Size: 7230 sqm
Program: Apartments & commercial
Location: Sundbyberg
Client: Aspect Properties AB (publ)
Status: Competition

Central Sundbyberg begins where the new high-rise is going up. The goal was to create an ecological and social portal to the city of Sundbyberg. The name Sund refers to the city but it also means healthy in Swedish.

The building is patterned after a tree and its ability to serve as a green ‘lung’ in the city. A building that generates energy rather than consuming it.

In cooperation with the German climate engineers Transsolar the tower block was designed to be an energy generator. The glass facade is covered in a layer of solar cells. Viewed from the outside, the solar cells add a frosted look that ensures privacy and dampens the influx of daylight. From within, the facade is completely transparent, the solar cells invisible.

The solar cells turn the residents into energy producers rather than consumers. The generated energy is converted into electricity and helps run the heating system. An efficient climate-adaptive heating system makes the building responsive to seasonal variations.

The building is based on a system of modules measuring 4 x 4 metres to allow for varied ways of living and a complex social structure. The flats can be shaped in radically different ways. There are small studio flats, family flats, very large flats and flats that occupy an entire floor and give the residents a sense of living in a house within a building. The construction also allows for sideways displacement, making it possible to construct a wide variety of patios.