The site set aside for the construction of the congress center is adjacent to the territory of Stockholm Central Station - the main transport and interchange hub of the Swedish capital, which contains metro and electric train stations, as well as stops for city buses and express trains connecting it to the Arlanda international airport. In other words, thousands of people pass through the Waterfront every day, so the function of this project was a foregone conclusion long before its implementation began.
In total, the complex includes three objects - an office center, a hotel and a congress center. The latter is located closest to the station and the embankment, so it was originally designed as a landmark building capable of making a worthy company to the austere silhouette of the Stockholm City Hall. The hotel and office center are located in the depths of the site and become a kind of "backdrop" for the first building, which predetermined their laconic and emphatically minimalistic solution. Both the hotel, which has already opened under the Radisson Blu Waterfront brand, and the two office buildings are narrow, almost completely glazed parallelepipeds. There is ample parking under the buildings.
The terms of reference ordered the architects to design a congress center with a capacity of 3,000 people and a banquet hall for another 2,000 people. It was extremely difficult to fit both on a small section of the embankment, which also had the shape of an irregular triangle, so White arkitekter had to look for a non-standard solution. One of them is a universal open-plan space, the dimensions and functions of which can be quickly modified with the help of transformable partitions. This so-called lower conference room is located in an elongated transparent volume oriented along the embankment. The main congress hall, which can accommodate 3000 people, is raised above ground level and hangs over the transparent "bar" with an impressive console. The unusual solution of the facades, which seem to be assembled from several layers of thin metal rods painted in woody yellow, gives a large volume a visual lightness and a memorable silhouette. In addition, the facade is also a solar collector with an area of 1040 square meters, capable of accumulating up to 1 megawatt of thermal energy daily.
A. M.
