In a pilot project led by FOJAB Arkitekter, the first completely inorganic low-energy villa of its kind is now being built in Stångby, north of Lund. The villa has twice the window area of conventional passive houses, but energy use can still be reduced by about 10-20% compared to the requirements for passive houses. The villa is equipped with newly developed sustainable innovations such as sliding window shutters and an all-concrete construction.

- Interest in low-energy houses has exploded over the past year, both for private homes and also from housing companies and commercial properties. "We have managed to design several new technical innovations in sustainable construction, especially for window solutions and building construction, which we are now testing in this pilot project," says Sune Nilsson, architect and project manager at FOJAB arkitekter.

The two-storey villa is equipped with a new type of insulating sliding shutters outside the windows. The sliding shutters give the windows twice the thermal insulation of standard low-energy windows and provide excellent sun protection. Residents choose if and when they want daylight, solar protection or low energy use. Large windows and glass sections have long been trendy and in demand, but difficult to combine with sustainable construction. Sliding shutters now solve the problem and the villa has large windows in all directions while minimizing energy consumption. Conventional passive houses risk, at worst, getting over 40°C indoors in the summer - with sliding shutters you get down to normal summer temperatures.

The building is constructed with heat-retaining materials that provide an even indoor temperature and without any wood in the structures. The building has a traditional concrete frame and concrete floors. The exterior wall and roof use PIR insulation - a very high-insulation product with 50% better insulation capacity than conventional insulation.

In addition to low energy use, the building will be fire and moisture resistant, and there will be no built-in materials that can mold or rot. Moreover, the building is and remains watertight even when changes are made in the future.

- We get a building with sound materials and good conditions for low energy use, then it is up to us as residents to take advantage of these conditions, says Jonny Ask, who owns and builds the villa, which is expected to be ready for occupancy for the whole family in the fall.

The pilot project is a collaborative project initiated and led by FOJAB arkitekter in cooperation with Elitfönster, Skanska Stomsystem and Byggcity. If the project is successful, the new climate-smart solutions may in the future be used primarily for villas and terraced houses, but also for multi-family houses and office buildings.

- Most of a building's environmental impact is determined at the planning and design stage. This is why it is so important that we architects are involved in driving these issues," says Sune Nilsson.

Facts about the Climate Villa
Location: Stångby, Lund municipality
Scope: Two-storey villa, 6 RoK, ca 180m².
Start of construction: April, expected to be completed in the fall
Material: Concrete and PIR insulation
Estimated energy savings: The insulated sliding shutters alone are estimated to reduce energy use by about 10-20% compared to a standard passive house.
U-value window with hatch: Approx. 0.47 W/m²K (in comparison with ordinary windows approx. 1.3 W/m²K and passive windows 0.9 W/m²K).

For more information, please contact
Sune Nilsson, architect SAR/MSA
tel: +46 (0)40-27 98 79
sune.nilsson@fojab.se

Helena Bülow-Hübe, Head of Environment and Energy
tel: +46 (0)40-27 98 90
helena.bulow-hube@fojab.se

Jonny Ask, owner and developer
tel +46 (0)730-31 50 05

FOJAB arkitekter and NCC now present the illustrations and design of the new Triangle, the heart of Malmö. Shopping, housing, cafes, restaurants, offices and parking are interwoven and will, together with the City Tunnel's Triangle Station, offer Malmö residents an intense urban life.

- "The Triangle project is a complex and very exciting task that we at FOJAB are pleased to have been entrusted to design together with NCC," says Ulf Kadefors, CEO of FOJAB arkitekter.

The project consists of several interacting buildings. At street level is a two-storey shopping mall that connects to the existing Triangle shopping center. Another five floors towards the surrounding streets consist of housing and offices. From this building, facing Rådmansgatan in the west, rises an 18-story residential building. In the interior of the block, there are additional homes and lush gardens at different levels. Car parking is underground.

The completion of the strategically located Triangle block will expand the center of Malmö and actively connect the inner city with southern neighborhoods such as Möllevången and Rådmansvången.

Many people will move daily in the new urban space formed on the south side of the block, where the main entrance to the new mall will also open, opposite the new City Tunnel Triangle station. Along the southern facade, facing the St. John's Church, cafés and restaurants will enliven the streetscape. Rådmansgatan will be the communication route for buses, cyclists and pedestrians.

The material is dominated on the ground floor by a beautiful gray granite, similar to that found in the plinths of the church and many of the surrounding buildings. On the south facade, a rich reddish-brown shield tile adds to the strong material character of the area.

- From an urban planning perspective, there are many challenges. The building must blend in with the surrounding neighborhood's development pattern while becoming a new landmark in the city. It is also important to create as many homes and workplaces as possible in such a central and unique location," says Pontus Tebäck, project manager at FOJAB arkitekter.

188 residential apartments ranging from one to six rooms and kitchens and about 250 workplaces, along with retail and parking, will fill the total of 37,000 square meters, which is expected to be completed in 2014.

Read more about the new Triangle

In less than two years, the National Archives will move out of its historic premises in central Lund. It will leave behind an iconic building with no specific function - an archive that is no longer an archive, but a building of very high architectural quality. How do you deal with it?

It is obvious that a new activity has to move into the building and, unless another archive needs new premises, this also means that renovation, more or less extensive, is necessary. The alternative is an empty and unusable building.

Most controversial, at least in architectural and cultural circles, is the question of how to deal with Bernt Nyberg's closed brick volume from 1971. An icon that is as much a sculpture as a building.

