When in Sweden, Build With Wood?! Stockholm's Latest City is Made Entirely of Timber! 🚧
Stockholm's new city is defying tree huggers, wildfire pyromaniacs and Norman Foster's desire for more projects.
A huge, new city is being built in Sweden, but it’s not being constructed using steel or concrete - its main building material is wood.
Part of the Swedish capital, Stockholm, is set to become the “world’s largest wooden construction project,” according to its developer Atrium Ljungberg (try saying that after a couple), which will invest about $1.25 billion into the project. Proving even trees can be expensive.
Sickla, an industrial area to the south of Stockholm’s centre once known for manufacturing diesel engines - is being redeveloped using cross-laminated timber, with the material being used in its buildings’ core, floors and walls.
The construction industry produces 37% of the world’s carbon emissions, so a few canny Swede's decided that building using wood is one way to reduce the sector’s climate impact - ignoring the fact that trees remove carbon better than pretty much anything else on land.
According to certain slightly dubious sources, the next level urban game, beyond parkour, could be a side hustle in 'accidental' urban wildfire'ing. Mind you, it can get pretty cold in Sweden, so a bit of extra warming might not be so unpopular...
Nearly 70% of Swedish territory is made up of forest, and the country has used timber in construction for many years. “We have a close cultural connection to the forest,” said Oskar Norelius, lead architect at White Arkitker - ignoring the fact that more of these wooden cities might bust that connection for good.
"People seem to love wood. Visitors to Sweden’s 20-story Sara Kulturhus building have been seen hugging its timber columns"(??), added Oskar Norelius, who Norman Foster seems to get a bit twitchy about. "We do it with steel and glass, while his could go down with a flick of my (match)stick...". Foster went on to mutter something about Grenfell which we thought better not to repeat.
This bold new plan is looking to defy Sweden's recent property crash, while the plan to expand the City's subway to the new development could drive Stockholm's eco ambitions further off the charts.
Putting all this aside, we applaud (from a safe distance) the country's new found ambition for grand urban plans with a tinge of 'green'. It's certainly a novel approach to global warming.
Keep up to date with The Letts Journal’s latest news stories and posts at our website and on twitter.