How Will Norra Tornen Affect Stockholm?
Landmark buildings never fail to impact their home cities, regardless of the intentions of their architects and developers. For that reason, a landmark building should always use the same visual language as the neighborhood in which it’s established — even though that language might take on a slightly different accent.
When it comes to the visual language that the new Norra Tornen brings to Stockholm, it looks the city may need a little help in the way of translation.
Norra Tornen (Swedish for North Towers) is a landmark project being built in the city’s Hagastaden district, consisting of two swanky residential towers. The first of these structures, the 35-story Innovationen Tower, was completed in November of 2018, while the second Helix Tower is expected to be finished in 2020. Despite being half-done, the complex is already the tallest residential project in all of Sweden.
Compared to the rest of the neighborhood, the OMA-designed Norra Tornen seems to be speaking an entirely different language, and doing it loudly at that. With no other precedent to compare itself to or communicate with, the towers struggle to relate to their surrounding low-rise context.
While juxtaposition can be harmonious in architecture, allowing the best qualities of disparate styles to really pop while remaining respectful to one another, Norra Tornen strikes no such balance. With the béton brut of Brutalism, the project tries to relate to its brick-clad neighborhood, but its size and height negates all of its efforts. The only respect shown here is to the country as a whole, with the towers’ fluted façades being made up of colored concrete panels made entirely in Sweden.
When all is said and done, Norra Tornen is as much of a social media landmark as it is an investment for wealthy Swedes. The problem with buildings that grab your attention online is that they do not always translate well within their geographic context. In cities where too many of these buildings are erected, their impact becomes the equivalent of a a noisy out-of-control party with distinct conversations happening all throughout. The Innovationen Tower will just have to talk to itself until Helix arrives.