Mellan Land och Vatten – Between land and water: 79 Park

As an intern Anna-Lena Bodendörfer will spend six months working for Urban Design in Stockholm. In her free time, she reports from us from Sweden and visits buildings between land and water – Mellan Land och Vatten. This time she had a close look at the residential building 79 & Park building by the danish architecture office BIG.

The next stop on my tour over land and water took me along the harbour to the eastern part of Stockholm. Directly across the water from Lidingö, the island where I live, is an industrial area that is currently in the process of extensive development.

Along the route, lies the wooden residential complex designed by the famous architecture office BIG. Completed in 2018, the building is directly adjacent to the large National Park Gärdet.

When I spoke with my colleagues about the building, they called it “The concrete building with the wooden facade” with a humorous smile on their face. I wanted to form my own opinion about the building and its effect, so I took a closer look.

In typical “BIG” style, it certainly stands out from the neighbouring buildings. The modular structure, the differences in height adapted to the environment to ensure maximum light and great views, and the primarily glazed façades: they all seem familiar to us from other BIG residential projects.

As one walks around the building, it is noticeable that the outside areas of the apartments, on the ground floor zoneIn der Architektur und Gebäudetechnik bezeichnet eine Zone einen Bereich innerhalb eines Gebäudes, der in Bezug auf Heizung, Klimatisierung oder Belüftung eine eigene Regelung benötigt. Zonen werden oft nach ihrer Nutzung, Größe oder Lage definiert, um eine maßgeschneiderte Versorgung mit Energie und Luft zu gewährleisten…. facing the neighbouring buildings, have little privacy, given that they are directly on street level. In addition, they have almost no visual protection. The situation on the upper floors also seems to be problematic, since the apartments are extremely visible with their large windows facing the surrounding office buildings.
On the interior, on the courtyard side the situation is much more pleasant, because the pixel structure creates a series of niches that are well filled with leafy loggias.

The wooden facade, which indeed merely covers its concrete structure, as my colleagues said, nonetheless gives the building a certain charme and beauty. The  wooden lamellas in the area of the loggias act like a translucent curtain. The view from the upper floors must be fantastic, since fifty percent of the building is surrounded by park and nature. In my opinion, the design of the building is its main strength.

It, however, remains to be seen whether a residential building by a renowned architect will make a significant contribution to the development of this area.

Die Baumeister Academy ist ein Praktikumsprojekt des Architekturmagazins Baumeister und wird unterstützt von GRAPHISOFT und der BAU 2019.