Slussen is the area around the locks connecting Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea, where waterways, motorways, railways and metro lines intersect. It is located between the "old town" Gamla Stan and Stockholm's Södermalm district, in the heart of the Swedish capital. At the same time, since the beginning of the 20th century, this area has been a congested transport hub, unattractive and not adapted for the convenience of pedestrians. In recent decades, Slussen has also become a dysfunctional place from a criminal point of view: in the dark, the townspeople try not to go there.
BIG and NOD are proposing to transform it into a new public space, focused primarily on pedestrians and cyclists. Layers of different functional purposes are connected inside a single volume, and transport will occupy the lower "floors". Using the hilly terrain, the architects proposed to create open stands in Slussen that could act as a summer theater - as well as a recreational area for residents. The use of landscaping will complement the transformation of a transport hub into a place of recreation and entertainment; the new building will also provide citizens with access to water in the form of a convenient embankment. At the same time, there will be no rigid vertical division of the functional areas of the new Slussen: all of them will be connected by ramps and stairs and will be easily accessible to pedestrians and even cyclists. Shops, kiosks and tourist information centers are expected to be opened at all levels.
The main figurative element of the new project will be light: through the large holes in the "layers" of the complex, the sun's rays will penetrate into all its tiers, and in the dark, on the contrary, Slussen will become the light dominant of the city center.
