New details on OMA's Norra Tornen twin towers in Stockholm
By Bustler Editors|
Friday, Dec 12, 2014
![](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/6j/6j7q5y2cva03c3ie.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=1200)
Related
OMA recently revealed new details on the Norra Tornen twin towers -- formerly titled Tors Torn -- since they won the competition in 2013. The distinguishly faceted 100-meter towers, which are named Helix and Innovation, are being designed to be the third tallest twin skyscrapers in the Hagastaden neighborhood of Stockholm.
The mixed-use buildings will consist of private residential apartments, a bar and exhibition space, and public amenities like a health club, library, children’s center, and retail areas. The project is scheduled to break ground in 2015.
More details below.
Project description:
"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?"
![](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ng/ngvsivbzdkcj5eff.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=800)
"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 em - phasis on large outdoor spaces, prevents too literal a translation of the envelopes into architectural form."
![](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/9f/9f71gchmn6c9oelr.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=800)
"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."
![](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/2i/2ihs2ydpbfzswd50.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=800)
"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gives the buildings’ exterior a single, homogeneous treatment: a rough skin, formed through an alternating pattern of withdrawn outdoor spaces and protruding living rooms."
![](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ba/baos7jatgmzuryaq.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=800)
"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."
![](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/9k/9k6hbi1nkhges4co.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=800)
"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."
![](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/n5/n5da2kh6aje152nq.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=800)
Project credits:
Norra Tornen
Status : Design Development
Client : Oscar Properties
Location : Stockholm, Sweden
Site : Torsplan, Stockholm
Program : 304 apartments, Retail
COLLABORATORS
Structural Engineer : Arup
Mechanical Engineer : Arup
Façade Engineer : Arup Façade Engineering
Local Engineer : Sweco
Fire Safety : Tyréns AB
Acoustics : ACAD
Fire Safety : Tyréns
Code consultants : Tengbom
All images courtesy of OMA.
Click the thumbnails below to see more project images.
Share
0 Comments
Comment as :