has been developed into a communication platform for disseminating knowledge internationally. Dubbed SymbioCity, it involves Swedish agents in both the public sector and business enterprise, the emphasis being on co-operation, not least between research, development, demonstration and full-scale practical implementation. The concept has among other things served as a point of departure for sustainability reviews of townships, in which Swedish expert groups including architects, engineers and other specialists, have worked out proposals for improvements to urban development schemes with systemic solutions in Canada, Ireland, Russia and China. Meadows and tools for supporting local processes for sustainable development in Third World cities have also been devised and tested, e.g. in Macedonia and India.

During the spring of 2008, Swedish know-how within the SymbioCity framework was linked up with the planning of a new city for a population of one million in the Tangshan region of China, just over 200 km east of Peking.

The new city is called the eco-city Caofeidian, thereby expressing the aim of creating “a demonstration and model area of scientific development based on circular economy and first-class ecological function.” One year’s intensive development and planning work with Swedish architects and engineers resulted in an extensive body of planning documentation in the form of a sustainability programme, conceptual plans for two townships, 30 and 12 sqm in extent, and a scheme for designing a sustainability centre. Construction work is in full swing and high hopes are entertained of creating a city that will be both climatically neutral and attractive.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES

There are many who point to the risks attending urban development: widening social gaps, social unrest and a deterioration of the environmental situation, increased air pollution and climate hazards due to the rapid rise in consumption of fossil fuels by the transport and energy sectors. But more and more we are also coming to realise that urbanisation can also have positive consequences, for it is a well-attested fact that cities – environmental problems notwithstanding – can also offer great opportunities for economic, social and cultural development.

Cities are also a base for systemic solutions which can be developed through integrated planning of settlement, landscape, transport and other infrastructure systems. Sweden’s experience indicates that political consensus on sustainability-related and environmental targets is a sine qua non of the success of planning and implementation processes at local level. That consensus is also needed for successful inter-sectoral co-operation between the city’s experts, architects, entrepreneurs and other enterprises.

But support from the central level can also be needed. Local investment support (LIP) programmes for measures transcending the norms have been an important incentive in Sweden. For the period between 2008 and 2010, the Swedish Delegation for Sustainable Cities is providing funding support for 30 per cent of the additional investments resulting in substantial reductions of climate impact, while at the same time factoring in social and economic aspects. The idea is for carefully selected projects to create good examples to be followed by nationally and internationally.

Architects, with their planning and design competence, can help to meet the great challenges which follow in the wake of the world’s accelerating urbanisation. One of the key issues concerns designing technical systems as part of the whole and as a support for all dimensions of sustainability.

ULF RANHAGEN
architect SARIMA and professor at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
Member of the Swedish Delegation for sustainable cities.

"Sweden’s experience indicates that political consensus on sustainability-related and environmental targets is a sine qua non of the success of planning and implementation processes at local level."

A child is standing in front of a wooden building with glass doors and windows. The building has a green metal roof supported by green columns. Snow covers the ground around the building.

Photo: Kuper Dudak

Behind the scene

It's not enough to just have architects designing. The green city is about a number of other key people, too: the politician who makes visions reality, the regional strategist who creates a broad basis of design, and the urban planner who administers over the resolutions and visions and gets the architecture moving in the right direction.

The Strategist

Attention tends very often to focus on the city, on its buildings and designing them. Susanne Ingo, a strategist with the Swedish Transport Administration, wants to break a lance for a larger scale of things. To make a city grow and be more ecological, you have to take in a wider context and put in place the prerequisites of the sustainable city.

For several years now she has been working with the university cities of Norrköping and Linköping, which are located 40 km apart on the Västergötland plain and, hopefully, will soon be a 60 minute train ride from Stockholm and 90 minutes from Copenhagen, the two biggest cities in the Nordic area. The idea is for Norrköping and Linköping together to increase their populations by 100,000 between now and 2030, from 400,000 to half a million.

This is quite some increase for a region where population growth cannot be taken for granted. What Susanne Ingo has emphasised in her reports is that in order to grow larger a city has to broaden its market. It must be able to tie larger areas – the surrounding villages and towns – to itself. This is where transportation come in. Behind every successful infill development you find good transportation. It's all about a dynamic city, a city where travel is a natural part of the day.

“Everything,” she says, “can be broken down into time and expenditure. The time it takes to reach a place and a reasonable price for the journey. It isn't about distance. Another essential thing to understand is a concept like accessibility. Just being able to get there quickly isn't enough. You must be able to go where you want to when you need to.”

If transportation is one big factor, location is the other one. Norrköping and Linköping both have great urban qualities – Norrköping with its centrally located historic industrial settlement, Linköping with its low-rise inner-city settlement. The buildings define a character which must not be travestied when a city expands. The authentic must endure. If the city is to grow, it must do so above all round the means of transport. Susanne Ingo speaks of transportation proximity or station proximity.

“Transportation leads to a point in a city. That point is sacred. Those areas have to be earmarked. Coming from another locality or suburb, you want to be spared having to change to another type of transport or having to walk too far to your workplace. Workplaces have to be created round the near-central station areas. That is where there is a commercial potential. In fact,” she says, “all out-of-town establishments, shopping centres, business parks and educational campuses are a step in the wrong direction.”

But just building and starting up isn’t that easy. The traveller, the human being, must not be lost sight of in the big picture. Susanne Ingo says that a high level of spatial quality is needed at the nodal points. That is where the city can develop into something else, something more human, and ecological development is part and parcel of the process. Susanne Ingo sees transportation, urban population growth and ecology as an answer to one and the same question.

“There is nothing difficult about seeing a focus on population growth as an ecological act. It provides an opportunity for infill, for creating good unifying systems, for investing further in ecological transportation. Once development towards a communicatively more close-knit city has been started, you are heading for the good city.”

Susanne Ingo is careful to point out what she considers fundamental in this context, namely that Norrköping and Linköping should start formulating themselves as a single region, because this is often forgotten. Good transportation systems are expensive, awkward investments. Solo performances are out of the question. “The common thread of all regional projects is that people really start to see themselves as a region, a community, and to work like one. This is not the kind of thing that should be allowed to remain on paper, just for the sake of appearances.”

Interviewer: TOMAS LAURI

Photo: Emma Larsson

The Politician

Malmö has been selected twice in the 2000s as one of the best cities in the world to live in. It has also been praised by the UN for its investments in the environment.

The city is always hosting groups of visitors who come to study the redevelopment of Västra Hamnen (the Western Harbor): the housing, parks, street space, offices, and shopping. The area has an attractive central location where downtown Malmö extends down to meet the sea.

Construction in Västra Hammen took off at the turn of the 21st century. Malmö University began building in the area. A housing expo was held in 2001. Most of the best-known Swedish architects have contributed buildings, as well as international stars like Santiago Calatrava, whose Turning Torso rises like a 190-meter tall symbol of the new Malmö. A spirit of optimism and excitement about the future reigns.

It's hard to believe that just fifteen years ago Malmö was one derelict industrial city among many in northern Europe. The last major industries had shut down. Unemployment was high. The population was declining.

The new sustainable Malmö is the result of a visionary effort that started in the 1990s. Politics preceded architecture.

Ilmar Reepalu's Social Democratic Party won an absolute majority in the 1994 election. Reepalu soon brought together representatives from the business community, the university, the world of finance, and politicians from every party. The group studied other aging industrial cities that were showing positive signs of development, including Glasgow, Bilbao, Barcelona, and San Diego.

Just at that time, new legislation was being enacted that would create a bridge to connect Denmark and Sweden. Suddenly Malmö was no longer going to be just another mid-sized European city, but part of a major metropolitan region.

“Mentally, this was a big step,” says Reepalu. “Together we would be bigger and stronger than we’d been alone. Together with Copenhagen and all of their and our surrounding communities, we make up twenty-six percent of the GDP of the combined Nordic region. We have 150,000 students, 12,000 professors, and sixty percent of the biotechnology businesses concentrated in one small area.”

Envisioning a larger region has helped Malmö accomplish the critical infrastructure changes needed to support the density of a sustainable city. Today Malmö has two centrally located train stations and has seen the number of train passengers increase by three hundred percent since 2008. Shopping, instead of spreading out in parking-friendly suburbs, has been growing stronger in the center of town. The availability of old industrial land along the train tracks has allowed new offices and housing to be built adjacent to the stations.

The population has grown by 60,000 in just fifteen years. 45,000 new jobs have been created, mostly in new sectors of the economy. Small business activity has taken off. Reepalu counts three hundred new companies in ten years.

“This has been about retooling Malmö to be a knowledge community—a city based on learning, communications, art, and creativity,” he says.

When Reepalu talks about the sustainable city, he’s envisioning social sustainability as well as ecological. Malmö has invested a great deal in its public spaces. They have been recognized both nationally and internationally for their work. The keyword has been “activity.” To activate and stimulate meetings. To get citizens to want to use urban spaces around the clock. They’ve done it by fixing up old parks and creating new ones, for example, and investing in sports and play and a good measure of qualitative public activities.

“A sustainable ecological community is also a social community,” says Reepalu. “When we began our visionary work, there was a lot of talk about the verdant welfare state, an extension of the society Sweden built up during the 20th century.”

The political work on the sustainable city has also been aimed at putting Malmö on the world map. Making it part of a worldwide network of likeminded communities, exporting and importing services. Today Malmö has a comprehensive collaboration with various sister cities—communities with whom it can share a mutually beneficial exchange. For example, they were one of the first to establish a close collaboration with the growing Chinese market.

Much of the city’s international networking is due to its multicultural population. As many as 174 different nationalities are represented among its citizenry, making Malmö unique internationally—neither London nor New York can claim as many.

“We’ve had many natural channels to build on,” says Reepalu. “We are a global city.”

Interviewer: TOMAS LAURI

Photo Kaiper Dahlik

The Planner

If you're going to succeed in bringing sustainability to large urban planning projects, you need a strong vision. A vision that builds consensus among the developers and the different stakeholders and of course those who are going to live in and use the area.

So says Anna-Stina Bokander of the Stockholm City Planning Department. She is the chief urban planner for Norra Djurgårdstaden, Stockholm Royal Seaport, the city's next big neighborhood with an environmental profile. If Hammarby Sjöstad was the first attempt at building a sustainable city, then Norra Djurgårdstaden is a significant step forward from there. The limits on energy use and emissions are even more rigorous. The goal is an eco-friendly urban district of world class.

Norra Djurgårdstaden covers nearly thirty hectares of land a couple of kilometers northeast of downtown Stockholm. It's a diverse area that includes such disparate elements as an oil harbor, which is to be relocated; Hjorthagen, a model Functionalist development that is to be preserved; and an old industrial area, which is protected for its historic significance and is to be revitalized with new construction. Housing for 10-12,000 is to be added, along with workplaces for some 30,000 people.

"The environmental profile is important as a link to keep it all together," says Bokander.

By 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from the community must be less than 1.5 metric tons per person annually. And by 2030 the neighborhood is to be free from the use of fossil fuels. It is also supposed to be prepared for the future consequences of climate change. The vision focuses on five areas: energy, transportation, adaptation to climate, closed-loop resource management, and lifestyle issues.

In 2008 the City of Stockholm approved the new district's environmental profile. Since then, the Planning Administration has been working to develop an environmental program.

"We have allowed the stakeholders involved, from the business community, construction firms, and developers, among others, to express their views on several occasions," says Bokander. "It's a substantial effort in bringing stakeholders on board."

Work on the environmental profile has also generated a lively internal discussion in the department. Concepts have had to be defined. What exactly is sustainability? What influence it has on life in Norra Djurgårdstad?

"We've had many discussions about what sustainability is," says Bokander. "We don't want to see the neighborhood as just a technological manifestation. So we've been talking about transparent technology. It needs to be easy for residents and users to do the right thing. That means coming up with functioning systems that basically make it easy to live ecologically. It could be anything from giving apartments a display that tells them when the next bus is leaving to organizing carpools, clearly separating waste streams for recycling, providing community activity space so people don't have to travel somewhere else for events—basically just a lot of convenient options."

The ongoing discussion in the planning department has also touched on the physical design of the area. They want to achieve a forward-looking character that fosters strong social values. But it's not their responsibility to design the blocks and the buildings.

The first areas reveal how the planning department has begun working to get what they want, or at least as much of what they want as possible. They've been able to control the development to a large extent because the city owns the land in Norra Djurgårdstaden. They've worked with invited competitions, always striving to achieve the desired results in each phase of the process. The first competition they held was to design a master plan for the district, laying out the pattern of streets and blocks. They chose a plan that allowed a wide variety of typologies and home sizes in order to achieve a diverse population.

Then they held a competition for selling the land. The highest bidder for each site was awarded the right to build.

These developers were then required to present two or three schemes from different architects, which has given the city the ability to influence the selection of both architect and building.

"It's not part of our job to select the architect," says Bokander. "But this procedure has made it possible for us to have a good dialogue with the developers on the choice of which projects they're going to build."

Interviewer: TOMAS LAURI

WATER

Photo © Olivier Nilssen

Planning for everyday life

After decades in which ecology was exclusively about technical innovation, it was high time to be talking about society in general and how we live our lives.

"The important thing now is not to make plans, but to change society and us who live in it. Our competence as architects and planners is required—we have only to step into these new arenas. However, our constant focus on individual projects tends to objectify urban development at a time when the perspective instead requires interaction, dialogue and political decisiveness."

Page 44–45: Playground improvements have been part of the City of Malmö’s investment in sustainable environments.

Page 47: In Lomma Harbor, a new public library by Henrik Jais-Nielsen and Mats White Architects is strategically located to link the new neighborhood to existing urban areas.

Photo: Ole Jasn

Urban planning in Sweden has long been characterized by a deep insight into how to plan for a socially sustainable society. In the last ten years, that social sustainability has been enriched by a holistic ecological view. There are many examples. In the following pages, we present some of the most noteworthy. A common theme is making the most of limited resources to create attractive living environments for the citizens.

THE ISLAND IN UMEA

In many ways, the Island in Umea is representative of the Swedish model for a sustainable city. With great clarity the plan balances requirements for resource-efficient construction with the demand for an attractive, dense urban environment. New construction will be energy-saving, existing historic environments are to be protected, an armature of continuous green space will be established to support biodiversity, and closed-loop water management will include on-site treatment of storm water. At the same time, a dense grid of streets and blocks will contribute to a safe and attractive environment that blends commercial and residential space. The neighborhood is to be connected by public transportation and accessible for both pedestrians and cyclists.

THE CITY OF MALMÖ

Swedish sustainability efforts can be divided into issues of environmental technology, economic capacity, and society and culture. But they are founded on a holistic view of urban development and a discourse on planning methods.

That kind of holistic view is the basis for the City of Malmö’s strategy for using public space to reduce segregation and support the development of an attractive, green, and secure city of knowledge. Since ratifying its initial urban environmental program in 1993, Malmö’s municipal leaders have continued to stress the strategic importance of public space. The program has been developed in a collaboration of several different administrative departments. Investments in them playgrounds, improved street lighting for greater security, and a comprehensive green area plan integrated with the surrounding communities are just a few examples of the strategic plan’s influence. Many more are planned. The foundation for all of them is the ambition to make public spaces with good conditions for generating social encounters, and to do it with the participation and influence of citizens.

Malmö’s administrators have been awarded for all their efforts. In 2010 they were named the Swedish Environmental Municipality of the Year. They are represented with a display at the World Expo in Shanghai because of having been given in 2007 the prestigious Livable Communities Award by the International Federation of Park and Recreation Administration, which is supported by the United Nations Environmental Programme.

Sustainability work is being done in Sweden along several different paths. The people doing the concrete work of urban planning at the municipal level face some typically recurring issues, and these can give a good picture of the overall effort. These issues may be divided into four groups: green technologies, economics, socio-cultural aspects, and methodology.

Sustainable green technologies deal with the actual execution of the plans — with finding the technical solutions needed to achieve the objectives formulated in the sustainable environment. Anything beyond them new sources of energy to new methods for recycling waste or new transportation systems. The interesting thing about Sweden is that green technology efforts are directed at developing not just individual products but also entire systems. And those systems are being designed in concert with the work of urban planning.

The planning and organization of urban space and landscapes are indeed forms of environmental technology insofar as the way people use spaces and places determines much of the city’s demand for green technology. Advances in technological systems also impact the health of the environments we inhabit—particularly mechanical ventilation systems, but also improvements in building materials. The issue of sustainable economics deals with finding solutions that generate long-term dividends while making it profitable to choose the most environmentally beneficial solutions.

It can mean getting global actors to take an interest in investing in green technologies or promoting local businesses that operate without depriving to one secretral natural resources. An example is investment to promote knowledge- and service-based business activity.

