As one of three shortlisted proposals in a housing design competition, the 34-storey Wooden Skyscraper is presented by architect C. F. Møller, architect Dinell Johansson and consultant Tyréns as a vision of future housing that would be cheaper, easier and more sustainable than typical steel and concrete constructions.

"The main reason it hasn't been done before is that concrete and steel have a big part of the market," C. F. Møller architect Ola Jonsson told Dezeen. "But now the building industry has started taking responsibity for the environment."

He continued: "Construction accounts for around 30-40 percent of CO2 produced in the world globally and if you look at the CO2 released in the production of wood it is a lot better than steel or concrete."

According to Jonsson, using wood could even be a cheaper alternative, as it is a lighter material that costs far less to transport. It is also more fire-resistant than steel or concrete.

"We have a long history of building wooden structures in Sweden," he explains. "We have a higher knowledge of how to use the wood those days and we know that glued or nailed wood does have very strong construction qualities."

If built, the 34-storey building would exceed the height of the nine-storey Murray Grove tower in London, as well as a proposed 20-storey tower in Vancouver by architect Michael Green and a Swedish tower approved at 30 floors. "I've seen sketches of other buildings, but we are definitely at the highest end of this discussion," said Jonsson.

Wooden pillars, beams, walls, ceilings and window frames will all be visible through the building's glass facade. The presented designs also include a concrete core, although Jonsson says this could be replaced with wood. "We believe a modern building should use every material for its best purpose," he adds.

The winning entry in the competition, organised by Swedish building society HSB Stockholm, is scheduled to open in 2023 to coincide with the organisation's 100th birthday. Anyone can vote for the winner using the HSB Stockholm Facebook page.

Other projects by C. F. Møller include an art and craft museum completed recently in Norway and a centre for entrepreneurs with a green fibre-cement staircase.

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Here's some more information from C. F. Møller:

Wooden Skyscraper

For HSB Stockholm's architectural competition 2023, three teams of architects have produced innovative proposals for private residences of the future at three different locations in the centre of Stockholm. Berg | C.F. Møller's proposed design is a 34-storey skyscraper made of wood.

Berg | C.F. Møller Architects are working in partnership with architects Dinell Johansson and consultants Tyréns on their entry. The team has chosen to build upwards, and has designed a 34-storey residential building, which will be seen for miles.

The building will be built over a wooden construction with a concrete core, and it is intended to give the people of Stockholm a new and characteristic beacon and meeting place in their city.

Back to basics

Wood is one of nature's most innovative building materials: the production has no waste products and it binds CO2. Wood has low weight, but is a very strong load-bearing structure compared to its lightness.

Wood is also more fire resistant than both steel and concrete. This is due to 15% of wood mass being water, which will evaporate before the wood actually burns. In addition, logs get charred which protects the core.

Wood secures a good indoor climate, perfect acoustics, helps regulating the inside temperature and can be exposed without being covered with plaster or other costly materials.

In Berg | C.F. Møller's wooden skyscraper, the pillars and beams are made of solid wood. Inside the apartments, all the walls, ceilings and window frames are made of wood as well and will be visible from the exterior through the large windows.

Sustainable

Social and environmental sustainability is integrated into the project. Each apartment will have an energy-saving, glass-covered veranda, while the building itself will be powered by solar panels on the roof. At street level there is a café and childcare facility. In a new community centre, local people will be able to enjoy the benefits of a market square, fitness centre and bicycle storage room. A communal winter garden will provide residents with an opportunity to have allotment gardens.

All three design proposals are available on HSB Stockholm's Facebook page. Here you can vote for your favourite and thus play your part in determining how private homes in Stockholm will look in the future.

About the competition

HSB Stockholm - Sweden's largest building society - is 100 years old in 2023. At that time an ultra-modern residential high-rise building will be completed in Stockholm city. Three architectural teams are now preparing the competitive proposals for the spectacular house that will be placed at one of three different sites in Stockholm.

Berg | C.F. Møller Architects is working together with architects Dinell Johansson and the urban planning consultancy Tyréns. The other two competing teams are Equator Stockholm with Mojang (Minecraft) and Utopia Architects with Rosenberg Architects.

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The buildings in the city's Hagastaden district will contain apartments, with a bar and exhibition space occupying the upper floors of one tower, and public facilities including a health club, library and shops on the ground floors.

Projecting living spaces cascade down the exterior of the buildings, creating a series of sheltered balconies.

