Norra Tornen, Two towers of apartments by OMA
11/12/2014.
[Stockholm] Sweden
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Groundbreaking of Stockholm residential towers to take place in May 2015.
Night vision. NORRA TORNEN, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Street view. Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Overview of Stockholm 1868. Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA
Site plan. Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Floor plan. Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Rendering. Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Ideas. Façade material. Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Site plan. Norra Tornen, housing buildings by OMA. Image courtesy OMA.
Situated at Torsplan, the buildings by OMA will accommodate retail areas at ground floor and approximately 300 apartments with views over the city. The façade is made of prefabricated concrete elements which make reference to the colors of inner city Stockholm.
Reinier de Graaf commented.- "We are very proud of the new Norra Tornen -- two tall residential towers with the largest possible articulation of the individual units, shaped through a simple play between two basic elements of architecture, the bay window and the balcony.”
The project, previously named ‘Tors Torn’, is led by OMA Partner Reinier de Graaf and OMA Associates Alex de Jong and Michel van de Kar.
Descriptionn of project by OMA
How does one make a project from ingredients one is usually keen to avoid? What repertoire should be invoked when (modern) architecture’s most instant reflexes: asymmetry, prismatic volumes and smooth exteriors instantly prove impossible?
The two inherited building envelopes, each a kind of ‘crescendo’ composition of different heights – neither slab nor tower – prohibit the unfolding of an uncompromised typology. Conversely, the opted program: apartments with an emphasis on large outdoor spaces, prevents too literal a translation of the envelopes into architectural form.
The chosen approach could be characterised as a kind of ‘Freudian flight forward’: a passionate embrace of the inevitable in order to conquer and overcome one’s initial fears. The prescribed building envelope is adopted as a given; its initial vertical segmentation is complemented by a second, horizontal segmentation that gives the buildings’ exterior a single, homogeneous treatment: a rough skin, formed through an alternating pattern of withdrawn outdoor spaces and protruding living rooms.
The manipulation of the initial building envelopes, however slight, somehow radically transforms their initial premise. An implied architecture of monumentality gives way to an articulation of domesticity. An intended urban gesture originally subject to a singular interpretation: “gate to the city”, triggers multiple readings. A once formalist structure comes to house apartments that are surprisingly informal… one could even say humanist.
Text.- OMA
More information
OMA. Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.
OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).
AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.
Reinier de Graaf
Reinier de Graaf (1964, Schiedam) is a Dutch architect and writer. Reinier de Graaf joined OMA in 1996. He is responsible for building and masterplanning projects in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, including Holland Green in London (completed 2016), the new Timmerhuis in Rotterdam (completed 2015), G-Star Headquarters in Amsterdam (completed 2014), De Rotterdam (completed 2013), and the Norra Tornen residential towers in Stockholm. In 2002, he became director of AMO, the think tank of OMA, and produced The Image of Europe, an exhibition illustrating the history of the European Union.
He has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning, including Zeekracht: a strategic masterplan for the North Sea; the publication in 2010 of Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe with the European Climate Foundation; and The Energy Report, a global plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, with the WWF.
De Graaf has worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA’s proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the ‘Russian Silicon Valley,’ and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration: an urban plan for Greater Moscow. He recently curated two exhibitions, On Hold at the British School in Rome in 2011 and Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants (Venice Biennale, 2012; Berlin, 2013). He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof, The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession.
He has overseen AMO’s increasing involvement in sustainability and energy planning, including Zeekracht: a strategic masterplan for the North Sea; the publication in 2010 of Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe with the European Climate Foundation; and The Energy Report, a global plan for 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, with the WWF.
De Graaf has worked extensively in Moscow, overseeing OMA’s proposal to design the masterplan for the Skolkovo Centre for Innovation, the ‘Russian Silicon Valley,’ and leading a consortium which proposed a development concept for the Moscow Agglomeration: an urban plan for Greater Moscow. He recently curated two exhibitions, On Hold at the British School in Rome in 2011 and Public Works: Architecture by Civil Servants (Venice Biennale, 2012; Berlin, 2013). He is the author of Four Walls and a Roof, The Complex Nature of a Simple Profession.