Social and cultural sustainability issues address social cohesion and the community’s desire and ability to invest in efficient collective solutions and to contribute to bringing them to life. It is about informing the public about the challenges of community planning and finding solutions that relate to the existing cultural heritage. It’s striving to provide security and establish conditions that encourage people to meet, collaborate, and take responsibility.

Sustainable methodology issues look at how to develop the interaction between politics, citizens, investors, technical experts, and providers of goods and services. Working with legislation, regulations, and standards is fundamentally important, but it is at least as important to create arenas in which deprived objectives can be formulated and adopted. Another important aspect is building an administrative system that can promote interdisciplinary collaboration and develop criteria for monitoring and advancing sustainability.

FLAGGHUSEN

The planning process for the Flagghusen block of Malmö’s Western Harbor district is an interesting example of how city officials can work in dialogue with developers to find a realistic level of sustainability. The result is reasonably priced housing that uses very little energy and contains no hazardous materials. The new residents will also be treated to a rich variety of green courtyards. The development even includes one of Malmö’s most interesting ecological experimental buildings, Urbana Villor (see presentation on page 78-79).

Bo01

The Flagghusen development was preceded by a more visionary urban planning project, the Bo01 housing expo, whose environmental program touched on many

different aspects of development. The district runs entirely on energy generated within its borders, and has an unusually high degree of biodiversity thanks to its extensive mandated green areas. Storm water is treated locally in a stimulating landscape with many lively reflecting pools that contribute to an overall feeling of fresh air. The building stock is varied and complex because of the large number of developers and architects involved.

LOMMA HARBOR

In working with plans to develop Lomma Harbor, the city has striven to incorporate all aspects of sustainability right from the start - energy saving, water conservation and greening. The former harbor area with an attractive waterfront location adjoining the old local center of business is now well on the way to becoming a new neighborhood. The good architectural design of its housing is complemented by community services. A new city library has been strategically located between the new neighborhood and the old town center, linking the old with the new and bringing a stream of people into the area to increase interest in the new houses. The location of the new development also provided the impetus for cleaning up a polluted tract of former industrial land.

Today there is an increased awareness of the risk that dividing the work of sustainability into separate aspects can split sustainable initiatives into ineffectual fragments. Much of the methodology development

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Stena Fastigheter

CHILDHOOD

Photo: Kaper Duadik

Photo: Lof Johansson

EXPLORER

in the field is therefore about finding ways for those different aspects to work together. One such method is the SymbioCity, to which Swedish Professor Ulf Ranhagen has dedicated a great deal of effort. He gives a broad description of his view of the city as a system elsewhere in this catalogue. He has also developed a comprehensive system of indicators for sustainable urban development that is now gaining increasing international recognition. This planning guidance system highlights the institutional factors necessary for success.

In Sweden we began long ago to develop a sophisticated institutional framework at municipal, regional, and national levels for administrating over the development of a sustainable society. To build sustainable architecture and sustainable cities is a concern for the whole society. The Swedish system places particular emphasis on the importance of engaging the citizens in urban planning and development. Since the commitment to sustainability impacts every aspect of the social system's structure and how it works, the regional planning level is extremely important to the successful transition to sustainability in the long term.

THE GOTHENBURG REGION

In the region surrounding the city of Gothenburg, a large number of communities are voluntarily working together around a common strategic vision. That vision weaves together needs for expanding the built environment with an effective regional transportation system that allows corridors of green to reach into the very core of the region.

THE NATIONAL CITY PARK

There is a similar regional planning structure for the Stockholm area. There, too, natural areas are allowed to reach into the central parts of the city, allowing wildlife to range quite freely throughout the region. As early as 1995, Stockholm established the Royal National City Park to protect from exploitation the many undeveloped natural areas near the heart of the metropolitan area that had originally been set aside as royal hunting grounds. Adjacent to the National City Park, a world-class university hub is growing: Stockholm Science City benefits from the natural beauty of its surroundings to create an environment that attracts research talent from around the globe.

The various aspects of sustainability efforts stem from Sweden’s environmental protection, urban planning, and building construction legislation. That legislation is impressive by international standards, covering many essential environmental issues. One paragraph, for example, ratified many years ago, states that “the aim of these regulations is to, without impinging upon the freedom of individual citizens, promote the development of a society of equality and good social living conditions and a good and sustainable living environment for the people of today’s society and for generations to come.” That generational perspective acknowledges the need to preserve and develop natural and cultural resources for the future. We must avoid shortsighted actions that deplete those resources. All planning must strive to find solutions that maintain existing resources, and ideally even develop new ones, in both ecological and cultural terms.

THE CITY OF ALINGSAS

One exemplary instance of good Swedish planning based on these legislative intentions is the city of Alingsså’s in-depth master plan. After an ambitious process of consultations with residents, the business community, and municipal administrators, the plan provides good conditions for business development while improving opportunities to travel throughout the city by bicycle and expanding the green areas that are the city’s lungs.

The work with sustainable development in Sweden is also supported by the government’s Environmental Objectives policy from 2000. The policy calls for solutions of a number of environmental quality goals by 2020. And the goals for working toward sustainability in Sweden—sixteen major objectives and seventy-two subsidiary objectives—are specific and measurable. The most ambitious planning projects, such as Bo01, Lomma Harbor, or Hammarby Sjöstad, refer to the nation’s Environmental Objectives in their environmental programs. These are not compulsory, however, so each community decides for itself which objectives to strive for beyond the requirements of the legislated environmental code. As a rule, each project is guided by a selection of environmental objectives. The goal “a Good Built Environment” is particularly relevant, but “a Rich Diversity of Plant and Animal Life” has also had a profound influence over urban development in Sweden.

The more ambitious municipalities also formulate environmental objectives of their own that go beyond the national goals. The reason is the independent local control of land and water use planning. But the pre-conditions for that planning vary greatly from one municipality to another. The country is divided into 290 such municipalities. The least populated of these has just a few thousand inhabitants, while the capital city of Stockholm has 1.8 million. One consequence of municipal self-governance is that there is no actual planning on the national level.

The Delegation for Sustainable Cities’ mission is to inspire the municipalities to do their best in light of

Photo: Lennart Adamson

Photo Niklas Modig

A day for the people on the new High Coast Bridge in 1997.

The vision of Sundevall is based on development of four passages: events (red), knowledge (yellow), shopping (orange), health and recreation (green). The project has been managed by the city planning office, architect MSA Anders Bolin.

their own unique local conditions. The delegation spreads information on examples to be emulated, and has distributed economic support to encourage the execution of some important pilot projects.

HAMMARBY SJÖSTAD
When planning began on Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm in the late 1980s, the vision was primarily social. The official word was that it was to be a new housing development with the qualities of a "livable city" right from the start. In Hammarby Sjöstad, housing and non-objectionable commercial activity were to be integrated with the rest of the city. At the same time, the new area was to make it easy to live an ecologically sustainable lifestyle.

The environmental agenda for Hammarby Sjöstad therefore focused on the closed-loop management of water and waste, supported by existing large-scale infrastructure systems. One of the strategies that garnered the most attention was a system for collecting waste through a network of pressurized underground tubes, and then incinerating it to generate energy. Another important condition for life in the neighbourhood is a comfortable and convenient public transportation system of trans.

WIND POWER IN STRÖMSUND
A different example of environmental objectives at the local level is the in-depth master plan for establishing wind power in the rural municipal region of Strömsund on the forested edge of the mountains of central Sweden. Careful planning sited the large-scale array of wind turbines so as not to disturb the sensitive mountain environment.

THE ROYAL SEAPORT
The City of Stockholm has gone even further, deepening its commitment to sustainable urban development by focusing on energy and climate issues in a former harbor area called the Royal Seaport. For the first part of the project, Norra Djurgårdstaden, the vision is to create an attractive and dense urban environment. Well-known Swedish and European architects have been invited to contribute designs. The objectives for minimizing energy use and carbon dioxide emissions are extremely demanding.

To provide a link between the goals of local municipal planning and the national environmental objectives, Sweden has a system of regional state administrations, County Administrative Boards. Their job is to ensure that municipalities adhere to the national interests set out by the parliament in their urban planning. Wind power is one such stated national interest. The preservation of valuable cultural and natural environments is another. The county administrations are also charged with coordinating the various planning directives that come from the national government with those of the European Union.

VÄLLINGBY CENTER
When the time came in the early 2000s to renovate

TENSTA LONS

Photo: L.I.P. ahkakkuamu

Vallingbys commercial center, the world-renowned mixed-use satellite community, the City of Stockholm based its planning on the community’s great value as a cultural heritage site. The result is an urban development project in which the existing buildings have been preserved intact, while new amenities have been added, including an award-winning fashion department store by architect Gert Wingård.

The development of Vallingby Center, originally planned in the 1940s, also reflects the great challenge of dealing with all of the existing buildings constructed in Sweden during the second half of the 20th century. None of them is even close to meeting today’s standards of sustainability.

TENSTA HOUSING EXPO

In order to start a discussion on sustainability in the existing building stock, in 2006 a housing expo was arranged in Tensta, a typical 1970s suburb of Stockholm. The initiative became in many ways a sampling of the economic, social, and ecological challenges these communities face. Improving energy efficiency is a major concern, but so is providing a more widely varied selection of both commercial and residential spaces. For Tensta, investment in meeting places and public space became an important means of improving the social climate in the community.

In connection with the definition of the nation’s environmental objectives in 2000, Sweden also ratified new environmental legislation. It includes all the laws that affect environmental protection issues and the process for evaluating the environmental consequences of proposed plans and business activities. Together with the Planning and Building Act, the Cultural Heritage Law, a number of laws that regulate the expansion of our transportation infrastructure, and several EU directives, the Environmental Code provides powerful support for far-sighted and systematic work with sustainability issues in Sweden.

SUNDSVALL TOWN VISION

That support is clear when a mid-sized regional hub like Sundsvall, the gateway to the northern half of Sweden, dares to invest in a strategic vision for the coming twenty years. That vision addresses how the city can interface with the heavy arteries for automotive, train, and water traffic that cross through town. The visionary project expands upon ideas developed by Arken Architects during their design of the Mid-Sweden University, which won the Belgian Prix Rothier for Best New Campus 2008 and the American New Urbanism Charter Award 2005.

Sweden has not yet defined any particular standards or criteria for working with sustainable urban development,

but is a signatory to the EU’s Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities. The Charter emphasizes the importance of a working process that integrates all levels of administration from the EU to the local community. The primary focus of the Charter is the economic and social dimensions of sustainability, citing for example the importance of good architectural quality as the basis for the development of Europe’s cities.

As in other European countries, architecture is a political matter in Sweden. The Swedish politics of architecture emphasize its social significance and the importance of not letting shortsighted economic concerns determine the quality of the architecture. In practice, our residential design projects achieve a high level of architectural quality. But there are also high demands for public works projects to be exemplary, pressure whose effectiveness is perhaps most clearly seen in the work of the Swedish Transport Administration (former Swedish Road Administration).

THE HIGH COAST BRIDGE AND HAGA NORRA

The Road Administration was given the Swedish Association of Architects’ 1998 Planning Prize for its work with issues of architectural design. The jury chose to highlight two examples: the newly inaugurated High Coast Bridge and the Haga Norra traffic interchange in Stockholm, which adjoins the Royal National City Park.

At the municipal level, there are also detailed voluntary agreements between cities and municipalities in the EU, such as the Aalborg Commitments. These emphasize the ecological aspects of sustainability more than the Leipzig Charter. The Aalborg Commitments highlight, for example, the importance of denser development patterns and more effective and climate-smart transportation systems. The purpose is to reduce emissions that are dangerous to the environment and to human health, particularly greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

JONKÖPING URBAN DEVELOPMENT VISION

The Aalborg Commitments provided the basis for the Urban Development Vision 2.0 for the mid-sized town of Jonköping. The plan makes use of old industrial land adjacent to a planned high-speed rail corridor for train traffic to Europe. The results are better density in the heart of the city, good conditions for public transportation, and improved pedestrian and bicycle travel. The vision is realised thanks to extensive public participation and collaboration between the various bodies of the municipality.

The Delegation for Sustainable Cities is also currently working to define the criteria for sustainable urban development, and is scheduled to report to the Swedish Parliament in 2011.

The concept of sustainability is much broader today, with implications for nearly every aspect of urban development. For that reason, it is critically important how the political process sets the priorities. At present the focus is on energy and adapting buildings and urban plans to local climate conditions.

VÄXJÖ WATER PLAN
Växjö stands out as the clearest example of a Swedish town taking the challenge of climate change seriously. Their work began back in the 1990s. They have systematically reduced their carbon dioxide emissions and today are world leaders in that area. But Växjö has also taken a forward-looking approach to the business of urban planning. For example, they won the Swedish Association of Architects Planning Prize in 2002 for their water plan. That plan has given the city a storm water system that creates an attractive urban environment instead of lying hidden underground.

BISKOPSHAGEN
One of the benefits of Växjö’s water plan was the opportunity to build a new modern garden city development on the site of a former water treatment plant. Sustainable storm water management and access to green space were central to the plan for the new development. As with Hammarby Sjöstad, the municipal government invested in creating an attractive and soulful urban environment that offers a rich variety of experiences with high standards for the architectural design of its individual buildings. They have been able to achieve that standard thanks to a small-scale development strategy that brought in many small, local construction and property development firms to participate in building up the area.

The Swedish experience demonstrates that successful planning for sustainable development is as much about coordinating between the interests of different branches of the public and private sectors as it about knowledge. What we know today about environmental technology strategies cannot be the basis for how we plan cities that won’t even be completely built out for another ten or twenty or thirty years. So we also need to weigh in on the new urban planning opportunities that may arise from as yet unknown technologies for construction, transportation, energy production, and food cultivation.

ARSTAFÄLTET IN STOCKHOLM
That need is clearly demonstrated by the ongoing planning for the development of a former wetland on the south side of Stockholm. The area has been drained and is scheduled to become another green neighbourhood. The main idea of the plan is to create an urban park surrounded by dense development to achieve the kind of urban lifestyle exemplified by New York’s Central Park. It is often said that people’s desire to live with a view of nature is what accounts for the property values and tall buildings around Central Park. At the same time, many human ecologists consider access to the kind of experience of nature offered by the great park to be a necessary prerequisite for living in the truly dense cities that will be required in a sustainable future.

HYLLIE URBANNATURE
In the recently begun work of planning the new Hyllie neighbourhood on the outskirts of Malmö, the landscape architecture firm of (NOD) – c-o-m-b-i-n-e has introduced a pattern of development that will allow farming within the framework of the city.

This is a challenge to Sweden’s established urban development system and its primarily market-driven land use principles. It points to a question of fundamental importance for the next forty years, during which time the world’s urban population is expected to double from 15.5 to 7 billion people. By 2050, the total population of the planet is expected to exceed 10 billion. In many parts of the world, access to arable land is going to become an increasingly urgent concern. In that context, the idea of developing methods for urban farming doesn’t seem far-fetched. But getting there will require a new economic model in which the long-term value of land for food production is equivalent to its short-term value for property development.

PEHR MIKAEL SÄLLSTRÖM
Swedish Association of Architects

Illustration: White arkitekter / Sara Louise Bergkvist

Sustainable architecture

In the following pages, you'll find over forty projects from twenty-five Swedish architecture firms. It is a selection of international and sustainable projects.

It has become clear that sustainable design places new demands on architects and planners to broaden their expertise to include engineering and ecology in their building construction, infrastructure, and urban development projects. It is about how a building's spatial organization, daylighting, and design affect its indoor climate and energy performance, and how the choice of materials and construction methods rate from the standpoint of ecological footprint. In urban planning, it is about how to use land effectively, how agriculture and nature can be integrated with the built environment in new and better ways, how to build for the local climate, and how transportation can be minimized and made more effective.

Sustainable development can not be achieved with sophisticated technology alone. It is also important to understand what solutions are most cost-effective on the whole. The emergence of the passive house concept is an example of when a marginal increase in the insulation and air-tightness of a home generate huge energy savings: recovered heat from the inhabitants and their appliances is enough to provide a good indoor climate, and the amount of energy consumed annually can be minimized as little as 45 kwh/sqm, according to the Swedish passive house standards (which were developed for the Swedish climate).

When it comes to carbon dioxide emissions, the choice of system can produce very different results. A wood structure can even have a positive effect if we include the carbon absorption while concrete has a relatively large carbon footprint both in the production of cement and over the lifetime of the concrete. From a holistic point of view, then, it's not just about energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. It is also very much an issue of architectural design.

ENVIRONMENTAL RATING SYSTEMS

In their project presentations, the architects refer to a variety of different rating systems to describe the projects environmental performance. Because environmental issues are so complex, involving so many different aspects of planning and construction, systems have emerged to classify the environmental impact of various solutions to make it easier to compare different buildings.

The surveys that have been done indicate that a number of different methods, both Swedish and foreign, are in the process of being established in Sweden. Most result in some form of certificate.

