MAX IV - new landmark in Lund

FOJAB architects, together with Snöhetta, Lund University and Fastighets AB ML 4, are now showing the first concept images of the buildings for MAX IV in Lund. The world's most powerful synchrotron radiation facility will be a shiny silver storage ring floating above a sea of rolling green hills. The storage ring will be 210 meters in diameter and bordered by a shimmering white office volume.

FOJAB arkitekter was commissioned to design the buildings for MAX IV by Fastighets AB ML 4 and is working together with Snöhetta on design issues, with FOJAB responsible for the buildings and Snöhetta for the landscape. The assignments went to FOJAB and Snöhetta after a preparatory process in which four international constellations of architects sketched the project in parallel on behalf of the property owner.

- "We are very pleased to have been asked to take on the design of MAX IV. It is a fascinating task to design a building that reflects its high-tech content and at the same time becomes a landmark in Lund," says Greger Dahlström, chief architect at FOJAB and responsible for the proposal.

Max IV - high-tech hotspot created in northern Lund, Sweden
When it opens in 2014, Max IV will stand alone in the open agricultural landscape on the northern edge of Lund. The area will gradually be developed with new residential and business areas, and north of the facility, along the highway, Science City will serve as a meeting point between MAX IV and ESS (European Spallation Source), a research facility for neutron scattering.

MAX IV is thus part of a context, which gradually transforms from an open landscape to a complex urban environment with streets, squares and park spaces.

Technology leaps drive design development
As new technologies are developed and tested, the MAX IV buildings will also undergo changes, both internally and externally. It is likely that the entire facility will, over time, expand significantly through the addition of new building volumes. The process requirements, both today and tomorrow, in terms of logistics, organization, work environment, vibration damping and more, have been challenging and provided inspiring contributions to the architectural design.

New landmark for Lund
The large open spaces around the site have been shaped into an undulating green sea, whose wave pattern helps to reduce ground vibrations and over which the site's iconic building, the shiny silver storage ring, floats.

MAX IV enables new advances in a number of areas such as biomedicine, medicine, materials science, nanotechnology and environmental science. The cost of the MAX IV facility has been estimated at around SEK 3 billion, which according to Lars Börjesson, the Swedish Research Council's Principal Secretary for Infrastructure, makes it the single largest research investment in Sweden ever.