Profilbyggnaden

Urban strategy The process behind the building starts from the needs identified in the site´s urban context and streetscape. Located in an underdeveloped area of Kista, the building´s design is guided by its role within the urban fabric and its responsibility towards the regeneration of the city. Following this, the building serves as a backdrop for the new urban park and helps define the streetscape along Dalviksgatan behind it. In doing so it reinforces the urban fabric´s continuity between Grönlandsgatan, the proposed Hörnparken and the areas future residential streets. Understanding the city as the physical expression of a society´s common construction, the building is conceived first as the setting for social play and then as a building as such. The choice of activities to be hosted responds to the criteria described previously. The public functions at street level aim at providing the area with a new public destination and profile while the residential on top will kickstart the site's repopulation and its conversion from a 9 to 5 office area into a mixed use 24/7 neighbourhood. The residential areas are designed with a great level of flexibility in order to adapt to different types of accommodation: at an early stage including hotel/long stay rental whilst having the ability to change into condominiums once the area is fully settled as a residential neighbourhood. Building design The design process is based on the following core intentions; Reinforce the cooperation and dialogue between the building and the park. Generate a strong public destination to serve as a catalyst for the entire Isafjord area. Provide the building with a strong public pavilion in park character. Find a unifying expression in order to avoid a more traditional residences on top of a podium typology. The generous floor height at the lower levels is intended to provide the building with a strong public character. A double height space facing the park connects both public floor plans. Combined with an open transparent façade treatment this generates a fluid dialog/transition between indoor and outdoor spaces further reinforcing the connection between the building and the park. The total integration between park, public terraces and market hall encourages visitors to freely use and appropriate the spaces at ground and first floor level. The floor plan at these lower levels is shaped following the pedestrian flow between Grönlandsgatan and Kistavägen´s residential façade strengthening the building´s role as park´s backdrop. A public roof terrace reinforces both the open public character of the building and its appropriation by the users. Continuous balconies towards the southeast, facing the park, protect the apartments´ glassed façades and build on the connection between the indoor spaces and the park. These balconies, together with the outdoor hallways facing Dalviksgatan, provides the building with the desired lightweight, pavilion-like expression. A set of repetitive vertical wooden ribs support these balconies and hallways at the same time as they generate the desired continuity between the public lower levels and the residential ones on top. At the rooftop, the ribs provide shading for the shared outdoor spaces as well as enclosure for the indoor activities. Besides improving the building´s passive performance these balconies and hallways will provide the necessary space for residents to be able to grow their own plants and flowers. Together with the common green areas at the rooftop and on top of the market hall these “private greens” will generate strong synergies with the park in front and boost the biodiversity at the site. Finally, the building meets the sky mirroring the way it settles on the ground by incorporating the plan´s arched shape into the facade. The building´s changing height responds to its´ location, gradually lowering from the urban scale at Grönlandsgatan towards the smaller residential scale of Hörnparken and the inner residential streets. Kista´s location within Västerort gives the area an important role in the connection and integration of otherwise secluded suburban areas. Together with several public facilities already planned and in place in Kista, a building with these characteristics, plus the relation and synergies it can generate with the park in front, will not only help reactivate and rebrand the area itself but will potentially become a destination for the inhabitants of Västerort. Materiality The chosen materiality is a direct consequence of the search for a transparent, lightweight / pavilion-like expression and the strong link between the building and the park. Linear laminated wooden elements are combined with wood and glass panels in search of a welcoming public and warm character. These choices seek to completely integrate the building into the park in order for it to be perceived as an approachable extension of city´s public realm.