The methods have been developed at different times, have different objectives, and prioritize in different ways.

BREEAM
BRE’s Environmental Assessment Method is a British system developed in the 1990s by the Building Research Establishment, a then state-run company that is now private. The system has several different versions, each adapted to a different type of building. The international version accommodates the local country’s conditions, laws, standards, environmental issues, etc. Evaluation follows standard procedures developed by BRE, which is also the certifying agency.

LEED
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design was developed by the US Green Building Council to promote a holistic view of buildings. Its objective is to promote the most environmentally friendly construction currently possible. The system is in widespread use among large property owners in some fifty countries besides the United States. Certification requires documentation. The application process must be stewarded by a LEED Accredited Professional educated by the Green Building Certification Institute.

GREENBUILDING
The program was initiated by the European Commission in 2005. Its primary objective is to minimize energy use and promote the construction of more energy-efficient office and industrial buildings through greater efficiency, information, and good examples. One of the objectives is to minimize carbon dioxide emissions. Applicants can participate in the project on a company-basis or based on a property. The system covers only non-residential buildings, new and existing.

MILJÖKLASSAD BYGGNAD
Environmental Classification of Buildings
This system was developed by Swedish experts and researchers in collaboration with companies and authorities in the construction and real estate industries. The system provides a foundation for analyzing how indoor climate and health conditions can be improved, how the amount of harmful chemical substances in buildings can be reduced, and how energy use and operating costs can be lowered. It grades buildings in several categories from A to D, with C being equivalent to the building code and D failing to meet the code. The Miljökassad Bygnad certification is a guarantee that the building has been classified according to a scientific method and that its assessment has been documented. Certification is voluntary.

Website: www.bygabodialogen.se (Boverket)
There is nothing to prevent building from being certified under more than one system.

BREEAM LEED GreenBuilding Miljöklassad byggnad
Energy and Climate x x x x
Water Use x x x
Material and Waste x x x
Transport and Localization x x x
Pollution x x
Indoor Climate and Health x x x
Management x x
Awareness x x
Ecology and Site x x x
Innovation and Design x x

All systems, except for GreenBuilding have grades in four different levels.

BREEAM LEED GreenBuilding Miljöklassad byggnad
Excellent Platinum GreenBuilding A
Very Good Gold B
Good Silver C
Pass Certified D

The advantage of the Swedish system is that it is based on clear scientific and measurable criteria, so that subjective criteria are avoided. This quality is not as prevalent in the other systems. On the other hand, it’s not as comprehensive as the others, failing in particular to address how buildings influence and interact with their surroundings, the city. We have given this issue a more thorough treatment in the section on planning for everyday life.

Sweden’s national environmental goals and the requirements of its environmental protection legislation are so demanding that if they were all to be fulfilled by a construction project, that project could be certified under any of the international classification systems. And there is no international certification system or standard specifically for sustainable cities; the current systems evaluate only individual projects.

PEHR MIKELA SALLSTROM
Swedish Association of Architects

Photo: Johannes Tuuri

TELEGRAFBERGET, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

Perspective from the marina

Telegrafberget, situated on the northwestern part of Boo on the northern coast of Nacka, is an important landmark in the entrance to Stockholm. The site is characterized by the variation in its topography, reaching from the quay on sea level to a plateau on the top of the mountain with a spectacular view of the entrance to Stockholm.

During the 1870s an optic telegraph mast was installed on the top of the mountain, serving as a link between Sweden and Finland. In the beginning of the 20th century a harbor for reloading kerosene was constructed. The harbor was in the late part of the 20th century, transformed into a petroleum depot that was closed in the 1970s.

In addition to the harbor, there are a number of rusty petroleum cisterns, a series of pipes leading from the harbor up to the reloading station and a number of brick buildings housing a restaurant and offices. The site slopes steeply towards the Saltsjön and the only road, connecting the quay to the entrance of the area, is at several places very steep. To be able to satisfy the demands of an area for housing services and businesses the road has to be improved. The former industrial harbor is transformed into a marina with a floating platform for sea buses.

The petroleum cisterns, now occupying the grounds on the quay, and a plateau on the way to the top of the mountain, are to be replaced by around 100 apartments in blocks. In the valley, situated above the brick buildings, 40 terraced houses are proposed and on the mountain plateaus north of the valley around 30 villas are planned for. Further up in the valley, along the existing road, 80 apartments in three housing blocks with a preschool in the ground floor are proposed. This gives a total of around 300 apartments.

Most buildings will have green roofs.

The mix of different types of dwellings and the variations in ownership contribute to create a diverse and attractive environment for living and working. The businesses that are to be localized in the area will enrich the vitality and make the area attractive for both the residents and the public.

Green roofs

FACTS

Commissioned by: Telegrafberget Fastighets AB / Foren Projekt AB • Architect: Britt Almqvist & Carl-Johan Vesterlund, Ahlqvist & Almqvist Arkitekter AB. Technical Consultant: IVL, WSP, Brandskonsulten, SSPA Sweden AB. Area: 9 ha / built area 45,000 sqm • Number of inhabitants: 700 • Status: 2005–2010, estimated ground breaking 2011

For more information: www.ahlqvist-almqvist.se

MASTER PLAN FOR A LANDSCAPE CITY IN HYLLIE, MALMÖ, SWEDEN

Urbanature Hyllie, urban development.

Ten years ago the bridge between Sweden and Denmark opened. In 2010 a railway connection between Malmö city and the bridge is being completed. Hyllie, the last station before the train enters the bridge to the continent is located at the city edge. Around Hyllie station the growing city of Malmö gets an international traffic node with exceptional potential for urban development. At the same time Hyllie has one of Europe’s most productive agricultural land. The situation in Hyllie addresses some of our most urgent challenges on the global scale. An increasing part of the world’s population lives in cities. How we handle the production and transportation of food and energy are key issues to resolve when we have to face an increasingly urbanized future in a sustainable and resilient manner.

FINGER STRUCTURE
The site’s unique qualities create tension in the interchange between city and landscape. Closer to the station is dense, populous, urban city structure enables many people to use public transport and other public and commercial services. The resource of productive agricultural land creates the conditions for a rich landscape for farming, recreation and biodiversity. A finger structure creates an elongated meeting. The city extends in to the landscape and the landscape enters the city. The heights of the buildings are gradually decreased to meet the widens of the agricultural landscape on the plain.

CITY FARMING
The farming will be an important part of the area’s quality and character, and contributes both to the area’s food- and energy production. Centrally situated in one of the existing statues, an urban farm becomes the new centre of the cultured area in the region. Residents from the area can participate in cultivation in different ways and get both food and recreation in return. The allotment area are integrated with active public space with recreation, sport and play. Participating in the work at the urban farm also has an educational potential, where the cultivation and the city are put in an obvious relation.

CLIMATE NEUTRAL
Through an active energy management and a developed view on transport, a climate neutral city is created where cultivation in the area plays a central role. The area has zero emissions of CO2 for the living quarters. We have the emissions of CO2 for transport and reduce the CO2 impact by one third in relation to food production. Urbanature Hyllie is working hard to make the sustainable parameters visible and manageable for the city’s inhabitants. An annual environmental report is compiled. By creating a better interface between the individual and the environmental impacts, opportunities are given to change lifestyles.

URBANATURE
Urbanature Hyllie is part of a series of urban development projects by (nod) C-O-M-B-I-N-E. Urbanature is a general method that investigates how new dynamic combinations between man’s ideas and nature’s processes can be used in sustainable urban development. We are committed to a planning culture where different forces, instead of opposing each other, cooperate and create synergy effects.

FACTS
URBANATURE HYLLIE
BTA 630,000 sqm
(nod) C-O-M-B-I-N-E in collaboration with: Minne och Miljö,
Resource Vision
Client: City of Malmö

ARCHITECTURE IN WOOD

OUR PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENT
At the heart of our professional commitment, is our belief in the art of architecture as a vital ingredient in all our lives. AIX Architects are dedicated to good design in the broadest sense. It includes the public and cultural context in which the buildings evolve, efficiency in use plus a deeply felt concern for sustainability.

Our commissions range from restoration of historic buildings to modern urban design; royal palaces, churches, schools, university and faculty buildings, laboratories, hotels and apartment blocks. We work in close contact with the academic institutions and support research projects developing new methods in field of wooden design.

TIMBER ARCHITECTURE
To many people, the material wood means world wide shared positive experiences, from the significance of the single tree and forest as archetypes for shelter to the tactile tradition of woodworking inherited through generations. It is a material knowledgeable through all senses, vision, hearing, touch and even smell. This unique quality is our starting point when creating spaces and architectural architecture growing from timber and wood.

A SELECTION OF WOODEN PROJECTS
The last decade we have designed expressive modern wooden structures for apartments, aquarium areas and apartment blocks. Through these projects we have acquired an understanding and knowledge of how to combine high quality architectural design with rational construction technology, including prefabrication and industrial processing.

We are currently working on an extensive wooden building complex that is to become the biggest sawmill in Northern Europe, namely Holmen Timber AB’s venture in Braviken. AIX also recently designed a acclaimed multi-use building in Skøllefelt based on a system of industrial prefabrication with wood.

Our practice is moreover involved in an infrastructural development project in Stockholm, featuring stations and platforms for a modernized tramway. The use of wood is prompted here by heritage conservation aspects and an ambitious program for sustainable development.

A further example is the Copperhill Mountain Lodge in Aix, designed by AIX in partnership with the American architects Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Apart from being a unique and exclusive resort, it is also one of the biggest wooden buildings in Scandinavia.

THE FOREST AND OUR FUTURE
The lifecycle of a building spans approximately a hundred years. In that time, our forests will have produced timber for a new building. During those hundred years the growing forest will have bound carbon dioxide, which remains embedded in the utilized timber. In that way the use of wood spells smaller emissions over time and can thus play a substantial part in improving the CO $_{2}$ balance. Further on transportation of timber and wooden products requires less fuel, considering the low weight in relation to its structural strength.

In this way environmental and resource related arguments are in favour of using wood. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has stated that: “Climate change cannot be won without the world’s forests.” We take this statement to mean that we must utilize the forest. Many researchers claim that planted forest resources are especially valuable. A replanted, fast growing forest is a most efficient instrument to absorb CO $_{2}$ .

LARGE SCALE RATIONALITY AND ECONOMY
Timber construction systems are applicable for a wide range of building commissions where we have grown accustomed to seing steel or concrete. Today, using wood, we can manage both wide spans and heavy loads. New technical solutions, e.g. sprinkler systems and flame-retardant paint, also warrant that fire safety requirements can be met by a generous margin.

Through the programs made in the field of wood research on prefabrication it’s possible to create competitive industrial building systems. This coupled with the environmental advantages of wood, means that we often can and should consider a wooden structure.

GOOD DESIGN OF COMPLEX STRUCTURES
For our client, Holmen Timber, one of the largest industrial corporations in Sweden, these arguments are of course crucial for their decision to invest in a new industrial complex in wood. As their architects we are given a unique possibility to use this material to bridge the gap between a very large industrial scale and the for architecture constantly crucial, tactile human scale.

Bridging the scale is yet another significant inherent quality in wood and AIX puts it into effect in our awarded architectural designs.

Further information: lars johansson@aix.se, www.aix.se

Modern indoor riding school with a 40-metre span in a setting of outstanding historic interest at Flyinge, on the outskirts of Lund. Photo: Natasja Jovic.

Prefabricated windbreak for a modernised tramway – Saltsjöbanan, on the outskirts of Stockholm. Illustration AIX.

Architectural installation at the exhibition and seminar Wood Summit 2010 in Virserum on the subject The Architecture of Necessity. Photo: AIX.

Hotel Copperhill Mountain Lodge. One of the biggest wooden buildings in Scandinavia. Photo: Matt Olfsson.

Wooden natural-draught-ventilated four-storey car park, Skellefteå. Photo: Per Myrehed.

FACTS
AIX Architects was founded in 2001. Our turnover during the past fiscal year was 68 MSkr. AIX has 85 employees and 10 partners. AIX has an established market all over Scandinavia. We are through successful competitions recently introduced to new clients in other European countries.

HOUSING BLOCK VIKEN, HAMMARBY SJÖSTAD, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

Communal garden with greenery, allotments and trickling water.

Bostadsgarden is one of the larger precincts in Hammarby Sjöstad, with possibilities for several different ambiences and functions. Private and communal patios and allotments surround the precinct's large, open garden spaces, which are edged with copper-barked Manchurian Cherry Trees (Prunus Maackii).

The water saver, which is the "heart" of the precinct, collects all rainwater from the precinct and rooftops, to be used for amusement, beautification and watering. At the "source" the water bubbles forth from a bowl of polished black diabase. From there it flows into the paved stream bed, which has small waterfalls and filters. The water – glittering, reflecting, bubbling, running, dripping and sparkling – means life and repose for everyone living around the courtyard.

The allotments are centrally positioned and make a beautiful addition, encouraging social interaction between neighbours. Residents can enjoy practical care, friendship and locally grown food.

The opportunities for play are manifold. Along the stream, the children play with the flowing water. A sanded play area terminates the stream, symbolising the pond which the water is heading for.

Artistic works

The central part of the court was jointly designed by artist and landscape architect. The court derives its character from the motion of the water. The source, the "eye" of the court, mirrors the sky and, through the motion of the water, propagates its shape to the sandy surface of the open circle. Beneath the spreading chestnut tree, the mother watches over her child.

FACTS

Client: Svenska Boståder AB • Landscape architect; Andersson Jönsson Landskapsarkitekter • Architect; EFS
Arkitekter AB • Artist; Erik Åkerlund • Period: 2003 • The court yard area 2,200 sqm
More information: www.aj-landskap.se • www.erikakerlund.se

OFFICE BLOCK, RIGA 2 PRECINCT, ROYAL SEAPORT, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

Aros Arkitekter was commissioned by Vasakronan to develop Riga precinct into a new commercial and office building.

Sodra Värtahamnen, the Royal Seaport, in Stockholm is a neighbourhood in transition. New building development is underway in the old dockside precincts, comprising offices, housing and shops side by side with the existing harbour activities. The long-term aim is to create a new urban centre with a mixture of activities which will make this a living township at all hours of the day and night.

The building is placed centrally in the new neighbourhood and its main entrance faces the water and the future park. The building's light court with its restaurant and café is open to the public.

PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
From an early stage, great importance has been attached to analyses and the careful selection of systemic solutions, and work has proceeded in close collaboration with both client and contractor. To make the office storeys bright and airy, the installations have been built into the floors and ceilings.

Aros Arkitekter has worked together with the property owner, the team of consultants and contractors to devise sustainable concepts within the requirements of LEED. The project leader evaluated cost proposals at an early stage and carried out life cycle analyses of the project's development. This integral processing has made possible an application for LEED Gold Certification, while at the warm time building, building and projections. In addition, the project has been classed as a Green Building, and classification as a Gold Environmentally Classified Building is in progress.

The building surrounds a light court which, despite being glass-walled, conveys the experience of being on the borderline between outdoors and indoors. From the light court the building opens upwards into a roof light and with five-storey-high glass wall facing eastwards. Great importance has been attached to presence-controlled lighting, zonally configured. The glazed facades on the east side reduce the need for artificial lighting, and during the warm season of the year the premises are cooled at night-time with cold supply air and a needs-regulated ventilation system combined with natural ventilation. The ventilation system for the building has been chosen as being environmentally advantageous. The VAV (variable air volume) system provides generous scope for adapting air flows to actual needs, using presence and temperature transducers and also – in committee rooms – carbon dioxide transducers – to control the air flow. Surplus energy from the shops on the bottom storey of the building is recycled.

AROS ARKITEKTER
At Aros Arkitekter we have a wide range of experience in the public and commercial spheres, both large and complex and smaller and less complex. In our working approach for sustainable design we are responsive and meticulous in the dialogue with our clients, while at the same time presenting them with the challenge of creative ideas. Aros Arkitekter operates in local, national and international markets in the fields of architecture, urban development, interior architecture and project management.

Aros Arkitekter has been in practice since 1980 and is well-established in the market. We now have centrally located offices in Stockholm, Uppsala and Norrallje, and number approximately 40 associates.

FACTS
Area: gross floor area 30,000 sqm approx., non-residential area, offices – 21,000 sqm.
7 storeys above ground, of which 1 for commerce and 6 for offices. Parking storey below grade. Planning period: completion 2010.
Project organisation Client: Vasakronan. Contractor: Peab. Architect: Aros Arkitekter, represented by Sidsel Wällgren and Helena Polgård. Technical consultants: building services – Incoord, electrical installations – Electro Engineering, structural engineering – KJAB. Reference: www.arosarkitekter.se. Principals in charge: Robert Thorstenson, Renée Myrland (Vasakronan)

ARENASTADEN / MALL OF SCANDINAVIA, SOLNA, STOCKHOLM REGION, SWEDEN

On the site of an outdated industrial area adjacent to a railway yard, Sweden’s new national stadium for soccer, Swedbank Arena, is to be built as part of an integrated mixed urban development.

