ÖstersundNya Kommunhuset
ÖstersundNya Kommunhuset
Östersund
The starting point for the new Town Hall in Östersund is the characteristic layout of the city centre, which, with its stepped and sloping levels rising from the shore of Lake Storsjön, gradually offers increasingly open views over the urban landscape and the surrounding mountain nature. ThamVidegård proposed a new, open-plan municipal building that fits seamlessly behind the old Town Hall, a cornerstone of the neighbourhood with its imposing presence. The interior design is inspired by materials from the Jämtland region, the robust and functional generality of barns, and the filtered light that fills the interior spaces, conveying the idea of both real and ideological transparency.
The cultural and architectural heritage of the neighbourhood—primarily the old Town Hall and City Library with their period-typical, refined brick architecture—is complemented in the new Town Hall by a light and transparent design. The building derives its distinctive character from the organisation of the floors, which appear like open horizontal terraces between slender columns. Externally, it is the canopy and the row of freely placed columns that create a feeling of welcoming openness.
Like the trunks of a birch grove, the columns form a filter between the larger scale of the city and the more intimate interior workspaces. Through the play of light and shadows, which vary throughout the day and across the seasons, the façade is given extra depth that frames the exterior spaces. During the darker hours, especially in winter, the light from within illuminates and reflects off the columns, creating a pleasant atmosphere around the building.
The interior is organised around Navet (the Hub), the core and heart of the workplace. It is a spacious room with transparent, filtered light, where large-scale Falun-red wooden panels and a red Jämtland limestone floor create a warm and peaceful base for the employees' common meeting and social space. A staircase at each end provides quick access to the office floors above when arriving at work or moving between different activities during the day. With large sliding glass sections and light curtains, Navet can be easily screened off or opened up to interact with the public restaurant during larger events.
The double-height main entrance announces itself on the Rådhusgatan axis. Here, the entrance hall offers visitors a clear overview and direct access to the building's central public areas, which together form an outward-looking and active ground floor with reception areas, exhibition space, an auditorium, and a restaurant with outdoor seating on the south-facing terrace.
As the activities of the municipal building and the various work zones will change over time, the scheme seeks a high degree of generality: office plans with ample daylight can be arranged for different functions and adapted to new working methods. The working environment is divided into degrees of openness and privacy for employees across creative, intermediate, and quiet zones, and different departments can be shared, expanded, or reduced in size. The openness of the façade can also be calibrated with integrated closed sections or parapets to support the spatial character and needs of the different zones.
