Main page

Wednesday 20 April 2016

Trätoppen

Anders Berensson Architects was commissioned by the Stockholm Center Party to design a skyscraper to replace an old car park in the city center of Stockholm. The result became a slender wood scraper "Trätoppen" (the tree top) that stands inside the car park leaving the existing car parks facade intact.

If  we want to reduce the amount of cars in the city center of Stockholm and at the same time make space for more housing without building on green areas, then replacing car parks with housing, shops and restaurants feels obvious. If the car park is as central located as the one on Regeringsgatan 47 it also make sense to build a high building that can fit a lot of people, shops and restaurants.
The existing car park, “Parkaden”is perhaps Sweden's most famous one designed by Hans AsplundThe most characteristic feature of the house is a pattern with numbers on the facade which shows what floor you are onAnother thing that distinguishes this car park is the early use of a system of sloped floorsRetaining the sloping floor is hard due to the buildings low ceiling heighthowever it is possible to maintain the facade if the new building don’t use the whole footprint of the existing car park.

Picture from an apartment 
The skyscraper is retracted six meters from the existing car parks facade in order not to interfere too much with the expression of the car park . The Skyscraper is considerably smaller in foot print than the car park which enables space for a large public terrace on the seventh floor. The retraction also makes it possible to use the existing building at the lower floors after an extensive reconstruction.

The new building will be 40 stories high and built out of cross laminated timber “CLT”. In the 33 floors that protrude above the existing car park 31 floors will be residential and 2 floors will be public terraces. The seven floors inside the existing car park is best suited for shopping and restaurants due to the depth of the house. The CLT facade of the new skyscraper is a continuation of the pattern with numbers that Hans Asplund designed. From the outside, one can count the floors by reading the facade and from the inside you will be reminded what floor you are on just like in the parking garage. This is a useful feature given that the skyscraper will be the highest in the city center of Stockholm. The facade also has some practical benefits and acts like a sun screen, which keeps the building cool and energy efficient.

Picture to the left: The building seen from Hamngatan. Picture to the right: The building seen from the intersection between Regeringsgatan and Mäster Samuelsgatan



Facts:
Height: 133 m
Width: 35 m
Depth: 18 m
Number of floors: 40
Number of floors above the existing car park: 33
Number of apartments per floor: 8 pcs. A 50 m2
Total number of apartments: 250
Area per floor in the new building: 630m2
Floor programing:
Floor 40: Audience terrace
Floor 8-39: Apartments
Friend 7: Public terrace

Floor 0-6: Shopping & Restaurants

Shadow diagram 
Paper fold model
Trätoppen Sketch

Monday 18 April 2016

Winter Cabin Summer Palace



Anders Berensson Architects has design the renovation and refurnishing of a small winter cabin in The Royal National City Park  Norra Djurgården in central Stockholm. The commission was to ad as little as possible to transform the cottage into a functioning house to live and work in without having to plug in water or sewer. Today the cabin is completely empty of furniture and basic functions such as toilet, storage, places to rest and cooking facilities on top of that the house lacks daylight and is poorly heated. The new design features all of these necessities plus much more. The client who is a true outdoor person also asked for a grand outdoor space which he could use during summer time. Therefore the concept behind the design has been that all you can do in the winter inside the cabin you can also do outside at summer time. At summer the house grows from cabin to an outdoor palace where the client can spend most of his day in the beautiful national park.

Rendering of front veranda

The outdoor veranda surrounds the whole building and contains functions such as a kitchen, small green houses, seating areas, a grill, water collector and a hen house. The veranda also cover parts of the roof where the client can catch the morning sun and grow spices and herbs on the south side, on the north side is apartments for birds and bats.
Front perspective 

Floor plans


Sections
Axonometric sketch