Picture caption: Wooden buildings in Stockholm, Sweden Picture credit: Nazrin Babashova on Unsplash
Big projects can take a long time to come to fruition, so it’s exciting when unique and forward-thinking projects are finally complete. Here are three projects that will hopefully open this year and are worth taking a look at if you’re in the area.
You’re probably more likely to be in the vicinity of the first one, with the other two being a bit more out of the way!
Google King’s Cross
London’s new Google campus is set to be completed later this year, as its ‘landscraper’ building is near completion. At 330 metres long, the building is longer than the Shard is tall – hence the landscaper nickname.
The new, 93,000-square-metre building is one of three Google buildings that will make up their campus and is the first Google-owned and designed building outside the United States.
Designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group and Thomas Heatherwick Studio, the building has several innovative features, including a rooftop garden and running track. With what’s thought to be the largest timber and glass façade in the world, the building also has compressed wood trusses, which are very strong in a fire, retaining their structural integrity at high temperatures.
Another interesting structural feature is that although the building ranges from seven floors to eleven floors tall, not all of those floors are fixed to the side of the building. Some floors hang from the structural floors, giving a feeling of light and space.
Housing up to 7,000 employees – between this building, 6 Pancras Square and another 11-storey building – the landscraper will also include an events centre, a swimming pool, a sports court, a gym and several cafes, along with British retailers at ground level.
The entire area is worth a look, especially if you haven’t yet seen the rejuvenated Coal Drops Yard and Gasholder Park. But if you have no plans to be in the area, you can get a good look at the building’s rooftop garden on Google Maps, between the Regent’s Canal and King’s Cross Station.
Kvarter 7 in Wood City, Sweden
A housing project, Kvarter 7 is part of the world’s largest mass timber project so far. The development in Sickla, Stockholm, is meant to give the feeling of being in a forest. Designed by two studios, White Arkitekter and Henning Larsen, the project will cover 250,000 square metres and includes 2,000 homes, 7,000 office spaces, restaurants, shops and schools.
The Kvarter 7 building will be the first to go up, with the overall project completion date pegged as 2027.
The development has a classically Scandinavian feel, with the minimalistic and functional design that we’re all used to seeing. The goal is to create an environment where people can live and work in harmony with nature. Designs include green roofs for good insulation and large windows to provide plenty of natural light.
Just as with the beams used in the Google building mentioned above, the fire-proofed mass timber in this project retains much of its structural integrity in a fire, resulting in a safer structure than in traditional construction.
Of course, the wooden construction also means carbon is sequestered in the structure, reducing the climate impact during construction and through the entire life cycle of the buildings.
The project takes a “learn as we go” approach, with the developer saying, “We are building the project in phases to learn new things during each phase which we can then apply in the following phases”.
If you happen to be in Stockholm, I think it’s worth taking a trip out to Sickla to have a look at Kvarter 7. We definitely need to take more inspiration from our Scandinavian neighbours, both in terms of environmental impact and in their approach to creating healthy spaces where people want to live and work.
World Heritage Centre Wadden Sea, the Netherlands
A building designed both as an inspiring visitors’ centre and a seal hospital is due to open in April this year, after construction work was completed in December 2024. The new World Heritage Centre Wadden Sea in the Dutch fishing village of Lauwersoog was designed to reflect its location. Architect Dorte Mandrup has said that the spiral-like incline of the building’s floor was inspired by the changing tides.
The Wadden Sea is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats in the world, hence its listing by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. It extends along the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
Sadly, the original striking design has been modified, with project leader Heerke Osinga saying, “The plan that was initially there was too ambitious financially”. However, the building’s location close to the sea will mean it feels at one with the landscape, and it will still give visitors good views of the sea from the roof.
The new building has been designed to house volunteers, researchers and seals from the Pieterburen Seal Centre, as well as educate and entertain visitors who come to see the seals, enjoy the landscape and learn about the life and tides of the area.
The corkscrew structure of the inclined floor in the building will have been a structural challenge, which I’d be interested to see. If you do happen to be passing, please take some pictures and share them with me.
There are many challenges in our industry, but there is always inspirational work going on too, and it’s important that we notice both. That’s why I keep an eye on exciting projects that are about to come to fruition. There’s a lot of negativity around, so we must make time to focus on the positive.
Meanwhile, if you need any assistance with the structural elements of an upcoming project, please do get in touch.