While the new stadium is the focus of the development, the surrounding neighbourhood is to be a vibrant and lively city district in its own right and will feature, among other amenities, Scandinavia’s largest shopping mall, ‘The Mall of Scandinavia’.

The central ecological concept of the project is to transform an isolated and underutilized tract of industrial land into a viable part of the city’s urban fabric. As such, the development connects existing city enclaves and green spaces previously divided by the railway and links them not only to one another but also, through careful integration with Stockholm’s existing public transit network, to the rest of the region. An important aspect of the project’s mixed-use concept is to populate the stadium’s large public spaces during non-event times and accordingly, extensive studies have been undertaken to help understand the area’s urban climate and how it affects the use of the area’s outdoor spaces. The Arenastaden development has a rigorous environmental program with focus on management of rain and ground water runoff, remediation of contaminated land and reduction of energy use. Beyond this, the Mall of Scandinavia has a BREEM Excellent rating as its primary environmental goal.

BAU has worked from the initial phase phases through land use plan to design and coordination of the masterplan in cooperation with the City of Sola planning office. The Arenastaden project is a commercially financed development in which individual building sites within an integrated whole have been identified and sold through a complex three dimensional legal property definition and BAU has provided illustrations for this process. Numerous architectural firms and consulting groups are involved in the individual building projects which make up the master plan.

BAU in cooperation with Benoy Architects of Great Britain have been directly involved in the design of the Mall of Scandinavia, as local architects of record. The project is executed in a full 3-4 environment from which all design drawings are extracted and the CAD model is constructed to permit application of time and cost parameters using Wico software to coordinate the construction process. This BIM technology has helped facilitate the planning of site work to a degree which will shorten the construction process by several months and greatly reduce material wastage. Another key aspect of BAU’s involvement in the project has been in assisting with the certification of the building under the BREEM environmental assessment method. In this, one of only a few BREAM registered projects in Sweden, BAU has prepared Design Stage Assessment reports and assisted Waterman Consultants of London with supporting information on several assessment criteria. This work includes interior daylight studies carried out using Autodesk Ecotect / Radiance and IES virtual environment.

BAU currently has two registered BREEM International assessors on staff and is at the forefront of the development of BREAM in Sweden as we serve on the Swedish Green Building Council’s development committee for the adaptation of BREEM to the Swedish context.

FACTS

Client: Rästa Projektutveckling AB / Unibail-Rodamco
Statistics: Stage one of the development includes a 50,000 seat stadium, 300,000 sqm retail and parking complex, 60,000 sqm of office space, 400 room hotel, and 750 apartment units.
Project period: 2005-2012

URBAN ACADEMY – A SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND PLANNING IN KENYA

Urban Academy consists of a 5-year programme for over 200 students, some 20 teachers and administration. Besides undergraduate studies the school offers a research programme and programme for further education.

The proposed site for the school is located in the third largest city in Kenya, Kisumu, situated by Lake Victoria.

The central location makes the school readily accessible to regional inhabitants. The school is to work in close contact with citizens and act outwardly by involving and engaging the population and disseminating knowledge through lectures, exhibitions and practical research projects. The school’s mission is to shed light on issues relating to water, climate, sanitation and urbanisation – highly topical issues in this region and large parts of the world.

The school is being planned in accordance with the principles it stands for. It is to be an educational and ecological, sustainable building, creating a pleasant microclimate through its gardens, sun-screening (the roof) and airstreams (the wall).

INTEGRATED TECHNICAL SYSTEMS/ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDINGS
The building complex comprises several smaller buildings, alleys and inner courtyards which together make up a campus. This is surrounded by the shell of a perforated wall which guides the wind and the airstream through the whole complex, and a perforated roof which provides shade and, from its solar collectors, supplies the school with electrical power. The buildings are organised round a piazza – the central meeting point within the complex.

Distinct boundaries between outdoors and indoors have been erased. Both the gardens and the buildings will be serviceable for educational purposes. In addition to the studio buildings there is a large full-scale workshop for experiments with materials and structures. The school’s face to the city is an entrance building containing administration, a cafe with space for meetings and exhibitions, and a guest house for researchers.

FACTS
Urban Academy, School of Design and Planning for 200 students. • Location: Kisumu, Kenya. • Architect: Brunnberg & Forshed Architects Ltd. • Co-operation: Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, Swedish Trade Council, UN-Habitat, Maseno University in Kenya. • Contact: Hans Bergström, Brunnberg & Forshed Architects Ltd.

BRUNNBERG & FORSHED ARCHITECTS LTD
Brunnberg & Forshed Architects was founded in the 1950s and is today one of the largest architecture firms in Sweden. We have long experience and wide competence in several architectural fields, from city planning projects, housing, commercial offices and interior design. The question of sustainability has become an important aspect in the way we work. Our aim is to design energy-efficient buildings combined with good architecture.

brunnberg&forshed
ARKITEKTSONTOR AB
www.brunnberg&forshed.se

URBAN DEVELOPMENT NYA ÅRSTAFÄLTET, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

Nya Arstafälet is part of Stockholm’s ambition to create an organic city structure in its southern parts and to establish new urban centralities. The project will become one of Stockholm’s largest new developments, and will be progressively realized during the coming years.

The core of the project is the new landscape park which will combine activity fields, playgrounds, allotments and botanical gardens. The park is linked to one of Stockholm’s green corridors and will contribute to the biodiversity.

On the north and the western side of the park two large decks concentrate playgrounds and leisure activities, creating a dynamic transition between the park and the buildings.

The project connects to the existing neighborhoods and infrastructures with the aim to create urban continuity and suppress both social and physical barriers. The robust and flexible city structure with its folded geometry gives a specific identity to the layout and creates a great variation in the cityscape and in public spaces.

The layout has been carefully studied and developed in relation to climatic and weather conditions: wind, sun and temperature has shaped the design of the buildings and public spaces in order to optimize comfort zones and obtain global energetic efficiency.

The new city blocks combine a wide diversity of typologies, scales and heights, to respond to the needs of a contemporary evolving society. Towards the park, higher buildings create a contrasted and airy skyline, letting light and views pass through to the buildings standing behind.

The project carries a high ecological and social profile that meets up with the city’s global ambition which has resulted in the nomination of Stockholm to Green Capital 2010.

Solar exposure diagram

Location diagram

FACTS
Client: City of Stockholm through the City Planning and Development Administrations • Team: Architects and planners: ARCHI 5 (Laurent Boudrillet, Thomas Dryjski, Erik Giudice, Bernard Guillien and Jacques Sebbag) and Archi5prod • Landscape architect: Michel Desvigne • Sustainability consultants: Elioth_iosis Group • New city development: housing, offices, services, public buildings and a large central park. • Dimensions: New neighborhoods 30 ha, landscape park 50 ha, new constructions 600,000 sqm • Schedule: Competition • First Prize, February 2009 Under development. • For more information: www.erikgiudice.com

Master Plan
Activity deck

EGA_ERIK GIUDICE ARCHITECTS

LILJEHOLMSTORGET, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

In a long-term commitment, the city of Stockholm has successively enacted environmental policy as well as a high level of requirements for environmental standards to be reached in new developments.

Located at an important hub in Stockholm’s public transportation system, this project is the key in the Liljeholmen area’s integration into Stockholm’s city centre.

This is a mixed-use project where public services, retail, offices and housing are integrated to create a new urban node for local residents, developed on a challenging site.

This project has a strong environmental profile and is the first shopping centre in Europe certified at LEED Platinum level, the highest classification for overall environmental performance.

To develop the area and achieve an urban feeling it has been important to add and integrate housing, commerce and places of work. Liljeholmenstorget is a successful development based on this complex integrated functional puzzle solved through innovative solutions and turning challenges into successful key assets.

In spite of challenging topographic conditions the huge potential of the Liljeholmen location could be unlocked, and a former "sprawl" area is now replaced by a livly city quarter, creating social sustainability.

The project has been developed without public funding and used the new three-dimensional zoning property law, making it possible to optimize the built area of the new development.

Liljeholmenstorget has a unique location connected to an existing public transportation node. The subway, tram and a bus systems meet here. The new additions to the area are defined around a new shopping mall, integrated with an existing office building containing public services.

Smart spatial solutions. On top of the shopping mall, the new apartments are developed around a green courtyard. The loading dock, the loading dock is sheltered under a green roof using different plants to create a graphic pattern for the neighbors who look at it from the top of the hill. New underground parking in rock caverns in the hill under the neighborhood towers does not occupy any ground-level space.

Through its integrated functions the project allows synergies that are beneficial to sustainable development and the high ambitions to minimize the environmental footprint have followed the project throughout the entire process. By finding creative solutions for energy-saving and water consumption, efficient use of land, efficient waste and water management, avoiding non-environmentally friendly materials a LEED Platinum level has been achieved.

Opened in October 2009, the shopping mall is a success story, with far more visitors than the most optimistic forecasts, confirming that environmentally responsible strategy can go hand-in-hand with commercial success.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.equator.se

FACTS
Area (GRA): Total surface: 65,700 sqm. Retail: 43,100 sqm. Residential: 8,000 sqm. Offices and Services: 14,600 sqm. Garage: 900 underground parking spaces. Organization: Developer: Citycon Oy. Architect: Equator Stockholm AB. Head Architects: Yves Chantereau, Katarina Sipes. Interior design Shopping mall: Wester + Elser. Project Managers: Forsen Projekt & Veidekke

CHEMNITZ, GERMANY

The Wunderland concept was developed for a local energy supplier that owned an empty lot in the city center. They had a wish to do something, but just did not know what.

Wunderland was conceived with the aim of creating dynamics on a local as well as a global level. It stresses the necessity of coming together in our efforts to find common sustainable solutions. By creating a space and networks for new types of interaction, the hope is to plant a seed to see the growth of a area of an unknown sort. Wunderland was initiated to actively promote change in terms of innovation, awareness and responsibility. The building is to be completely self-sustainable and regenerative parts act both as building structure and energy sources.

Wunderland consists of three parts:
• FRESH (the Free Energy Research Hub) is a global experiment, open to researchers, research institutes, companies as well as the general public. It generates energy research and innovations in a copyright and patent free environment.
• In the Event Science Park the visitor sensuously comes to understand that everyone is part of everything.
• The Urban Park integrates the structure of Wunderland with the town of Chemnitz, through creating new connections and making the city more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. The park provides spaces for activity and leisure, everyday strolls and cultural events in an outdoor urban environment.

Idea, concept development and design: habibihaus architects; Elise Grosse, Filippa Stahlhane and Sigrid Svensson. • Partners: Stadtwerke Chemnitz, Erfurth Project Design, Fraunhofer Institute, TU Chemnitz http://www.habibihaus.se, info@habibihaus.se

URBAN VILLAS IN MALMÖ, SWEDEN

Many a heart in Sweden throbs for a detached house in the suburbs. It is fantastic, living in a house with a garden, hobnobbing with the neighbours and enjoying self-determination of design but at the same time it is important that architecture be modernised to measure up to the sustainable society. Urban Villas is about stacking villas one on top of the other without sacrificing any of the qualities possessed by a villa standing on the ground.

Urban Villas is located in a block totalling 500 dwelling units in Malmö’s old dockyard area, Western Harbour (Vistra Hammen), which is being turned into a township for residence, work, education and recreation. Malmö is Sweden’s third largest city and together with Copenhagen, among others, forms part of what is called the Øresund Region.

Urban Villas consists of two buildings: the lower one a courtyard building looking inwards on the precinct, and the higher one facing the street. The courtyard building consists of two symmetrical three-storey buildings with private gardens on a fourth storey. The street building consist of six stores with one villa and garden per storey and a communal rooftop piazza at the very top.

Urban Villas is distinguished by each dwelling unit having its own entrance, garden and floor plan. The units, orangery, inner courtyard and rooftop piazza are vertically interlinked by an external spiral staircase, a kind of footpath.

This is new urban living permitting an ecological lifestyle with bike instead of car for transport, a personal allotment instead of a shopping centre, and so on. The large lift in the core of the building permits bicycle transport to the fridge. Balconies, façades, courtyards and roof are gardening allotments. The residential features also include a communal flower garden and several communal areas for socialisation and relaxation.

The green plants in the courtyard and on the terrace and balconies elevate the quality of the local climate by trapping time dust particles, abating noise, producing oxygen and providing shade.

The 30 cm thick layer of soil on balconies and roofs also serves for rainwater storage. 7 m² of soil per balcony and 72 m² in the roof gardens adds up to an average of 11 m² of soil per dwelling unit.

The façade has thick insulation and triple glazing, and the building is

supplied with district heat generated by refuse incineration. It is ventilated through a heat exchanger with 80 per cent energy recovery. Residents preseparate their refuse into eight fractions and compost their organic waste in the courtyard, thus providing fertilizer for the building’s allotments.

The project began as a communal building enterprise, in the sense of the residents being clients and thus maximal participants in the design of the building and the financing of the project. Construction has been based in its entirety on a lifecycle perspective, so as to achieve a long-term economic and ecological investment.

The architects have served as developers and designers, so as to translate the community’s ideas into concrete reality directly, without any intermediaries.

Remarks: Cord Siegel formed the hauschild + siegel practice after Urban Villas.

Reference for further information: www.urbanavillor.com,
www.hauschild-siegel.com
Principal contact person Cord Siegel

hauschild + siegel architecture

FACTS

Land area: 500 sqm • No. dwelling units: 7, each comprising 140 sqm • Client: BRF Urbana Villor (tenant-owner association)
Architect: Lead architects: Cord Siegel and Pontus Aqvist • Participating architect: Ulrika Connheim • Lead landscape architect:
Karin Larsson • Associate landscape architects: Niels de Bruin, Ola Nielsen, Magnus Swenson • Structural engineering: Akerman ingenjörsbryå, Björn Yttergren and Sven Johan Åkesson • Electrical installations: LMT elteknik, Christian Walter and Mats Larsson
Detailed development plan: City of Malmö, Malena Larsvall.
The project was awarded Kasper Salin Prize by the Swedish Association of Architects in 2009.

UMEVA, UMEÄ, SWEDEN

The UMEVA new head office uses only half of the energy of a normal office building.

LINK arkitektur AB designed both the exterior and the interior of the office, beautifully situated at the waterfront of Umel River. The main objectives for the project have been sustainability and flexibility. The site itself has a symbolic value, since UMEVA being a sewage business, uses the river water. At the same time, the treatment process produces energy for the office.

"The objective 'The most sustainable office in the Nordic Region' meant to plan an office sustainable in all fields; environmental, economical as well as social," says Tomas Blomqvist, CEO of UMEVA. "Our history goes back more than 100 years and we will probably work for another 100 years. With this perspective in mind we have to behave respectfully towards nature and the environment. LINK arkitektur is in the middle of a process of certifying our quality, environmental and work environment systems to challenge all our employees to everyday improvement. Our vision is to be an inspiring role model to other businesses in town."

Being environmentally conscious is central for LINK arkitektur. This project, by many means unique, with its sustainable focus, has been an evolving process of design. A significant task was to achieve flexibility in every possible way, where plan layouts and technical solutions were essential parts. The furnishing, the number of people and the mix between open and closed office spaces will vary over time. For instance, all office desks have telescopic carriages enabling different sizes of desktops. 80 percent of the fittings are recyclable and 65 percent of the furniture has a "Swan" certificate.

To save costs, plans were not used as a foundation. The result of this was extra space in the basement plan, which will be used for staff recreation units as well as to create common meeting places for the citizens of Umeå. UMEVA wants to offer something to the inhabitants of the community as well as to be an open and visible company. The building is designed so it can expand with another floor on the top – a sustainable way of adding space.

Energy demand of modern office buildings is primarily one of cooling, rather than heating, even in the northern parts of Sweden. The west side was designed compact with small windows since sun is adding much heat from that direction. The east side on the other hand, luckily facing the river, was glazed, though with energy efficient glass. The energy demand is met with heat from the sewage process. Cooling is delivered by letting the intake of air pass the ground and be naturally chilled. Other smart solutions are; lighting controlled by daylight access and the presence of people; ventilation controlled by the number of people present; the absence of personal computers, which normally producing a lot of heat. WSP Sweden, a partner to LINK arkitektur, has designed the technical solutions of the building.

More information: www.linkarkitektur.se
www.umeva.se

FACTS

Project size 2,000 sqm
Office building for UMEVA.
The project was completed in June, 2009.
The project received the Municipality of Umeå’s Environmental Award 2009.

LÖHAMMAR, HARGS BRUK, UPPLAND, SWEDEN

The loafing barn at Löhammar, Hargs Bruk, embodies present-day high-tech, advanced agriculture. The building is intended to create a good building practice which will show Swedish farming developing in a positive direction.

