In Stockholm, where there’s an effort under way to build more housing without encroaching on green space, Swedish firm Anders Berensson Architects has come up with an innovative solution—a 436-foot-tall, 40-floor residential skyscraper, dubbed Trätoppen. The name of the structure is Swedish for “the treetop,” and with good reason: Using a cross-laminated timber (CLT) building technique, the firm will construct the tower from the wood of pine and fir trees. According to CEO Anders Berensson, curiosity was one of the factors that pushed the company toward such a unique design. “Even though CLT is a very strong material, there are few high buildings made of it,” says Berensson. “Yet, since Sweden is a country with many forests, building with wood should always be a consideration, if not a priority.”
A rendering shows the proposal for a wood skyscraper in downtown Stockholm.
Trätoppen is planned to be built atop an existing six-story parking garage in the city’s downtown. The Stockholm Center Party, the political group that commissioned Anders Berensson for the project, wanted to keep the garage—a famous landmark by Brutalist architect Hans Asplund—intact. The interior will be redesigned to make room for the first six floors of the skyscraper, but, according to Berensson, “the features witnessed on the exterior of the historic landmark will be carried over into the design of Trätoppen.” The future of the project hinges on Sweden’s 2018 election. If the Center Party remains in power, the architect believes there is a strong chance his wood skyscraper will be built.
