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Architect proposes Stockholm skyscraper

Paul O'Mahony
Paul O'Mahony - [email protected]
Architect proposes Stockholm skyscraper
Photo: RB Arkitektur

With an architecture firm outlining plans for a new skyscraper in Stockholm city centre, the scene is set for renewed debate about the future appearance of the Swedish capital.

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Designed by RB Arkitektur, Kungsbroskrapan (Kungsbro Skyscraper) is a proposed 30-storey building containing offices and apartments and located beside the tracks of the central railway station.

"The idea of the design is to capture the flow and movement of switching railway tracks. The building is intended to reach upwards like a continuation of the tracks, stretching towards infinity," CEO Rahel Belatchew Lerdell told The Local.

While of course hoping for her project to gain a favourable reception, Belatchew Lerdell said she was disappointed by the city's attitude towards modern architecture.

"It's quite restricted. We'd like to see some changes," she said.

But when a high profile bathing facility on a city waterway recently failed to win over a majority of councillors, there was a sense that the centre-right government had inherited the conservative approach of its predecessors.

"Public opinion in Stockholm is quite hostile towards modern architecture," she said.

Born in Ethiopia in 1969 and raised in Uppsala, Rahel Belatchew Lerdell was chosen this summer as one of the world's top 101 new architects by Wallpaper magazine. She was also named Architect of the Year by Residence Magazine.

With a string of suburban projects under her belt, she is now keen to move her vision into the city centre.

"We are very familiar with the immediate area, which is not far from the two towers on Kungsgatan that were the first skyscrapers in Europe when they were built in the 1920s.

"Sweden was at the forefront of modern architecture back then, which it really isn't now. But it should be," she said.

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