The barn is designed for 300 suckling cows. It is a rational building requiring a minimum of labour input and offering simple livestock management in safe conditions.

The building is made of good-quality materials which minimise maintenance and make for lean structural solutions and economical use.

The building is flexible and can be adapted for different use at some future date.

The building is heated by the livestock.

The impression made by the building is dominated by the roof, suspended in the landscape like a gigantic leaf. The yellow doors become blocks connecting the roof with the ground. The end walls are freely patterned with a mixture of wind-protective fabric and boarding.

The building was selected Best Farm Building of 2006 by the journal Lambrukets Affärer. The decision and presentation took place at the ELMIA trade fair on 19th October. The building was commissioned by Hargs Bruk, represented by Ulf Diedrichsson.

Malmström Edström
Arkletekter Ingenjörer

FACTS

Owner: Hargs Bruk · Lessee: Löhammar Gård AB
Acreage: 850 ha

Building: Floor space: 3,820 sqm, of which 56 insulated Cubicles: 300 including breeding bulls

The Löhammar loafing barn was designed by Björn Edström and Gunilia Bergström, Malmström Edström Arkletekter, together with Agronomist Per-Arne Mattsson.

NORRA VRAM NURSING HOME FOR THE ELDERLY, SWEDEN

Partnergruppen is a private care operator that aims to focus on the residents and their families in the final stage of life. Norra Vram in the South of Sweden is their first example of a new nursing home where the built environment reflects the care operator’s ideology. Spatial questions concern scale, visual contact between residential and common spaces and how to integrate greenery as a health component.

A lot of time was spent initially in the project on analysis- how nursing homes are normally designed and what the social effects of the design are. An analysis was done of the target group which mainly is the residents, their relatives and the staff. It was important to find places where these target groups meet and how they could find attent in their physical environment. Environments that are semi-private/public, for example the office, the coffee shop, the library or the museum were incorporated in the analysis as well as the functions of a private home. We found functions in these areas that could be placed in a home for elderly people. Functions that not only help create meetings and interaction between people but also give the place a sense of home and privacy.

Sustainable materials have been used throughout the project. The heating system was replaced by ground heat. The nursing home in Norra Vram consists of a late 19th century Mansion that's been rebuilt and extended, in total 2500 sqm. The volumes are designed to aesthetically resemble old Swedish farms, and to complement other houses in the neighborhood.

The couple of mews are placed next to each other and in the spaces between them atrium courtyards are situated. The small green gardens allow residents with medical conditions to enjoy time outdoors by themselves. The volumes are plastered in different colors, picking up the shades in the red brick of the existing Mansion.

The first impression of the interior is a spacious and welcoming entrance area. This is a flexible space for gathering with a reception, a library and a small espresso bar. From here you reach three wards - one for short time staying, one for people with dementia and one for people with physically and mentally impaired ability. All residential rooms are organized adjacent to a communal living room or a green court yard. In that way, long corridors are minimized on behalf of more stimulating meeting places and focal points.

Project: Norra Vram, Nursing home for the elderly, 2007-2009
Size: 40 rooms/flats, in total 2,500 sqm.
Client: Partnergruppen
Architect: Marge Arkitekter
Contact person: Katarina Grundsell
Information: Shortlisted to WAN Health Care Award 2010, Published in Arkitektur 5/2009, Rum 08/2009, Mark Magazine No 23, Bygginsdustrin 31/2008. www.marge.se

THE CITYTUNNEL IN MALMÖ, SWEDEN

Malmö Central Station

The City Tunnel Malmö project is a railroad line that connects Malmö Central Station with the Öresund bridge and the railroads of Skåne.

Six kilometres of the railroad line is a tunnel under the central parts of Malmö, and eleven kilometres are rail lines above ground. Malmö C gets a new underground station, and new stations will be built at Triangeln and at Hyllie.

HYLLIE STATION
Hyllie is the first station you reach when travelling by train from Copenhagen’s Kastrup airport and is therefore Malmö’s gateway to Copenhagen. This is no traditional station building – we have been working with other elements instead. The large round roof (diameter 45 m) – lit from below using uplights – hovers like a UFO above the station entrance. The roof is perforated by 52 round lantern lights which allow daylight to penetrate right down to the platforms, thereby eliminating any sense of an underground station. Daylight and lines of light have acted as important parameters for creating a safe environment. The station is a regional and local train station with four tracks and two platforms.

Bartenbach LichtLabor of Innsbruck are responsible for the lighting concept. The artistic decoration has been carried out by Kristina Matusch of Malmö.

MALMÖ C
Metro has been responsible for the design of all new construction and alterations at Malmö Station above ground. The City Tunnel is being constructed to the north of the existing Malmö Central Station. A new arrivals area is being created which is delimited partly by the new “Glass Hall,” and partly by the new car park building to the east. The Glass Hall’s modern design contrasts with the historic building of the Central Station. Modern architecture efficiently caters to the increasing flow of people.

HYLLIE STATION • Client : CTP represented by Tyréns
Area: 8,500 sqm • Completed 2010

ELABORATION OF COMPREHENSIVE PLANS FOR FLEMINGSBERG, SWEDEN

Streetscape: Nyréns Arkitektkontor/David Wilberg

The municipalities of Huddinge and Botkyrka have been collaborating since 2008 with Nyréns Arkitektkontor on the elaboration of the comprehensive plan for Flemingsberg, which has been designated a regional core in the plan for the region. The planning proposal is based on the idea of creating a continuous township in the form of a mixed-use development. The mixed-use township affords prospects of varied use which will tolerate changes occurring with the passage of time.

The planning proposal contains an intricate, continuous green structure which gives people living and working in the area better access to larger green spaces. The building development envisaged is of high density, which makes for efficient land use. The structures of settlement and greenery interact so as to achieve an attractive local climate.

The plan facilitates both building and the use of renewable energy. There is room for a variety of technical installations and an overarching water plan is part of the scheme. The plan lays down guidelines for the ongoing process in which co-ordination of waste management is aimed for.

The principal land use takes the form of a mixed-use township with various points of emphasis. Within its precincts it is consistently proposed that public activities be primarily accommodated on the ground stories of the buildings. The attraction of mass transit can be further enhanced by making possible an expansion of regional and suburban train traffic, tramways and bus services. A close-knit street network affords room for all types of traffic and creates a robust traffic structure. In planning the street spaces, priority has been given to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport. The mixed-use township affords prospects of a varied supply of public services and leisure activities.

Conscious planning of public spaces, with storm water management, for instance, highlighted as a resource, plays a vital part in the project. The mixed-use township spells good prospects of achieving a balance between daytime and night-time population in the townships. The process has been accompanied by dialogues with residents, aimed at canvassing their views on Flemingsberg.

Clients: The Municipalities of Huddinge and Botkyrka, represented by Lena Fyrvald and Per-Anders Framgård.
Architect: Nyréns Arkitektkontor, represented by Sofia Westerlund, Planning Architect FPR/MSA, Henrik Storm, Planning Architect MSA, Jorgen Astrom, Architect SAR/MSA and Nina Ryden, Landscape Architect MSA.

FACTS

Area: 5.5 square kilometres approx.
No. workers/residents: about 35,000 / 20,000 in 2020
Planning period/status: 2030 / consultation document autumn 2009
Further information: http://www.nyrens.se

Nyréns Arkitektkontor

JÄRVASTADEN – GRÖNLINGEN AND OTHER PRECINCTS, SOLNA CITY, SWEDEN

In 2006 Nyréns Arkitektkontor was commissioned by Järvastaden AB to collaborate with Solna City in compiling supporting documentation for a detailed development plan and design programme for the central part of the new Järvastaden township in Solna. The development proposal is based on a dense structure of multi-family dwellings surrounding a fittingly urban streetscape in the southern part of the site. The northern half of the site consists of two and three-storey terrace houses, link houses or semi-detached houses.

A dense urban fabric like Järvastaden’s is generally more energy-efficient than a scattered one, partly because this way you get shorter distances between different functions and a better local climate. The building development in the township is mainly located on land developed previously, and the greenfield surroundings will be left virtually intact.

Järvastaden will be served by the commuter trains to and from Uriksdal Station and by three different bus routes. It has been important to use the pre-existing infrastructure as a locomotive of development and to go on planning for an enlargement of mass transit. Järvastaden has pedestrian and cycle paths running parallel to all its main thoroughfares. In particular, the route linking the site with Uriksdal Station has been a starting point for our township development planning.

The Järvastaden planning structure comprises a network of streets leading to parks, green spaces and settlement. The site borders on large, continuous open-site recreation areas such as Järvakilen and the Jaghiksen Nature Reserve. A new township park is planned which will offer a host of informal meeting points, small piazza, precinct parks and paths linking the precincts.

The Järvastaden clients have defined exacting requirements concerning energy use and healthy building materials.

In a sustainable township, public spaces and axes, streets and piazzas are places for meetings and interchange. In Järvastaden, for this reason, important arteries have been localised in places which are naturally frequented. The township includes both commercial establishments and social, public spaces. The public places are located next to important nodes and commercial street areas.

Järvastaden is characterised by a varied townscape with secure play and recreation areas and urban settings for face-to-face encounters. The variegated nature of its housing and workplaces and its proximity to unspoiled country augur well for a good formative environment for rising generations. Järvastaden as a whole has been planned with a mixed urban structure and with an array of recreational and sporting amenities capable of developing into social meeting points.

Client: Järvastaden AB, represented by AIF Carlsson
Architect: Nyréns Arkitektkontor, represented by Susanna Juhlin Glembrandt, Architect SAR/MSA, Johanna Ljungdahl, Planning Architect FPR/MSA and Anna Frank, Landscape Architect LAR/MSA.

FACTS

Area: 200,000 sqm
Number of workers/residents: about 1,100 homes, businesses, preschools and a school
Planning period status: under construction since 2008
Further information: http://www.nyrens.se

Nyréns Arkitektkontor

HAMMARBY SJÖSTAD, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

• Building materials are to be renewable or recyclable and are to have low concentrations of substances harmful to health and the environment. Solutions are to be adopted/residential needs and to conducive to social participation and assumption of ecological responsibility.

Health aspects have also been gradually highlighted in the environmental process of developing and living up to the concept of the healthy city. The foundations of that objective have been laid in the form of ample footpath and cycle path networks which, together with the ferry, augment physical activity and reduce motorism. The vicinity of Sjöstaden includes built amenities and natural resources for physical activity, such as Sjöstadshallen, Hammarbybucken and the Nacka reserve.

HENRIKSDALSHAMNEN
Henriksdalshamn is Hammarby Sjöstad's latest development phase, comprising some 800 dwelling units and premises for neighbourhood services. As the result of a parallel assignment in 2005, Nyrens Arkitektkontor and Ernes Arkitekt together devised a final plan on which to base the detailed planning work. That plan has a dense structure of elevated precinct courts for parking and a "harbour piazza" (Hamntog) in the prime south/west location. While this in-depth planning work was in progress Nyrens Arkitektkontor was further commissioned to design the Seniorgarden precinct, comprising some 60 dwelling units and non-housing units for shops and a restaurant.

Client: City of Stockholm, Real Estate & Traffic Office and City Planning Administration, represented by Martin Skillback and Jan Inghe-Hagström.

Architect: Nyrens Arkitektkontor, represented by Dag Cavallius, Architect SAR/MSA, and Bengt Isling, Landscape Architect LAR/MSA, in association with Erseus Arkitekter AB, represented by Peter Erseus, Architect SAR/MSA.

LUGNETTERRASSEN
Lugnetterrassen is both park and piazza. The terrace is made up of small gardens facing Hammarby Sjö and a jetty structure with a pergola. The jetties offer nearness to the water in a favourable orientation. The pergola creates a framework and shelter for the terrace area. Specially designed sofa units provide comfortable seating.

Client: City of Stockholm Urban Development Office, represented by Kristina Meneyes.
Landscape architect: Nyrens Arkitektkontor, represented by Bengt Isling, Landscape Architect LAR/MSA.

FACTS
Henriksdalshamn
No. residents: approx 800 homes in the whole township.
The whole township is under construction.

Over the years, Nyrens Arkitektkontor has been closely involved in the Hammarby Sjöstad development, all the way from designing several of the construction phases to designing and planning many precincts and landscape spaces. A few of the latest plans and completed projects are presented here.

Right from the outset, Hammarby Sjöstad was planned with the aim of spearheading ecological and environmentally-minded construction and living. The City of Stockholm's Environmental Programme requires Hammarby Sjöstad to be planned and constructed on strictly eco-cyclic principles, as a lean, environmentally appropriate township. The aim is to make it "twice as good" as previous building development. The objectives defined in the City of Stockholm Environmental Programme, "Environment 2000," include the following:

• The eco-cycle is to terminate at a level as local as possible.
• Consumption of natural resources shall be minimised.
• Total energy consumption is to be reduced.
• Energy is to come from renewable sources and to be based as far as possible on local sources.
• Consumption of clean water is to be reduced.
• Wastewater is to be used for energy extraction and its nutrient salt content restored to agricultural land.

Revet and Knallen precincts make up the eastern corner of Sickla Kaj. In between them lies Sjöstadsparteren, an elongated parkland area which, together with its surrounding precincts, was awarded the Swedish Association of Architects, Kasper Salin Prize in 2005.

Revet precinct, occupying the ferry frontage of Sickla Kaj, is divided into two main buildings separated by an open court with a third, low-rise building. The open court is supplemented by a sheltered atrium court in each of the main buildings. In the apartments, practically every room gives onto a balcony, terrace or patio with a view of the park and water. Shops and a large restaurant look onto the street and quayside.

Knallen precinct in Sickla Kaj presents two different aspects. Easing the road japamade, the buildings have an appropriately urban appearance and a two-storey soile housing shops and other non-housing premises. Alongside the feeder streets and Sjöstadsparteren the facades are notable for their many bay windows and balconies, set at an angle to the waterfront. The buildings have large, glass-walled openings between the volumes to admit sun and daylight to the green court inside. The apartments are bright and beautiful, with views of Hammurby Sjö and Sickla Kajal.

Snickeriet precinct, forms part of the Sjöstadsparteren development phase and joins up with Hammurby Alle to the south and in the east and west with feeder streets with verdant forecourt areas. This precinct has rendered facades and consists of two parallel volumes of five or six storeys and a retracted upper terrace storey. Most of the apartments have windows on both sides and open room communications, generous headroom and large window apertures. They are compact and planned for adaptability to different forms of living.

Snickeriet precinct. Photo Sten Jansin

PROJECT ORGANISATION
Revet precinct: Client: NCC, represented by Björn Steqvist and Mats Alvtegen.
Architect: Nyréns Arkitektkontor AB, represented by Johan Nyrén,
Architect SAR/MSA, and Bengt Isling, Landscape Architect LAR/MSA.
Knallen precinct: Client: Stockholmmshen AB, represented by Bengt Kvist and Magnus Petersson.
Architect: Nyréns Arkitektkontor AB, represented by Dag Cavallius,
Architect SAR/MSA, and Bengt Isling, Landscape Architect LAR/MSA.
Snickeriet precinct: Client for Snickeriet precinct: Swenka Bostader, represented by Leif Bergman.
Architect for Snickeriet precinct: Nyréns Arkitektkontor AB, represented by Kerstin Bernow, Architect SAR/MSA, and Magdalema Franciskovic, Landscape Architect LAR/MSA.

Revet precinct contains 60 dwelling units, Knallen precinct 182 dwelling units and Snickeriet precinct 211 dwelling units.
The precincts were completed and ready for occupation 2002-2006.
Further information: http://www.nyrens.se

Nyréns Arkitektkontor

The local plans and guidelines for what eventually became the Avalon Hotel were drawn up in close co-operation with the Gothenburg City Planning Office. Semrén & Mänsson were involved throughout the process. From the very outset the aim was to create an extrovert, experimental building combining the revivification of central Gothenburg with an expressive exterior.

The asymmetry of the cone-shaped plot was picked up and reiterated throughout the hotel by a crooked line, both inside and out. Sensuous detailing, undulating wooden walls and well-thought-out furnishings add up to an immersive experience which is provocative yet fits in with its surroundings. The design bears the imprint of energy awareness, the pool for example being heated by waste heat from the hotel kitchen freezers.

The result is a hotel with 101 rooms, including a top class restaurant and fantastic penthouse suite, earning its place in the international Design Hotels association.

In addition, the building has been nominated for the Kasper Salin Prize and the European Mies van der Rohe Prize as well as winning the 2008 Per and Alma Olsson Fund for Good Architecture award. The success and experience earned from Avalon’s intil development is of great value to us in other projects both domestic and abroad.