"The informal appearance of the towers will express domesticity, perhaps even humanism," explains OMA partner Reinier de Graaf.

OMA will work with developer Oscar Properties to construct the 100-metre towers, which will be the third tallest twin skyscrapers in Sweden.

Images are copyright OMA unless stated otherwise. Top image is copyright OMA - bloomimages.

Last week, a design by OMA for a bridge incorporating space for events and a pedestrian boulevard made the final two of a competition in Bordeaux, while Swedish architects Belatchew Arkitekter have proposed covering a skyscraper in Stockholm in plastic bristles that would generate electricity through wind power.

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Here's some more information from OMA:

OMA has won the design competition for Tors Torn in Stockholm. The project, led by OMA Partner Reinier de Graaf and OMA Associate Alex de Jong, and designed as the third tallest twin skyscrapers in Sweden, was selected from entries by four competing practices.

With each of the towers a crescendo composition of different heights, the mixed-use project is an interpretation of existing urban guidelines which call for a gateway to the new Hagastaden area of Stockholm. OMA's design proposes the introduction of a "rough skin" formed through a striking, alternating pattern of protruding living spaces and introverted outdoor spaces.

Reinier de Graaf commented: "We are delighted to have won the competition and - together with Oscar Properties - to build the Tors Torn residential towers. The 100 meter high towers define the new neighborhood Hagastaden as an integral part of the growing city center of Stockholm. The informal appearance of the towers will express domesticity, perhaps even humanism."

OMA's design challenges the expected uniformity and homogenous facade treatment that is often assigned to tower structures. Instead, it extends the skin to expose the individuality of the separate living units in the two blocks - a true vertical, urban agglomeration.

In addition to private residential apartments, Tors Torn will also contain a diverse public program for the wider community of Hagastaden, an ongoing urban development project aiming to extend the downtown area of Stockholm. A bar and exhibition space will occupy the upper floors of one tower, with the ground floors of both towers accommodating a health club, library, children's center and retail areas.

The project is scheduled to break ground in 2015.

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skyscrapers in Stockholm appeared first on Dezeen.

Belatchew Arkitekter's Strawscraper concept for transforming Henning Larsen's Söder Torn tower involves adding a 16-storey extension over the top of the building, then covering the entire facade in hairy-looking plastic straws designed to move with the wind.

The straws would use piezoelectric technology to convert motion into electricity, without the noise and other environmental problems of a typical wind farm.

"What is usually considered to be the most static of all things, the building, suddenly comes alive and the construction gives the impression of a body that is breathing," explain the architects.

Completed in 1997, the 86-metre-high Söder Torn is one of the tallest residential towers in Stockholm. It was designed by Danish architect Henning Larsen, who famously walked away from the project after planning compromises caused the building to lose 16 of its intended 40 storeys.

The new proposals would reintroduce the proportions first proposed by Larsen, adding a restaurant between the existing apartments and the new wind farm, as well as a viewing platform with panoramic views across Stockholm.

Other unusual skyscraper proposals on Dezeen include designs for thatched towers in London and a concept for skyscrapers constructed from rubbish in São Paulo. See more conceptual architecture.

Here's some more information from Belatchew Arkitekter:

Strawscraper – an Urban Power Plant in Stockholm

Belatchew Arkitekter presents Strawscraper, the first project to come out of the newly established Belatchew Labs. Strawscraper is an extension of Söder Torn on Södermalm in Stockholm with a new energy producing shell covered in straws that can recover wind energy.

What was supposed to become a building of 40 flights became 26. Söder Torn on Södermalm in central Stockholm was finalised 1997, but the architect Henning Larsen had already left the contract after having lost influence over the design of the tower.

Belatchew Arkitekter wants to give Söder Torn its original proportions and at the same time explore new techniques that could create the urban wind farm of the future. By using piezoelectric technology a large number of thin straws can produce electricity merely through small movements generated by the wind. The result is a new kind of wind power plant that opens up possibilities of how buildings can produce energy. With the help of this technique surfaces on both old and new buildings can be transformed into energy producing entities.

Furthermore, an additional aspect is revealed when the constant movement of the straws creates an undulating landscape on the facades. What is usually considered to be the most static of all things, the building, suddenly comes alive and the construction gives the impression of a body that is breathing.

The straws swaying in the wind gives the building a constantly changing facade further reinforced at nighttime with lighting in changing colours.

