A closed architectural competition for the best design of the Nobel Center was announced in Stockholm in June last year. In total, 175 architectural workshops announced their desire to take part in this competition, of which 20 were selected first, and then 11 bureaus, which received a detailed specification of the future center. On November 15, 2013, the jury named three finalists: two Swedish bureaus Wingårdh Arkitektkontor and Johan Celsing Arkitektkontor, as well as David Chipperfield Architects, whose proposal was considered the favorite of the competition.
The Nobel Center is supposed to be built in the very center of Stockholm, on the Blasieholmen Peninsula, next to the National Museum. David Chipperfield placed the new building extremely compactly in his project, allocating most of the area allocated for construction for the creation of a park. The Nobel Garden was conceived as a continuation of the existing park of the National Museum, a link between it and the embankment.
The ground floor of the Nobel Center is also entirely dedicated to public functions. This open-plan space with three entrances will house a visitor's foyer, a large exhibition area, a restaurant and a cafe. Above, there are administrative offices, a library, conference rooms, and the two upper floors of the building are occupied by the Nobel Hall, for which the architects came up with an extremely effective oval chandelier. As conceived by the authors, the chandelier will shine in full force only one day a year - December 10, when the Nobel Prize ceremony is taking place in Stockholm, and thanks to the transparent walls of the building, this radiance will become an important part of the city's panoramas.
As facade materials, David Chipperfield proposes to use transparent and frosted glass, as well as brass panels, which give the volume a noble golden hue and emphasize the importance of the events taking place in it. And the combination of transparent and opaque stained-glass windows brings additional intrigue to the building's appearance: depending on the lighting and time of day, it looks either more permeable or, on the contrary, more closed.
David Chipperfield's project was recognized as the best almost unanimously: the overwhelming majority of the jury noted it for its elegance, "openness and delicacy."
The second place in the competition was awarded to Johan Selsing, who interpreted the Nobel Center as a kind of frame for events taking place in it. That is why the Selsing building looks like a laconic parallelepiped, decorated with rectangular openings of various shapes. Designed not only on the facades, but also in the ceilings, these openings serve as light wells, due to which the character of the interiors of internal spaces is largely formed.
“Bronze” went to Gert Wingord, who called his project “Nobel's Snowflake”. The round-shaped building really resembles a snowflake in some way: its facades are assembled from separate glass faces, which, moreover, change from floor to floor. The jury noted the spectacular self-sufficient form, but pointed out that such a configuration a priori means the presence of a large number of interior spaces devoid of natural light. Interestingly, by the way, Wingord was the only participant in the competition who decided to radically revise his project: a place in the final was secured for him by a completely different concept, in which the building of the Nobel Center was composed of several horizontal blocks, and the pedestrian square in front of it was decorated with a round artificial lake …
It is assumed that the construction of the Nobel Center will begin at the end of 2015, and already in 2018 it will open its doors to the first guests.
