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Gottlieb Paludan Architects receives the Swedish Tile Award for Värtaverket

 

04.12.2017

The Swedish Tile Award (Stora Kakelpriset) is awarded annually to architects who use tiles in an innovative and creative manner. Gottlieb Paludan Architects receives the award jointly with the Swedish architectural company Urban Design for their design of the biomass-fuelled CHP plant, Värtaverket, in the Swedish capital.

It is the Swedish trade association for wall and floor tiling (Byggkeramikrådet) that awards the prize. The panel of judges, comprised of a number of architects and the chairman of the association, made the following comments on the winning project:

‘… An impressive design interacting interestingly with Ferdinand Boberg’s historic industrial architecture at the site. The rectangular ceramic façade, produced by angled tiles, gives the building a scale which works from a distance, and close-up, it has a level of detailing that works at a human scale. The subtle steel horizontals help to visually anchor the volume and integrate with the surrounding landscape... This example of modern industrial architecture has managed to maintain a sharpness and precision on a scale that is normally hard to handle in its entirety.’

Värtaverket is Sweden’s largest biomass-fuelled CHP plant and is situated in central Stockholm. The complex is some 20,000 m²; parts of the production plant are placed in subterranean volumes, not least out of consideration for the surrounding environment which functions as a fauna path and includes a number of protected oak trees.Fuel is delivered via tunnels, direct from the quayside at Värtahamnen harbour, thus avoiding the impact of road transport on the environment.

Värtaverket opened in 2017 and was designed in collaboration with the Swedish architectural company Urban Design. In addition to the Swedish Tile Award, Gottlieb Paludan Architects also received the American Architecture Prize ™ (AAP) for its contribution to Värtaverket. 

Read more about Värtaverket