FACTS

Client: Bygg-Göta Göteborg AB, represented by Lennart Persson and Willy Arnens
Hotel operator: Svenka Resto AB, represented by Torbjörn Johansson.
Architect: Semrén & Mänsson AB, represented by Magnus Mänsson – lead architect, Christopher Kihlberg – Interior architect, Titti Hosa, architect.
No. rooms: 101, Total area: 5,960 sqm BTA approx. (including 1,200 sqm rebuilt)
Further information: www.semn-mansson.se

Gothenburg is going through a dynamic period of development and the infrastructural investments now in progress will bring great changes to the city’s central districts. Semrén & Mänsson were invited to discuss the future of the city’s iconic main shopping street, Kungsportsavynn and its surrounding areas.

Our analysis shows the basic structure of Gothenburg to be the circle formed by joining together the Göta Tunnel, the so called events stretch and the Nyra Allen.

The length of Kungsportsavynn (the Avenue) from the Opera to Götaplatsen is the city’s obvious central axis. These parts of the city are in need of a partial redefinition or further development. In the case of Kungsportsavynn this is the ideal moment for action, given the palable risks of the city’s showpiece street going into decline. The proposal aims to preserve the original tradition and familiarity within the same time showing courage, capacity for action and soundness of judgement in relation to the new and unknown.

First and foremost, we recommend that tram traffic be transferred to a parallel street so as to make more room for Kungsportsavynn and to reduce the barrier effect. The space liberated will enable pavement cafés to move out from the building fronts, so that other activity will no longer be obstructed by them. We indicate several situations where the commercial space can be increased and also where infill housing development is feasible. In addition, we propose that Kungsportsavynn be given several different modes of lighting to consolidate its position in the city and to depict various events and occurrences taking place.

It is our belief that well-considered infill development and city planning leads to an energy-efficient city centre, as highlighted in our proposal.

FACTS

Client: Wallenstam, City of Göteborg, Göteborg Department of Urban Planning and Design
Architect: Semrén & Mänsson AB, Magnus Mänsson – lead architect, Andrea Hulting Gustafson – architect, Adelina Mehra – architect, Jakob Örtendahl – architect
Scheme submitted: 2004
Gross area: 100,000 sqm approx.
www.semren-mansson.se

A new ecological city in the Tangshan region 250 kilometres East of Beijing. About 1-1.5 million people are expected to live in the city in a long term perspective. The project is supported by both the Chinese and Swedish governments, and especially leaders at the ministries and Hebei provincial government. With the close involvement of the Tangshan municipal government, the Swedish Embassy and CENTEC, Caofeidian New District and Caofeidian Eco-City, and with the contribution of Chinese consultants and the innovative hard work of Sweco's team, a concrete plan for a world-class Eco-City was born. Sweco has performed overall conceptual planning as well as landscape design and building design.

The new EcoCity will have an area of 150 square kilometres with a first development phase of 30 square kilometres. A major deep harbour and an industrial area is also planned in connection to the city. The goal of the project is to build a both climate-neutral and attractive city, mainly based on a combination and adaptation of Swedish innovative examples on different planning levels. Sweco is also designing a Sustainability Centre including exhibitions of sustainable development ideas and city development, training, facilities, R&D and interactive demonstration equipment for environmental technology.

Caofeidian's Eco-Cycle Model proposes an integrated management of water, energy, waste and materials. The plan strives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, manage fresh water in a sustainable way, and increase recycling/recovery by connecting water, energy and waste systems. Connected closed-loop systems for industrial, agricultural and urban areas are also envisioned. A medium and long-term economic benefit is expected especially due to the effective resource and energy recovery.

The climate-neutral energy systems are based on achieving the lowest possible energy demand through construction of energy-efficient buildings and systems. Local renewable power production is based mainly on windmills and waste incineration, with the option of increasing other renewable energy sources such as solar cells and tidal energy.

The resources management centre (RMC) is a demonstration area for the Eco-Cycle Model and functions as the "heart" of Caofeidian's infrastructure, supplying its public utilities through various treatment plants. These plants

are organized and linked to improve resource recovery efficiency. The recommended location for the RMC is north of the new freshwater channel in the transition zone between Caofeidian and the surrounding agricultural fields.

The EcoCity has a compact and varied mixed-use structure. Different city structures are interwoven to create an inspiring whole. The urban nodes serve as centres for the city/districts and should be given distinct urban profiles such as innovation, trade, science and sports. The structure supports the development of sustainable transportation modes with priority for walking, bicycling and public transportation. The green and blue structure is an integral part of the public space.

Density varies across the EcoCity, with a certain degree of compactness as an overall feature. Mixed-use is a major feature and a combination of housing, workplaces and services. A wide range of urban districts with different characters are interwoven across the city to create an appealing mix. Each district is served by a mixed-use node, a conceived of as distinct areas, each with its own identity.

The city has a general structure that allows rapid or slow expansion but also different ways of varying the subdivision and urban design of individual blocks. The overall orthogonal structure of the EcoCity offers a basis for an infinite variety of urban design and architectural solutions.

This integrated urban structure contributes to quality of life, liveability, social security, inclusion and health.

FACTS

Architect: Sweco in Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg and Falun
Client: Administrative Committee of Tangshan Caofeidian Industry Zone
Area: 150 square kilometres with a first development phase of 30 square kilometres
Size: a city for bout 1-1.5 million people
Year: Ongoing project
www.swecogroup.com/cao

Conceptual plan for a new urban area. According to the master plan, Dongtuo area is going to contain the administrative functions of Hangu, as well as the new business office area. By 2020, Dongtuo will accommodate a major part of the population growth from the existing 120,000 to the planned 250,000 for the Hangu city area. Development of Dongtuo area is also the first step of transformation of salt production areas into an urban built environment. It sets new standards, a new framework and new rules for the transformation of this area.

Based on sustainable development principles, the plan suggests an integrated transportation, greenery and public facility belt to form an “innovation valley” that connects the old city to the tourism development at the seashore, so that the planned Dongtuo area will act as the urban innovation engine for the development of Hangu New City.

The project included a centrally situated exhibition hall of 15,000 square meters.

FACTS
Architect: Sweco in Malmö, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Shanghai
Client: Tianjin Real Estate Development and Management Group
Land area: 10.8 square kilometres
www.sweco.se/arch

The Swedish pavilion is designed by Sweco and expresses the Swedish sustainable approach to innovation. The theme of rural and urban interaction has also been an important concept for the design. The exhibition displays the Swedish contribution to the World Expo and the theme of Better City, Better Life and visualizes the essence and theme “Spirit of Innovation.”

Sustainable architecture and innovations are important. The Swedish approach to sustainability is a holistic perspective where the environment and social and economic aspects must be considered as key ingredients.

The 3,000 square metre pavilion contains a 1,500 square metre exhibition hall and an equal area of conference facilities, administration office, coffee shop, boutique, kitchen and back of house functions.

SOME FEATURES OF THE PAVILION:
A large wooden construction of environmentally certified glue laminated timber that makes up the entrance to the Swedish pavilion; a special heat reflective paint on perforated steel panels that will shade the walls of the building; systems that minimise energy and water consumption; a special lighting concept in which high quality, low-energy lighting is used to illuminate both the interior and exterior; an advanced system for water purification; a good indoor climate with technology for cooling, ventilation and dehumidification systems, all of which are need-regulated.

The pavilion structure reflects a sustainability perspective in that it can be easily moved and reused in another location in China.

HOUSE OF CULTURE, DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA

The National Museum is the place where Tanzanian cultural heritage is exhibited. The House of Culture is the connecting vehicle where contemporary Tanzanian culture comes spectacularly alive. It is a meeting point, where Tanzanian culture is collected, displayed and celebrated, a living culture with dance, story-telling, music, art, and cooking traditions. Indoor and outdoor spaces flow together seamlessly, designed to support all of these activities.

The House of Culture comprises a performance theatre, art gallery, commercially viable multi-media centre, a children’s art studio, workshop areas, restaurants, improved storage, working facilities, and exhibition spaces. The main target user group is the community in general but more specifically children, youth and tourists.

The African architectural tradition of integration between nature and building is fundamental. Prominent existing/heritage buildings and mature trees are fully embraced, and the landscaped gardens now fully integrated.

The House of Culture and National Museum has been crafted by all parties involved to celebrate a proud and deep National culture committed to the environment, community, economy, innovation, tradition, health, safety, and performance arts.

It is unique globally to integrate a House of Culture with an existing National Museum to provide the means and technology to connect Tanzania’s culture not only with its people but also with the rest of the World. The Client collaboration process was started in 2003. In order to build the National Museum and House of Culture a contract for Consultant Services and Supervision was signed on 19 May 2006 between the Client

(The National Museum of Tanzania) and Tengbom Michelsen, leading the Swedish/Tanzanian consultant team. The journey towards a design brief was a fully collaborative exercise with a Clients Advisory Board and Reference group guiding the process.

The buildings in the former Botanical garden have been designed to catch the monsoon breezes from the Indian Ocean, through the verandas then cross-ventilating the buildings via perforated screen walls and shading louver panels. Local materials add to the sustainability.

At ground floor and over larger open areas steel-framed timber panels give a warm and softer character. Roof overhangs and lowered screens provide additional shading. Gently sloping ventilated roots direct rainwater towards the garden where gutters and pipes lead into sunken storage tanks.

The theatre auditorium is a dominant space, serving 500 people seated in graded stalls and balconies. Auditorium walls towards the veranda are perforated with conic holes providing cross ventilation. Operable screen shutters control acoustic and climatic effect. The theatre is fully equipped with modern theatreal lighting, acoustic, and recording facilities as a commercial asset for the community.

FACTS

Client: National museum Tanzania
Design team leaders: Inger Thede, Architect SAR/MSA,
Tengbom Chazi Rwakanad, Project Architect Norman & Dawarn
Quantity Surveyor: Matawana Consulting Group (T) Ltd
Structural Engineers: Aquola Ltd (T)
Mechanical and Electrical Engineers: Electriplan (T) Ltd
Location: Botanical Garden, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Climate: Tropical humid
Site area: 162 ha
Built area: 7,400 sqm, (4,453 renovated existing area, 2,853 new built area)
No of employees: 100–150
No of visitors: 40,000 (2004/5)
Construction: 2007–2010
Donor: Sida

One of the important parts of Hammarby Sjöstad is the Hammarby Gård residential area with about 1,000 units, retail, offices etc.

In 1999 Tengbom/Michelsen was shortlisted by Stockholm City for a master plan competition to redevelop the area of Hammarby Gård from an industrial estate to an attractive and sustainable urban environment. After winning the competition Tengbom also designed the buildings for five of the ten developers involved in the area. This included more than three blocks including approximately 500 apartments, retail units, a nursery and a restaurant.

The area is a former industrial and harbour site with a new inlet dock forming an open site for the new dwellings. The eliptical central park is surrounded by town houses and the streets are located to reach out towards the water. This is done in order to create places to meet, by the water as well as in the parks and across the blocks. Building heights vary from eight stories towards the waterfront, seven stories facing the quayside and five stories facing the park. All apartments have a view of the water and the park. The ground level is used for retail, restaurants, cafes, daycare and other communal services. Even though the development has a high density it still maintains a good atmosphere and pleasant environment of urban standard and with high architectural qualities.

Hammarby Gård has, like other parts of Hammarby Sjöstad, a modern, semi-open, block-based structure, which is a combination of the closed, traditional inner city structure and the more modernistic and open structure. The inner city street dimensions, block sizes, building heights, density and functionality mix are developed and integrated with a new openness, water-front views, green areas and sunlight.

Limited building depths, recessed penthouse flats, maisonettes, large balconies and terraces, big windows, flat roofs and light-coloured rendering on water-facing facades embody different applications of a modernistic architectural approach, as does the emphasis on durable materials such as glass, wood, steel and stone. The structure organizes blocks in densely where blocks are designed to compose in “family friendly” groups.

FACTS

Client: Stockholms Stadsbygnadskontor, Veidekke Bostad, Riksbyggen, Byggnadsfirman Wallin AB.
Architect: Tengbom
Area: 50.000 sqm
Number of apartments: 500 (including retail, nursery and offices)
Design team leaders: Inger Thede, Bengt Rönnedhed, Cecilia Holmström, Stellan Fryxell
Location: Stockholm
Year of Commission: 2000–2008

The Nordica Office Building is situated in the centre of Ostrava which is the third largest city in the Czech Republic.

The seven-storey building offers approximately 11,500 sqm of prime office space, including a roof terrace with a large glass penthouse and 2000 sqm of street level retail space and restaurant facilities. The building also includes a two-storey basement car park with 130 spaces. A small landscaped plaza has been created directly outside the entrance. The project was the first building in the country to be certified according to the energy efficiency demands of the European Union’s Green Building Programme (The European Commission Award). The project won 1st prize in the competition “Czech energy efficient and environmental project 2008” and was also named by Collers International as a top-ten Czech office building for its prestige status, address, and possibilities of use.

The Nordica Office Building is an energy-efficient building that is managed by sophisticated heating and cooling system and recycles waste heat from a local steel plant through the city’s district heating system. The building provides healthy indoor office environments, is functional, flexible and is designed for a working environment of high quality. The development has contributed toward urban redevelopment and sustainable urban planning by restoring and reusing a contaminated brownfield site and by being situated in central part of the City. The Nordica project has also promoted local economic development by creating jobs during construction and by bringing companies and long-term office jobs to central Ostrava. Environmental impacts were minimised during construction and all construction waste was sorted on site and recycled where possible. Environmentally responsible construction materials such as non-toxic substances, materials with recycled content and certified timber were used on project.

Our participation started with work on urban planning, continued with building design including interior design and signage. We also participated in landscape design and outdoor lighting design.

FACTS

Client: Skanska Property CZ
Project architect: Tengborn, Ivan Krejci
Area: 11,500 sqm
Number of employees: 1,000
Year of Commission: 2007-2009

After an introduction by the Swedish Consul General in Shanghai in late-2009, Tengbom Stockholm won a commission to design 2.4 square kilometres of the 150 square kilometre Taihu New Town in Wuxi City as a flagship and exemplary Eco-City.

The site will have a strong Chinese-Swedish theme and be named "The Wuxi Sino-Swedish Eco-City". Concurrently a working group was set up to identify collaborative projects and companies to get involved between the Wuxi and Swedish Governments, especially clean-tech solutions to be used within the new project. The working group comprised officials from the Wuxi New City Authority, the Swedish Trade Department, and The City of Södertälje Authority; Södertälje is a twin city to Wuxi.

Tengbom designed the 2.4 sq km Sustainable City Master Plan and 30 ha focus area. The work includes developing a new environmental programme for the focus area relative to the entire 150 square kilometres and also includes Eco Index guidelines for the City and mixed use block development. Energy consumption, waste management, water preservation, traffic and transport, and sustainable building design systems feature in an eco City Model developed by the team specifically for the Wuxi project. The Master Plan and zoning plans include mainly residential and commercial uses but also an extensive cultural area in which it is hoped to relocate the Swedish Expo pavilion in 2011, and a fully fledged Olympic sports facility to the south of the site. A new transportation and smart utilities network connects the site with the city and itself. Existing green beetle canals, preserved wetland, urban parks, and family-friendly residential blocks also connect the scheme together and maintain the rich biodiversity of the region and natural heritage of the famous Taihu Lake, located to the south of the area.

FACTS

Client: Wuxi Municipal Peoples Government
Architect: Tengbom
Local architect: Local Design Institute: UDG Shanghai Engineers: AF Stockholm
Design team leaders: Jeremy Thompson, Stellan Fryxel, Anna Kerr
Area and number of residents: Size 2.4 square kilometres with 30,000 residents.
Status: Detail planning 2009-2010. On-going.

DIE SEESTADT WIENS, VIENNA, AUSTRIA

The "Seestadt Wiens" (Vienna Lake City) is regarded as one of Austria's largest and most important urban development areas of this decade, expected to strengthen the Vienna-Bratislava axis into an international point of attraction and hub for economy, science and research in the cross-border CENTROPE region.

Towatt Architects and Planners won the international competition in 2006 followed by a comprehensive commission to refine the urban design, including issues such as strategies for implementation, content and likewise. The urban design for the "Seestadt Wiens" creates a relatively dense environment; it is a structure built up of large-scale civic gestures coupled with small and spontaneous spatial surprises. A central park at the focal point of the plan connects and links smaller squares and public open spaces into a meandering net, providing a safe and clear way of movements. A generous ring-road (Ringstrasse) and radial connections give the masterplan its main elements of structure. The radial streets pick up all possible streets and paths in the existing developments adjacent to the new development area.

The "Seestadt Wiens" will be highly connected by public transport: The underground line U2 is already in construction and the first station within the area will be opened already in 2013. The main station, in the north of the area will be opened a few years later. A high-speed train (S80), connecting Vienna central and Bratislava will be opened in 2018 and be "Seestadt Wiens" will become the modelling node between the two neighbour cities. Furthermore, two tram lines will serve the area, connecting local and adjacent neighbourhoods to the Seestadt train and underground stations.