The straws of the facade consist of a composite material with piezoelectric properties that can turn motion into electrical energy. Piezoelectricity is created when certain crystals' deformation is transformed into electricity. The technique has advantages when compared to traditional wind turbines since it is quite and does not disturb wildlife. It functions at low wind velocity since only a light breeze is sufficient for the straws to start swaying and generate energy.

The existing premise on top of the building is replaced with a public floor with room for a restaurant. The new extension creates, a part from the energy producing shell, room for the citizens with the possibility to reach a lookout platform at the very top of the tower with an unmatched view of Stockholm.

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Belatchew Arkitekter appeared first on Dezeen.

The restaurant serves Polish food, so Richard Lindvall visited a few factories in Poland to find inspiration for the project and came with a concept for an industrial interior filled with raw materials rather than soft furnishings.

The designer left many of the concrete surfaces exposed inside the old car park, while others he lined with plain white ceramic tiles. "The natural raw atmosphere of the space was kept and used as a base for the concept," he says.

Some of the copper pipes snake across walls to function as radiators, while others create a lighting framework overhead and more can be found as plumbing for sinks in the toilets. Copper is also used for the facade of a large fireplace.

The bar is made from concrete, as are the shelves that span the walls behind it. Industrial lights hang from the ceiling, which the designer sourced from an old factory in the Czech Republic, and a hunting trophy is mounted to the wall.

Metal stools surround concrete tables in the dining room. Other details in this space include framed photographs by Mattias Lindbäck of the construction workers who installed the interior.

Other recently completed restaurant and bar interiors on Dezeen include a penthouse bar and nightclub in Paris with black trees inside and a bar in Vienna with a faceted ceiling of upside-down peaks.

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by Richard Lindvall appeared first on Dezeen.

News: twelve international firms including OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, BIG and SANAA have been shortlisted to design a new headquarters and visitor centre for the Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Sweden.

Situated on a small peninsula called Blasieholmen (above), the building will become the new home of the Nobel Foundation, which has been based in Stockholm since it was set up in the name of philanthropist and inventor Alfred Nobel in 1900.

Also shortlisted are British architect David Chipperfield, 3XN from Denmark, Snøhetta from Norway and Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor from Sweden.

Public spaces for exhibitions, conferences and events are also included in the proposed programme, as well as a library, cafe, restaurant and shop.

"We are confident that we will secure the necessary financing to begin the architectural competition and carry out the project during the current calendar year," said Lars Heikensten, executive director of the Nobel Foundation.

The remainder of the shortlist comprises Swiss architects Marcel Meili and Markus Peter, French firm Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, Swedish studio Wingårdhs and Danish architects Lundgaard & Tranberg.

See all architecture in Sweden »

Photograph is by Jeppe Wikström.

Here's the announcement from the Nobel Foundation:

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

We are now happy to be able to announce the names of the 12 architects selected:

» Kim Herforth Nielsen – 3XN, Denmark

» Bjarke Ingels – BIG, Denmark

»David Chipperfield – David Chipperfield Architects, England/Germany

» Jaques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron and Ascan Mergenthaler – Herzog & de Meuron, Switzerland

» Johan Celsing – Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor, Sweden

» Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal – Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, France

» Lene Tranberg – Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter, Denmark

» Marcel Meili and Markus Peter – Marcel Meili, Markus Peter Architekten, Switzerland

» Rem Koolhaas and Ellen van Loon – OMA, Netherlands

» Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa – SANAA, Japan

» Kjetil Thorsen – Snøhetta, Norway

» Gert Wingårdh – Wingårdhs arkitekter, Sweden

Within the two-stage competition, the architects' task will be to design the building that will become the new home of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm. The building will house the Nobel Foundation, together with associated activities that the foundation initiates within research, educational efforts, museum operations and digital media. The building will contain public rooms for exhibitions, scientific conferences, meetings and events, as well as a library, restaurant, café and shop. The ambition is that the Nobel Center will become one of Stockholm's main attractions.

Important criteria in selecting the architects included design and artistic abilities and experience working in intricate urban environments where historical context and the natural environment must be considered with sensitivity. Practical considerations included the architects' ability to develop the project in close cooperation with the client over the course of a lengthy planning process and their experience managing construction projects cost-effectively. The names of members of the jury will be published in conjunction with the start of the competition.

"The competition will begin once the majority of the project's financing has been secured. Encouraging discussions are currently on-going with several donors, and we are confident that we will secure the necessary financing to begin the architectural competition and carry out the project during the current calendar year," says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.

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Nobel Prize centre appeared first on Dezeen.