High culture: White Arkitekter’s 20-storey timber culture centre in Sweden

由专筑网清珂，小R编译

位于瑞典北部的 谢莱夫特奥市自2008年起一直推动萨拉文化中心（Sara Cultural Centre）的建设。该市目前大约有7万居民，但人口在不断减少，和世界很多国家一样，人们不断迁往更大的城市。根据调查研究结果，文化活动中心是居民的一大需求。因此，市政当局计划把该市所有的文化活动和机构都搬到同一大楼内，增加居民参与文化活动的便利性和频率，并通过这一项目在一定程度上扭转人口减少趋势。有趣的是，市政当局最终决定将文化中心的建设与酒店相结合，这种情况比较少见。

项目位于一个名为“机遇广场”的中心。过去，谢莱夫特奥市的人们总开玩笑说，这里充满了各种机遇，但实际上却什么也没有发生，因为广场太大太空了。在谢莱夫特奥市1905年的市政规划中，就确定要在广场上建造一座公共建筑，但直至今日才实现。

Skellefteå Municipality has been working on this project since 2008. Its brief called for all existing cultural operations and institutions in the city to move under one roof. The project began with an international design competition in 2016 and that’s where we come in. Oskar Norelius Skellefteå’s municipality has about 70,000 inhabitants but the population is in decline with many moving out to larger cities. This scheme is about trying to reverse this trend. The team asked residents what was needed in the city – with a culture centre being one of the things that was required. It is quite interesting how a municipality ends up building a culture centre combined with hotel. That doesn’t happen all the time!
It sits at the centre of a big square known as the Square of Possibilities. Historically the people of Skellefteå joke that it is full of possibilities but nothing ever happens there as the square is just too big. The city’s 1905 masterplan designated part of this space for a public building, but this was never realised until now.



项目建筑位于广场北侧，旁边还将建造一座火车站，西边一条步行街穿过城市公园与河流相连，将公园与城市融为一体。周围的城市建筑大都三到四层楼高，类型多样。部分地段目前还是空置，不过计划从火车站起始的整条街道上将修建更多高层建筑，因此文化中心将坐落在密度更高的环境中。

文化中心内包括剧院、图书馆、美术馆和酒店，这些设施既相互配合，功能上又相互独立。由于上述文化设施目前都已经存在，搬到一起后也需要像目前一样能够独立运营。

The building sits on the north side of the square near to where the future train station will come. A pedestrian street to the west connects down to the river through the city park, integrating the site into the city. The surrounding city fabric is three-to-four storeys tall and quite diverse in typology. Some lots are partially empty but there is a plan for the entire street from the train station to be developed with taller buildings so the culture centre will soon sit among denser surroundings.
We had to house a theatre, library, art galleries and hotel, with these working together as well as functioning separately. As all the cultural operations already existed in the city, they needed a base where they could feel as safe running their activities as they are now.



该空间本质上是主广场的延伸，打造一个室内公共空间。建筑物有多个入口，所有的活动设施都位于建筑外缘，让这里成为一个“半透明”的空间。瑞典北部的气候寒冷而恶劣，人们非常需要到室内公共空间活动，结识朋友，公共空间将为城市居民做出切实的贡献。

It is a building with lots of entrances. All activities are located around its perimeter so that it becomes a semi-transparent building. The main entrance is accessed off the square, just beneath the high-rise. As you enter from the east or south, you come into the great hall where we have designed a ‘culture stair’. From here you can access all the different functions. This space is essentially an extension of the main square, becoming a type of indoor public space. As north Sweden’s climate is cold and harsh, we thought this space could really contribute to the city. It’s an intersection where everyone meets and it’s a great place to both people watch and meet new people.
As a vision it was quite easy to design this in timber and after doing all the calculations, theoretically it could work. But convincing the client and stakeholders to get on board was trickier. This was a project that was one of a kind so we couldn’t show examples throughout the design process. We had to say: ‘Yes, this hasn’t been done before, so you’re going to be the first and will set the way to show others.’



项目设计方White Arkitekter是2016年一项国际设计竞赛的获胜者。在明确各项功能和区域确定可行性后，决定采用全新的木构建筑工艺。由于没有先例，无法在设计过程中给业主展示实际案例，项目设计过程中最主要的挑战是说服业主同意。

And then there’s the use of  timber. We made this decision very early on and brought a structural engineer on board at competition stage. After laying out the functions and looking at areas, we were able to plan the building so that it worked with timber, exposing the structure both inside and out as part of the concept. That way you can read how it’s built. It becomes a sort of didactic building for people visiting but is also very sustainable – you can dismount everything and all parts are prefabricated. Our competition entry already had the idea to make the hotel rooms as three-module ready-made boxes that could be stacked on site.



高层建筑部分是酒店，共二十层，低层建筑则是文化中心，两者的建造系统不同。酒店所在的高层建筑两端都有胶合层压木（CLT）制成的电梯核心筒，用来稳定到达地面的剪力负荷，这也是该木构建筑得以实现的重要途径。核心筒之间是由CLT盒制成的预制模块，天花板、地板和墙壁都是CLT，每个角落都有一个自支撑的集成材多层板。这些结构将所有负荷分散到核心筒。

The hotel is the high-rise part. At 20 storeys it has different conditions to the lower culture centre. It has CLT elevator cores at both ends stabilising all the shear loads down to the ground; one of the ways that has allowed us to realise this in full timber construction. Between them sit prefabricated hotel modules made from CLT boxes. So, ceilings, floors and walls are all CLT and at every corner is a self-supporting stacked glulam column. These distribute all the loads out to the cores of the hotel.



文化中心所在的低层建筑由胶合层压木（GLT）柱梁以及CLT核心筒和剪力墙构成。 封闭式舞台的墙壁也由CLT制成，并与酒店相连，也可以分散高层建筑的一些负荷。

The culture centre is more of a glulam post-and-beam construction with CLT slabs. The walls of the stages – large closed volumes – are made from CLT and these are connected to the hotel. Some of the loads from the high-rise are distributed via these stages as well.



在所有的公共空间中，都有一个专门的钢材和木材混合的桁架系统，其中的钢材可以承受张力，使木材的利用最优化。建筑的内部和外部结构都暴露在外，人们可以了解到整个建造过程。同时，也考虑到了材料的可持续性，所有部件都是可拆卸的预制模块。

由于建筑物体量很轻，因此面临的一个主要问题如何防止晃动。设计方在顶部的三块板上增加了一些重量，它们不是承重结构的一部分。立柱也是木构的，剪力负荷仍通过CLT轴分布。

In all public spaces we have a specially developed hybrid truss system, which is what you see in the interior photos. In this case, we have steel taking the tension, which allows us to get material optimisation out of the wood.
One of the main issues was combating sway when the building is so light. We’ve added some weights to the top three slabs. They are not part of the load-bearing structure. The columns remain timber, and shear loads are still distributed via the CLT shafts. Other than stability and movement, the main issues have been fire and sound.