Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Nordic Architecture & Design Special – Sweden
Left: SEB headquarters in Arenastaden, Stockholm. Photo: Joachim Lundgren. Top right: SEB headquarters in Arenastaden, Stockholm. Below right: SEB headquarters in Arenastaden, Stockholm. Bottom left: Drabanten, a housing project with common areas and retail facilities in Upplands Väsby. Bottom right: Sketch and prototype of the facade of Drabanten.
The new headquarters for SEB in Arenastaden is another interesting venture, an impressive city planning project in cooperation with Fabege and architects Krook & Tjäder and Wingårdhs. Arenastaden spans four blocks and, with room for around 4,500 employees in a modern and flexible office building, is tailor-made for the requirements of SEB. This city within the city includes streets and piazzas inside the main building, with public spaces connecting the blocks and recurring patterns in the design to provide unity. The first phase has been completed already with around 2,500 staff moving into SEB so far and, next year, another 2,000 will join. Also noteworthy is Odde Staden, a plan for housing solutions between Kista and
Husby with around 400 student flats in IBM’s former headquarters alongside retail spaces, streets and parks linking to a new residential area with 2,000 apartments. While Kista has a long tradition of hosting electronics companies, Husby is one of the areas in Stockholm with segregation issues. Ripellino highlights that social sustainability is key in this assignment. “The Stockholm region will grow by around half a million people by 2030,” he says. “The big challenge is to produce housing for all these people and to link the segregated areas. Our method of building is similar to the ‘50s with building blocks, but makes for a close-knit city with robust structures and carefully prepared details, yet with consideration to nature and topography – urban building for the people.”
Dressing the buildings These talented architects often work with raised patterns in their projects, rugged exteriors that catch the shifting light of the sun. For instance, the already mentioned Kajplats 6 has been dressed in a material that is reminiscent of a tweed jacket. Also benefitting from this building technique is a housing project with common areas and retail facilities that will become a new hub in Upplands Väsby town centre, due for completion in three years. Here, the exterior consists of metal cassettes in brass and gold, in a pattern inspired by the old palace in the Italian city of Ferrara dating back to the 1500s. Additionally, the architects have just begun planning a new high-rise in Marievik close to Liljeholmen, where wood will be an important part of the building’s identity and expression. Widely celebrated for their innovative look, functionality and use of materials, the designs are regularly covered in Swedish and international media and many ideas have been awarded prominent prizes such as the International Galvanizing Awards and Stockholm Building of the Year. Projects from 1993 to 2013 are also documented in the book Rosenbergs Arkitekter: Alessandro Ripellino & Inga Varg published by Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing in 2014. Web: www.a-ripellino.se Facebook: alessandro.ripellino.se Instagram: @ripellinoark
Issue 105 | October 2017 | 115