Vällingby ParkstadVällingby ParkstadVällingby Parkstad
A proposal for a new mixed-use tower at the entrance to Vällingby Parkstad. Råcksta, a former office park for the Vattenfall electric company outside the Stockholm suburb of Vällingby, was to be transformed into a complete residential neighbourhood. To clearly signal the district’s new character, the brief called for a tall entrance building that would serve as a landmark. The proposal is a twelve-storey apartment building that branches out at the fourth level into four identical building arms. The lower floors contain retail and office space, while the branches above hold apartments with terraces.
The design could be described as a “new typology” and the building as a “tree building”—a name that plays on both the idea of a park city and the unusual form of the building. The tree-like structure frees up the grounds around the building while making good use of the air space above for apartments and terraces. The idea is to create apartments with high-rise views combined with the more intimate outdoor spaces of a row house. In this, the building may be seen as a vertical interpretation of the row houses already found in the surrounding neighbourhood.
Each floor of the upper branches can be planned for one, two, or three apartments. Beneath them, on levels 4 and 5, the base of the building could be divided into up to thirty-two compact student apartments. Beyond the tree reference, the space between the four upper branches can be described as “an inverted variation of the unique outdoor space formed beneath the Eiffel Tower in Paris.” That reference is also significant for the role the famous tower has had in defining and promoting a city’s identity.