The "Seestadt Wiens" prioritizes pedestrian and cycling traffic; public spaces, parks and well-proportioned street sections create a clear, legible and dense network of car-free routes.

The Seestadt will become a new urban centre within a large catchment area north of the Danube river, existing small settlements and villages will tie into this development at all levels. The "Seestadt Wiens" will provide premises for work and education in the region of 1 million square meter gross area. At least 8,000 apartments will be provided in the initial stages of the implementation. Nearly 50,000 people will live and work here by the completion at the end of the next decade.

TOVATT ARCHITECTS & PLANNERS AB

FACTS

Client, "Seestadt Wiens": Wien 3420 AG, a joint venture company owned by: BundesimmobilienGesellschaft/BIG www.big.at. Die Wirtschaftsagentur Wien www.wirtschaftsagentur.at • Site area, 240 ha, 800,000 sqm housing by completion (2028), 1,100,000 sqm commercial, retail and education/research by completion (2028). Construction start infrastructure, 2008, residential/public functions, 2011. First stage in operation, 2013.

WTE (WASTE-TO-ENERGY) POWER PLANT, DONETSK, UKRAINE

The EcoEnergyWTE plant in Donetsk, Ukraine, is a pilot project for new clean-tech energy support and waste processing in Eastern Europe.

Today the main part of Ukraine’s household waste is deposited on landfills, thereby causing several environmental problems like production of methane gas and leakage of heavy metals and dissin into the ground water.

The WTE plant takes advantage of the energy in the waste by using it as fuel in a combined power- and heating plant. Besides solving the waste problem in the city of Donetsk, with about 1.1 million inhabitants, it also produces enough energy to support five city districts with all their hot tap water and half of their heating supply.

THE CONCEPT
Modern power plants are large-scale constructions with a significant visual impact on the site. Regardless if they are situated in urban or rural contexts, these buildings demand different visual solutions to become a positive factor in the neighbourhood.

The new WTE Power Plant in Donetsk will look like no other. The functional boxes of the power plant are enclosed in a semi-transparent faceted “skin” of light aluminium, metal mesh and glass. Solar panels are mounted on upper parts of the eastern, western and southern façade. Like a giant shimmering beetle or a bright soap bubble, it sits on the surrounding fields and ponds. The overall impression is clean, friendly and slightly futuristic.

The building is design by URBAN DESIGN, a young Swedish architecture office that aims for a high architectonic level that combines technological competence with resource-effective constructions.

THE LANDSCAPE
In Donetsk, the fertile topsoil of the site is moved to the side, creating distinct grass-covered earth-works that separate the plant area from the surrounding green land. The earth-works also separate the “messy” areas around the plant from the neighbouring fields and roads. Such functions as staff cafeen, gatehouse, gym and staff rooms are also accommodated in the sloping embankments.

Finding inspiration in the traditional Ukraine farming land, the immediate surroundings are landscaped with elongated ponds (for leakage water) and stretches of energy forests. The earth-works that separates the lay-down and transport areas from the landscape should be sown with grass and wild flowers. The inside is more plain and simple with asphalt on the roadways and reinforced grass for the lay-down areas, but the grass of the sloping walls surrounding it will add greenery to the workspace.

FACTS
Client: Eco Energy Scandinavia AB • Site area: Ca. 10 acres (ca 50,000 sqm). Building area: Footprint ca. 10,500 sqm. Building volume: Ca. 270,000 cubic metre. Power output: 100 MW. Status: Planning phase. Bidding process starts November 2010. Construction works (foundation) will start in the spring of 2011.

With a progressive new detailed area development plan, an entire community can make the move from the age of gasoline to a more sustainable future. A good example of this can be seen in Korsholm (Mustasaari), Finland, where White emerged as winner of a fiercely fought international competition for creating a coherent and upgraded urban nucleus characterised by sustainability in all dimensions. An old community is being given a modern form through White’s architecture and environmental expertise.

Korsholm is a small community with just over 18,000 residents, a little to the northeast of Vaasa in Finland. Snedsbby, the central locality, is sparsely populated and incoherent, having been traversed for decades past by a national highway. Construction of a bypass now presents the opportunity of amalgamating the two halves and renewing their urban quality.

The competition brief was to present innovative ideas on which to base a new, flexible detailed area development plan. No fewer than 54 teams took part in the competition, and the jury’s first prize was shared between White and WSP Finland.

White’s idea is to create a distinct central point, a densified urban core, with a potential for stimulating movement and social contact, with a judiciously balanced, integrated structure of settlement and landscape. A new piazza, a higher, 12-story tower block and a new House of Culture Park are included in White’s scheme, but so too is heavy emphasis on public transport, including a tramway to Vaasa. The Snedsbby of tomorrow is being built on sustainability in all dimensions, ecological, social and technical.

White’s Sara Grahn is a Professor of Sustainable Design and is overseeing the whole design, which is being evolved in collaboration with White’s environmental experts. The entire area is to be made climate neutral, i.e. will not emit more carbon dioxide than it receives. New buildings are to be constructed to the Passive House Standard, using the quintessentially Finnish raw material – wood, a postterminal heating installation is proposed, wind power will provide a complement at chosen points, and all alterations will conform to the Green Building Standard.

Successful urban planning is not a project but a process, with driving forces and impediments all of its own. White’s proposal points towards an overarching structure, using tools which can provide guidance, and be sustainable for a long time to come.

Facts

Client: Municipality of Korsholm (Mustasaari)
White’s competence: architecture, urban development, environment and visualisation
Size/area: 130,000 sqm new township
Project start/completion: 2009-2030

The aim in Sundsvall is to achieve the best sea-front housing in the Nordic countries, in an ecological, long-term and sustainable district of Norra Kajen ("North Quayside"). White is helping to make this bright green vision come true.

For some years now, the Municipality of Sundsvall has been engaged in a very ambitious task with a distinct, high-level environmental profile. The Norra Kajen development scheme, in partnership with the Northlandpodkama real estate company, is a major part of the municipal effort to develop the city.

White won the architecture competition in the heat of opposition from some of the leading Nordic practices. By proposing a new traffic structure whereby through traffic is channelled round the city, we were able to devise a scheme which broadened the picture of tomorrow’s Sundsvall, one of the key moves being to transfer incoming traffic from the present E4 highway to Harpers Aft, which passes through the new township.

In this way Norra Kajen will become a new township, and not just a housing area on the immediate outskirts which one drives past in order to reach the centre of Sundsvall.

Ongoing work is giving the Municipality of Sundsvall opportunities of infill urban development in a very attractive location and the chance of contributing towards sustainable development. The cogenently holistic approach is enabling environmental aims to be met higher still. The vision is to create Sweden’s first township with a self-contained energy system.

Green stretches are linked together with green spaces, and on roofs and façades green plants grow which purify the air. This in turn improves water flows, giving us a better climate for man and beast alike. The heat pumps benefit from the Sundsvall Fjord (Sundsvalsfjorden), the buildings have recycling systems and electricity is generated by solar panels and combustion of biogas.

FACIS
Client: Norra Kajen Exploiterings AB
White’s competences: architecture, landscaping, environment, building conservation
Project commencement/completion: 2008–2020
Size/area: 360,000 sqm gross floor area

VÄLLINGBY CITY, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

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The classic Vällingby Centrum has been transformed into an urbane Vällingby City. White oversaw the balancing of old and new – an energetic package solution with a distinct environmental profile.

Following its inauguration in 1954, Vällingby Centrum was widely emulated, both in Sweden and abroad. Half a century’s wear and tear, plus relentlessly stiffening competition, led to a necessary renewal. Vällingby City has now been given a comprehensive facelift, with White as the lead planning architect.

The challenge lay in striking the right balance between the original and the new in an urban centre of national heritage conservation interest. Two parallel commissions were carried out, using a wide-ranging competence in urban development, commerce and housing. White’s entry was selected in both cases. Through our solution the original structure of open streets and piazzas was made the basis of the further expansion of commerce, parking facilities and housing.

The unique factor here is the process of consensus and consensual vision which secured the qualities of implementation. With all interests represented, a sustainable urban development has been achieved. Commercial, environmental and borage-related requirements have been reconciled in an attractive wholeness.

Renovating for the most part, instead of demolishing and building anew, was interesting not only architecturally but also from the viewpoint of husbanding natural resources. On White’s initiative, a geothermal facility was created which is the largest in northern Europe. Beneath one of the department stores there are a total of 27 km of drilling holes. In addition, waste from shops and restaurants is converted into new energy.

FACTS
Client: Svenska Bostäder • White’s competences: architecture, urban planning, landscaping, environment, design. • Project Start/completion: 2001-2010. • Sizearea: 100,000 sqm gross floor area.
The project was rewarded the Sveriges Arkitekter Planning Prize in 2006.

THE MARIEFRED GUEST MARINA, SWEDEN

Under YAJ Architects’ direction, the Mariefred Marina is to undergo development with an emphasis on sustainability. The quai facing Gripsholm Castle – at present a gravelled car park – is to be developed stage by stage with modern warehouse buildings, a quayside promenade, landing stages and a paved plaza, all of which combined will link the township with Lake Mälaren. In addition to providing guest harbour facilities, the warehouse buildings will house marine supplies, aquatic sports businesses, delicatessen shops, cafés and restaurants.

The wooden town of Mariefred, 70 km from Stockholm by road, reverberates to the wingbeats of history. Its marina is located right in between Gripsholm Castle, founded in 1537 by King Gustav Vasa, and Gripsholms Marinhas, a boatyard dating from 100 and today the home ground of the Swedish National Chef Team. The grounds of Gripsholm Castle directly adjoin the western end of the marina. The marina area is traversed by a narrow-gauge historic railway which operates during the summer season and at certain holidays. The immediate continuation of the marina is the steamboat quai, where the Mälaren stairer S/S Mariefred has been linking Mariefred to Stockholm by water ever since 1903.

SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT

The marina development will boost the entire locality as a tourist destination, and in that sense it’s also an example of regional development. The intention is for the marina’s architectureto be attractive in itself and, coupled with the content and response of the complex, to create new reasons for visiting Mariefred. The architecture of the complex is aimed to the setting and, moreover, to highlight the qualities of the immediate context. The development is modern, albeit soft-spoken, but takes its point of departure in historic lengths of street and vistas, traditional settlement typologies and traditional building materials and surface finishes.

To ensure as comprehensive a body of supporting documentation as possible for the planning work, YAJ Architects have worked in dialogue

FACTS

Clientmarina operator/developer: Viamear Promarin Management AB • Architect: YAJ Architects AB, Architects SAR/MSA
Jonas Nyberg and Yiya Lindstedt, www.yaj.se • Total on-shore area: 7,700 sqm approx. • Total water area: 16,200 sqm approx., rising to some 20,000 sqm in a possible second stage. • Total built area: 660 sqm approx.

STOCKHOLM ROYAL SEAPORT (NORRA DJURGÅRDSSTADEN), SWEDEN

Aerial view of Stockholm with the environmental profile zone in front and the projects by AWL marked

ÄWL arkitekter is planning housing for a better climate in the Stockholm Royal Seaport (Norra Djurgårdssstaden), the new Stockholm environmental profile zone that forms part of the Clinton Foundation programme entitled “The Climate Positive Development.”

The project is concerned with sustainable urban development on former industrial land.

In Stage 1 West AWL is designing for JM AB two apartment blocks totalling 164 dwelling units.

In Stage 2 AWL has carried out a preliminary study for a detailed area development plan and typology, commissioned by the Stockholm City Planning Administration. AWL has also been commissioned by Skanska NyA Hem to present, in a parallel sketch, two apartment buildings totalling 100 dwelling units and with a high environmental profile. The buildings located on the north shore of Husarviken, opposite the National City Park, are to limit specific energy consumption to a level close to the Swedish Passive House Standard and are also to produce, locally within the property, the equivalent of 30% of the operating requirement.

Other environmentally profiled AWL projects (see markings on the aerial view) AWL is designing 72 apartments in multi-family passive houses in Blokkampen and with a permanent for sustainable renewal and urban development of the Tullgarden 2 precinct, office premises at Svev Artileri (in the Nedra Gård district) for Green Building Certification, and a scheme for sustainable urban development in Hagersten, Stockholm.

Stage 1: Client: JM AB, represented by Allan Rasmussen and Gunnar Landing. Architect: AWL Arkitekter AB, represented by Olid Loström (lead architect), Lars Werner (partially responsible, precinct 5), James Martin (partially responsible, precinct 6)

FACTS

Stage 1: precinct 5, 64 apartments, building start planned for 2010, and precinct 6, 82 apartments, building start planned for 2010.
Stage 2: 100 dwelling units divided between two properties and totalling some 10,000 sqm.
Total size of the Norra Djurgårdssstaden urban development project: 10,000 homes and 30,000 workplaces.

Proposal for two apartment blocks in the second stage Norra Djurgårdssstaden for Skanska NyA Hem. Ongoing parallell commission.

Stage 2: Preliminary sketch of local area development plan (see illustration) Client: Stockholm City Planning Administration Parallel sketch for 100 dwelling units divided between two properties: Client: Skanska NyA Hem, represented by Johan Graf Architect: AWL Arkitekter AB, represented by Bertil Molin

FURTHER INFORMATION:
www.awlk.se
www.stockholm.se/norrajurgardstaden

VASAGATAN 7, RESHAPED OFFICE BUILDING, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

The central parts of Stockholm are currently undergoing an extensive redevelopment overseen by the City of Stockholm, one of the most important of these areas being the central “cross” formed by the intersection of Vasagatan and Klarabergsgatan.

Vasagatan 7 is right next to the “cross.” The building contains offices, shops and restaurants and has now been rebuilt and given a new, modern makeover and new technology, based on Green Building. In addition, the building is now LEED-certified – a Swedish first.

The top management of the property owner, Vasakrona, have resolved to pursue energy efficiency improvements in their property stock, aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, other environmental impact and their own energy costs. Energy consumption has now been reduced by more than half. Design was introduced at an early stage, meaning that soft factors like at-homeness and work environment are also being implemented.

What used to be a massively faceless building has now been transformed into a modern office of glass and steel. The heavy old façade has been pulled down and the building opened up towards Vasagatan. A two-storey glazed shop unit has been created with a distinct office entrance in the middle of the Vasagatan façade.

The new façade has a cladding of storey-high glazed sections and light, perforated steel sheeting which provides variegated filtration of daylight into the building. The steeply sloping roof, which formerly housed an air handling unit, has now been turned into airy offices in a studio environment, with tall windows in the sloping roof and glazed domes overlooking the street and courtyard. There is also a small roof terrace on the fair-weather sides. The flat roof to the south is fitted with 150 sqm solar panel for production of direct electric heating. The flat roof of the two wings have been fitted with solar collectors for producing air conditioning and running hot water. The sodium roof of the wings traps air contaminants and rainwater. The building’s ventilation and air conditioning systems are needs-regulated and the lighting presence controlled. The new façade copes admirably with light irradiation, surplus heat and street noise.

In daytime the building makes a variegated impression, with glamming panels of glass contrasting with matte-colored floorboards. The flat roof. The new façade also reflects the older façade opposite, amplifying the encounter between old and new. In the evenings the building changes character, “opens up” and radiates light, in that the perforated steel sheeting also allows evening light to escape from inside. The courtyard façades have also been redesigned, but, owing to the strong incident sunlight, are not opened up as much. The courtyard façades have a cladding of silky-matte shores of sofas and of detached screen-printed glass which filters the sunlight from the south.

Reflex Arkitekter, who designed the building, have developed parts of both building and courtyard together with graphic artist Gabor Palotai and landscape architect Ulf Nordjell so as to impart greater wholeness and a sharper edge to the project.

FACTS

Client: Vasakrona • Architect: Reflex Arkitekter, lead architect Johan Linnros, project architect Anna Wijkmark • Total area: 17,500 sqm gross floor area approx. • Offices: 12,500 sqm approx. • Shops/restaurants: 2,000 sqm approx. • Sundry: 3,000 sqm approx.
Possession: 1st quarter of 2010.
Enginger consultant: Bengt Dahlgren. Environmental consultant: Sofie Aberg

Kontaktregister

107

Ahlqvist & Almqvist Arkitekter AB
Peter Myndes Bakke 12
Box 15221
104 65 Stockholm
tel: 08-556 968 80
e-post: mail@ahqlvist-almqvist.se
www.ahlqvist-almqvist.se

AIX Arkitekter AB
Hudilisvsallsgatan 8
113 30 Stockholm
tel: 08-690 29 00
kontakt: Lars Johansson
e-post: lars.johansson@aix.se
mobil: 070 585 58 50
www.aix.se

Arken SE Arkitekter AB
Hökens gala 2
116 46 Stockholm
tel: 08-442 75 80
www.arken-se-arkitekter.se

Aros Arkitekter AB
Västmannagatan 43
113 25 Stockholm
tel: 08-690 07 80
Trädgårdsgatan 7E
753 09 Uppsala
tel: 018-172 000
kontakt: Robert Martin
e-post: robert.martin@arosarkitekter.se
www.arosarkitekter.se

Byrän för Arkitektur och Urbanism
Gävlegatan 12A
Box 6641
113 84 Stockholm
tel: 08-558 818 00
www.bau.se

BAU arbetar främst med stadsplaneringsprojekt och utformning av kontor, bostader och kommersella fastigheter. Ett hälbart urban synsätt har länge varit centrafrit för värt arbete och vi kan tillhanda alla både BREEAM- och LEED-certifiering.

