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Västerås is one of many cities currently transforming a former industrial harbour area into a new urban environment, complete with housing, offices, and commercial activities. Across the site—a peninsula close to the city centre—a pattern of new streets and green parks has been laid out, alongside a boat marina that provides access to Lake Mälaren.
The municipality, together with the client, envisioned the project as a 'placemaker' that manifests the entrance to the new neighbourhood: a high-rise exception to an otherwise coherent structure of streets defined by 4+2 storey buildings.
The brief includes a mix of apartment sizes with commercial spaces at street level. The increase in usable area presented a challenge regarding how to accommodate the necessary additional parking spaces, as a basement car park was not feasible due to ground conditions and a high water table.
This constraint, combined with the issue of scale—essentially a building the size of an entire urban block—inspired a hybrid configuration where a four-storey base corresponds with the proposed street section. To further support the urban context along the perimeter of the base, the parking is organised on four levels and completely enclosed by an exterior zone of small flats and shops. This way, the entire façade can be used for apartments that benefit from daylight, while the garage remains hidden in the centre of the block.
A tower containing larger apartments rises above the base. It is placed on the main access street, making it stand out as a new point of reference within the city. The floor plans have an ideal character: symmetrical and repeated, with small variations to create a mix of sizes, all featuring corner positions that make maximum use of daylight and open views of the city and the water landscape.
The façades are reduced to a functional structure—a light grid with continuous balconies all around that provides each unit with a private exterior space. The grid also creates a filter between the intimate scale of the apartments and the larger urban space outside. Technical functions and communal rooms for meetings and social gatherings are placed on the fifth level, with direct access to an elevated courtyard designed as a landscaped park on top of the base.
