The project jointly designed by the Spanish practice SelgasCano and the Swedish Urban Design will house the planning and administrative offices of Stockholm providing a new context of urban infrastructure. The intervention, seen more as an urban element than as an architectural element, poses a new environment, where administration is blurred with nature, combining the uses of housing, commerce, culture and office. Land Arkitektur participated as the scheme’s landscape architects, while Sweco Group served as as structural engineers.
Description of the project by U.D. Urban Design AB
With our proposal Drivhus (Greenhouse), designed together with our Spanish colleagues, SelgasCano, we recently won the international competition for the new Stockholm City Planning and Administrative Offices, to be located in the redevelopment area of Söderstaden. Land Arkitektur participated as the landscape architects and SWECO as the structural and energy system engineers. The building will provide a working environment for 1800 people, as well as a democratic meeting space for civil servants, politicians and the public to discuss the future development of the city. The entire project is seen as a larger re-vitalized urban space that will transform the existing context of large-scale event structures into a more humane environment with a new natural park area as its centerpiece, surrounded by housing, shopping and cultural activities. In Drivhus, the greenery of the park continues into the building, literally creeping up “under the skin” of the technically advanced double-façade, thereby becoming an integral part of the building’s energy and ventilation system.