Berg Arkitektkontor AB
Box 15055
104 65 Stockholm
tel: 08-555 760 00
kontakt: Svante Berg
mobil: 070-595 33 59
e-post: svante.berg@bergark.se
www.bergark.se
www.cfmoller.com

SKIPPARK 360 - BALSTA INDOOR SKIING

Ahlqvist & Almqvist Arkitekter AB har mer än 25 års erfarenhet av hälbar arkitektur och hälbart stadsbyggande. Framalgångsrika projekt har genomförts i Europa, Kina och Sverge.

AIX har tre hvuvaksliga typer av uppdrag; stadsvtveckling, nybyggnad och omyggnad. Projekten späner från visionsforslag for nya stadsdealer via bostader, skolor och laboratorier till omyggnader restaurering i känsliga miljer som Storkytkan och Drottningholms slott. Vi har de senaste tore anen samitat ett sort kunnande från värt delgande i utvecklingen av industrialserade system for modern träbyggande.

Planner för städer & reginer, urban design, arkitektur för bostider kontor eller universitett Med vår unika "STEP-metod" erbjuder vi en delgande workshop för att uppmuntra nya idéer och nå hälbara stadsmonster. Genom att visa på lokala och globala kvaliteer med bevisbaserade metoder mäts potentalen för en framtidida succé – ert stadsavv!

Arken SE arkitekter ab

Vi på Aros Arkitekter har stor erfarenhet från alla typer av uppdrag innom de offentliga och kommersella sfarerna. I värt satt att arbeta för ett hälbart foretagande är vi lyhorda och omsorgsfulla i diagonen med vår uppdragsgivare samtidigt som vi utmanar med kreativa idéer. Aros Arkitekter verkar på lokala, nationell och internationella marknader inom områdena Arkitektur, Stadsveckling, Inredning och Projekteningsledning.

BERG Berg Arkitektkontor

Berg är väl kända for att producera innovativ och realistisk arkitektur för komplexa utformningslösningar runt om våriden.

Berg Arkitektkontor är en del av Arkitektfirmaet C.F. Møller.

Brunnberg & Forshed Architects Ltd
Kungsholms Strand 135
112 48 Stockholm
tel: 08-617 61 00
kontakt: Hans Bergström
e-post: info@brunnbergoforshed.se
www.brunnbergoforshed.se

Vi har lång erfarenhet och stor kompetens inom omraden som stadsbygnden, bostader, kommer-siella lokaler/kontor och inredning.

Hälibarhet är en viktig utgångspunkt i vår arbete. Värt mål är att rita energieffektiva byggnerider i kombination med god arkitektur.

Erik Gludice Architects
5 rue de Charonne, FR-750 11 Paris, France
tel: +33 1 433 837 08
Värtavägen 60, 115 38 Stockholm
tel: 08-515 140 25
kontakt: Erik Gludice
e-post: info@erikgludice.com
www.erikgludice.com

EGA Erik Guidice Architects är ett multidisciplinärt konter basarat i Paris och Stockholm. Guidice och hans team har genom vinnande dvlingsbidrag och genomfördra projekt litt internationell erkännade inom ett brett spetra av storekar och innnehåll: fran kulhurus, sporttalar till stora stadsvecklingsprojekt. EGA har kapacitet att åta sig stora och komplexa projekt och arbatar med ett nätverk av høgt kvalificade specialister inom alla relevanta omraden.

EGA_ERIK_GIUDICE_ARCHITECTS

EQUATOR STOCKHOLM AB
Kungsgatan 18, 3tr
Box 1351
111 83 Stockholm
tel: 08-506 025 00
kontakt: Annica Carlsson, vd
mobil: 070-453 00 79
e-post: amrica.carlsson@equator-europe.com
stockholm@equator-europe.com
www.equator.se

Arktektur – Inredning – Stadsbyggnad – Projektledning – Bygledning – Lokiradgvining – Kvalitetsansvarig – Tilgänglighetsexperitis – CAD-samordning

Erséus Arkitekter AB
St Badhusgatan 18-20
411 21 Göteborg
tel: 031-10 95 00
Fiskargatan 8
116 20 Stockholm
tel: 08-556 939 00
www.erseus.se

Vi arbater med alla typa av projekt, frän stadsutveckling till mindre byggprojekt, för både privata och offentliga uppdragsgivare. Vi har erfarenhet av genomförda miljklassade byggnader."

ERSÉUS ARKITEKTER AB

habibihaus
Hornstull Strand 13
117 39 Stockholm
tel: 08-334 819
e-post: info@habibihaus.se
www.habibihaus.se

habibihaus närmar sig den internationella arenan med vida idéer, frän koncept till genomfördel habibihus tillhör en ung generation av arkitekter som vet hur skarp analys, korsdisciplinarna experiment och social ansvarstagande ska kombine-res med behag och humor. habibihaus strävär alltid efter att hitta kreativa, fantasifulla och ovan-liga beslösar for habibiharet, god design och sköhet.

hauschild-siegel
Vimpelgatan 9
211 14 Malmö
tel: 073-523 90 01
kontakt: Cord Siegel
e-post: cord@hauschild-siegel.com
www.urbanavillier.com
www.hauschild-siegel.com

Värt kontor arbetar med ekologiskt iniktad arkitekter som tar ansvar gentemot samhälle och miljoj. För närvarande arbetar vi med ett bostadsprojekt till den internationella byggmasan 1 Hamburg 2013. Bygnadens gestatning baseras på ett koncept med en serie verkkala gemensamma rum som uppmuntra till dialog och gemenskap bland de boende för att skapa ett "lantligt" granskap vi en urban omgiving.

hauschild + siegel architecture

LINK arkitektur AB
Lumaparksvagen 7
Box 92126
120 08 Stockholm
tel: 08-688 75 00
kontakt: Linda Marend
e-post: linda.marend@linkarkitektur.se
www.linkarkitektur.se

LINK har en sammanlagd personalstyrka på över 250 anställda i Sverge och Norge. Vi kombinerar storskaliga projekt med nogrant detaljarbete; frän stadsbyggnad till inredningsarkitektur, från flygplaser till daghem, från spukhus till bostader, från kontor till laboratorier. Oavsett storiken ges varje projekt ett mjölffolka.

LOMAR Arkitektur AB
Kungsgatan 48
111 35 Stockholm
tel: 08-441 77 70
kontakt: Pontus Lomar
e-post: pontus.lomar@lomar.se
www.lomar.se

Lomar Arkitektur grundades 1994 och har sedan dess uvecklat en rad byggnader. Ett pågande projekt är utformingen av Vin- och Sprithistiska muset, som också innehåller Absolut Art Collection.

LOMAR ARKITEKTER

Metro Arkitektur AB
Gustav Adelfs Torg 8B
211 39 Malmö
tel: 040-665 59 60
Östra Hamngatan 52
411 09 Göteborg
tel: 031-788 14 00
www.metroarkitektur.se

Metro Arkitektar startades i Malmö 1999. Företag har i dag 26 fast anställda i Göteborg, Malmö och Stockholm.

Metro är engagerat alia typer av uppdrag, från sommarvillor till centralstationen.

METRO ARKITEKTER

Murman Arkitektar AB
Peter Myndes Backe 12
118 46 Stockholm
tel: 08-462 14 50
kontakt: Hans Murman
e-post: info@murman.se
www.murman.se

• Vi strävar efter att skapa strukturer och rum med starka egna identiteter.
• Vi designar kontor, handel och bostader.
• Vi ritade det första Svanen-märkta hotelle i Sverige.
• Vi vann första pris i semesterkategorin i WAF 2009 med restaurant Tusen.
• Vi vann första pris i tavlingen om Sameparla-mentet i Kiruna 2006.

MURMAN ARKITEKTER

(nod) C-O-M-B-I-N-E
Tjärhovsgatan 5
116 21 Stockholm
tel: 08-551 100 55
e-post: info@c-o-m-b-i-n-e.coo
www.c-o-m-b-i-n-e.coo

(nod) C-O-M-B-I-N-E arbetar med idé- och designproduktion innen fällen sutsupveckling arkitektur, landskap och framtidansalyser. Vi arbetar med fysisch och mentala rum i vår livsmiljo och mäniskans gränsssitt gentemot dessa och varandra. Vi är konsulter och medvärker och driver projekt i alla stater. Vi bedriver även fonkning och uvecklingprojekt och delar ofta och gärana i den samhåls och designutvecklande diskursen.

Nyréns Arkitektkontor AB
Nackagatan 4
Box 4709
116 92 Stockholm
tel: 08-698 43 00
kontakt: Dag Cavallius
e-post: dag.cavallius@nyrens.se
mobil: 070-459 43 66
www.nyrens.se

Nyréns Arkitektkontor verkar for den hällibara, funk-tionella och attraktiva staden. Vi tar utgångspunkt i platsens foursattningsing och en humanistisk grund-syn. Tillsammans med vara kunder, brukare och experter uvecklar unika heiltsbsningar med langsalgid haljbarhet i Kolaus. Med stok av vän kompetenser, arbettetoder och en standig påjäande kunskapsutveckling strävär vi efter att vara ledande inom hällibart stadsbyggande.

Nyréns Arkitektkontor

Reflex Arkitekter AB
Renstiernas gata 12
116 28 Stockholm
tel: 08-702 64 01
kontakt: Johan Linnros
mobil: 070-621 33 93
e-post: johan.linnos@reflexark.se
www.reflexark.se

Reflex Arkitekter består av ett femtiotal personer – arkitekter och inredningsarkitekter, fysiska planerare och byggnadssingenjörer.

Den breda kompetensen och månghovdade medarbetarskaran gör att Reflex kan erijuda ett helhetskoncept där kontoret arbetar med alla delari i processen frän analys och idé till färdig byggnad och hela inredningslösning.

REFLEX

Scheiwiller Svensson Arkitektkontor AB
Asogatan 119
116 24 Stockholm
tel: 08-506 016 50
e-post: info@ssark.se
www.ssark.se

Vi arbetar – ansvarsfult, kreativt, professionell och kostnadseffektiv – med allt som hor arkitekten till. Vi ser kvart arbete som ett satt att verkliggör människors drommar om att bo, arbeta, studera, vårdas, shoppa, roa och röra sig i staden.

SCHEIWILLER SVENSSON ARKITEKTKONTOR AB

Semrén & Månsson AB
Storgatan 26, 411 38 Göteborg
tel: 031-743 02 00
kontakt: Magnus Månsson
e-post: goteborg@semrens-mansson.se

Ferkens gränd 3, 111 30 Stockholm
tel: 08-459 37 00
kontakt: Adelina Mehra
e-post: stockholm@semrens-mansson.se
www.semrens-mansson.se

Semrén & Månsson erbjuder, med erfarenhet som grundpelare och nyfikenhet som drivkraft, allt finn stadsplanering, bygmacher till imedning. Vi har fördrag erfarenhet av projekt utanfor Sverige, i exempelvis Ryssland, Polen, Irak med flera.

Semrén+ Månsson

Sweco Box 17920
118 95 Stockholm
tel: 08-522 952 00
kontakt: Jan Mattsson direkt: 08-522 952 65
e-post: jan.mattsson@sweco.se
www.sweco.cn
www.sweco.se
www.swecogroup.com

Sweco skapar arkitektur för svalt hem, kontor och industrier som for utbildning, vård och medičn. Värda tjänster inkluderar inredningsarkitektur, stadsbyggande och planering, landskapsarkitektur samt hälbar stadsveckling.

SWECO
Sustainable engineering and design

Tengbom Katarinavägen 15
Box 1230
111 82 Stockholm
tel: 08-412 52 00
kontakt: Magnus Meyer, vd direkt: 08-412 52 12
e-post: magnus.meyer@tenbom.se
www.tengbom.se

Tengbom är ett av Nordens ledande arkitektförtag med drygt 300 medarbetare i Helsingborg, Malmö, Göteborg, Kalmar, Umeå, Uppsala och Stockholm. Tengbom erbjuder tjänster inom arkitektur, stadsbyggnad, landskapsarkitektur, inredningsarkitektur och projektledning.

TENGBOM

Tovatt Architects & Planners AB
Medevigikatan 5
113 61 Stockholm
tel: 08-759 00 50
kontakt: Johannes Tovatt mobil: 070-641 98 25
e-post: johannes.tovatt@tovatt.com
www.tovatt.com

Tovatt Architects & Planners AB är ett stockholmsbasarat arkitektkontor med läng internaell erfarenhet av stadsutveckling och bostadsplanering. Vi arbetar för stadsforvaltning, oberoende organisationer, privata foretag och engagerade personer.

TOVATT ARCHITECTS & PLANNERS AB

U.D. URBAN DESIGN AB
Repslagargatan 15 A 2tr
118 46 Stockholm
tel: 08-500 015 30
e-post: info@urbandesign.se
www.urbandesign.se

Urban Design är ett arkitektkontor som fokuserar på avancerade tekniska och konceptuella projekt och processer.

URBAN DESIGN

White arkitekter AB
Magasinsgatan 10
Box 2502
403 17 Göteborg
tel: 031-60 86 00
kontakt: Alexandra Hagen, International Business Officer
e-post: alexandra.hagen@white.se
www.white.se

Vär samlade kompetens omfattar arkitektur, projekt-ledning, stadsbyggnad, landskap, byggnadsvård, inredning, design och miljöledning i skedena strategi, koncept och produktion.

YAJ arkitekter ab
Edsviksvägen 87
182 35 Danderyd
kontakt: Ylva Lindstedt, vd, arkitekt SAR/MSA
tel: 08-755 88 80
e-post: ylva.lindstedt@yaj.se
www.yaj.se

YAJ arkitekter skapar nutida arkitektur inom tre fäli:
• turism • varumärkesbyggande arkitektur
• planering • infrastruktur
• villor + vindar

Gemensam nämare är unika upplevelser åt kunder med höga förvänningar på arkitektsens idékraft.

AWL Arkitekter AB
Folkungagatan 92 B
116 22 Stockholm
tel: 08-555 786 80
kontakt: James Martin
info@awlark.se
www.awlark.se

Hue och bygnadsprojektering/fastighetsveckling för långsiktig hälbarhet, hälbar stadsbyggnad/stadsveckling/stadsplanering, landskaps-arkitektur/utemiljö, utredningar/programarbete/iidékoncept.

AWL

Sveriges Arkitekter
Swedish Association of Architects

The Swedish Association of Architects is the unifying organisation of Sweden's architects, interior architects, landscape architects and planning architects. Our members are private and public sector employees, self-employed professionals or architecture students. They all share a common educational background and a professional involvement in matters of architecture and planning.

The Swedish Association of Architects has 10,800 members (2010), including 95 per cent of Sweden's architects. Some 7,000 of the Association's members are professional practitioners.

The Swedish Association of Architects is the professional and interest organisation of architects in Sweden. We safeguard the overarching interests of the architectural professions in the market and we work to achieve good conditions for our members' professional activity and development. We assert the importance of qualified architectural and planning work in all sectors of society and we actively address issues concerning conditions in the architect's profession.

The Swedish Association of Architects is a partite organisation and negotiates agreements on behalf of architect employees, while at the same time, through our ArkitektsService, providing advisory and other services to architects who are self-employed. We publish comprehensive pay statistics every year and carry out annual follow-up of architects' fees.

We provide advisory and supportive services to clients in matters of procurement through our competition and procurement service. We also work to develop Swedish architectural policy, we highlight quality aspects of building and planning and we address environmental and technical issues as well as sustainable urban development.

The Swedish Association of Architects deals with architectural and professional issues, educational matters, editorial activities and publications, advisory and other services, legal assistance and negotiating assistance for members, competition and procurement services, market observation, professional and commercial development issues and professional training.

The office can be called on +46 8 505 577 00 and e-mailed on kansli@arkitekt.se

Sveriges Arkitekter
Swedish Association of Architects

Stegstad 41
Box 5022, SE-102 41
Stockholm, Sweden
phone: +46(0)8 505 577 00
mail: kansli@arkitekt.se
www.arkitekt.se

Sveriges Arkitekter, Swedish Association of Architects