There have been many ideas. Cultural centers, experimentariums and theaters have been put forward as examples of activities that do not require much daylight. This would leave the sharply cut but fragile brick shell wall relatively untouched. For a fragile shell wall, it is nevertheless massive in appearance - and in need of renovation.

In fact, it has proved difficult to find stakeholders for these prospective activities, despite many attempts. The closest was perhaps Spyken, which needed premises for its music education, but this never materialized.

Not until Lund Nation, which has been trying unsuccessfully for nine years to create central student housing in Lund, saw an opportunity in the property has anyone been willing to take on the buildings.

Is student accommodation the right activity for the old premises of the National Archives?

The answer is far from obvious. The existing structure is well suited, but the requirement for daylight means that openings in the façade will inevitably affect the original design. However, the other buildings can be adapted relatively easily.

Thomas Hellqvist relaunches the good idea of music rooms for Spyken in Sydsvenskan on January 7. If the municipality were to repurchase the archive in return for Lund Nation being given a different and equivalent exploitation opportunity elsewhere, it would probably be attractive to all parties. Perhaps an operation with less demand for daylight would have been better from a conservation perspective. We see advantages in such a solution.

But regardless of how the building will be used in the future, any non-archival activity will require redevelopment. And assumes that there is someone willing to work towards and pay for such an alternative solution.

One can continue to speculate on what would be best for the National Archives. But whatever the outcome, it is not about saving or destroying the building. It is about preserving the qualities of the old building in interaction with the new activities. With care, respect and qualified architectural work, interventions in the exterior are also possible.

The conditions for any intervention, on the other hand, is a bigger question that depends on which stakeholder(s) are willing to run a future operation in the National Archives.

FOJAB architects,

Ulf Kadefors
Daniel Nord
Mattias Hedberg Ek
Kjell Adamsson

The architects Cecilia Pering, Hans Ödman and Claudia Meirama (posthumously) of FOJAB arkitekter have been awarded the Lund City Planning Prize 2010 for the Västerport office building in the Spettet district of Lund.

- The location of the Spettet block, next door to Lund's police station, presented challenges, partly because the buildings in the block are of varying types and scales. "It was an interesting project to be involved in developing, and it feels great that it has been recognized," says Cecilia Pering, architect at FOJAB and winner of the award.

The award was presented at a ceremony in the Stadshallen on December 16 with the following explanation:

"The Lund City Planning Prize 2010 is awarded to the architects Hans Ödman, Cecilia Pering and Claudia Meirama - FOJAB Arkitekter, who have made a meritorious contribution to the development of the cityscape in Lund municipality through the construction of a new office building in the Spettet block next to the police station. Claudia is awarded the prize posthumously.

The architects have designed a building whose elaborate volumes, understated form and beautiful details interact well with the surrounding buildings, while the white color creates an interesting contrast to the environment. Together with the adjacent buildings, the building forms a beautiful urban space while providing an appealing view for those traveling west from the West Station."

The Lund City Planning Prize is awarded to buildings that have made a meritorious contribution to the development of the cityscape. The prize money is SEK 30 000. The prize has been awarded since 1990 when it was donated to the municipality by LKF in connection with the city's millennium celebrations. It has been awarded 18 times and this is the fourth time that architects at FOJAB have received the prize.

Winning proposal in a detailed planning competition announced by Ängelholmshem.

FOJAB and Skanska Helsingborg in competition with four other participants. The proposal is for 92 apartments of an urban character with "Sunda Hus" certification.

FOJAB arkitekter recruits Helena Bülow-Hübe, PhD in Construction and Architecture at Lund University, as Environmental and Energy Manager. She comes from a position as a specialist in energy and building physics at Tyréns in Malmö.

Helena Bülow-Hübe is a frequent lecturer and a driving force in development projects related to environmental and energy issues. She has written books, reports and articles, including on sun protection and daylight management in architecture.

- Helena Bülow-Hübe will be a strong force in FOJAB's efforts to further develop our environmental initiative. Her broad experience in environmental and energy issues increases the company's competence in the environmental field and I look forward to her joining us soon, says Daniel Nord, CEO of FOJAB arkitekter.

- It is in the early stages of the construction project that values are established. Therefore, it is important that factors that favor sustainable and resource-efficient architecture are included from the start of the project. This is where I believe I can contribute and give FOJAB's customers strong added value," says Helena Bülow-Hübe, incoming Head of Environment and Energy at FOJAB.

Helena Bülow-Hübe will take up the post on February 1, 2011.

At Cad-Q Dagarna 2010, FOJAB arkitekter was awarded the prize "BIM office of the year" with the motivation "For having introduced BIM in the office in a short time and trained their entire staff in Revit, thus showing that they have seriously taken on the challenge of new times requiring a changed and improved thinking, work processes and offers".

FOJAB has for several years invested long-term and methodical training and development of BIM both as a tool and process and is very pleased with the recognition.

- We are well prepared for the system change that these new processes entail and are already running several large projects where all participants work according to the BIM model," says Mårten Fridberg, CAD manager at FOJAB.

BIM is the process of generating and managing information created during the life cycle of a building. BIM is not a technology, but an umbrella term for how information is used in a systematic and quality-assured way. The model makes it easier for all stakeholders to share and access the information, providing a clearer picture of the project and enabling better and faster decisions to be made.

Daniel Nord, who is currently Deputy CEO of FOJAB AB, will take over as CEO of the company on November 1.

Daniel Nord has worked at FOJAB since 1998, both as an architect and in senior positions, and has been a partner since 2006. He will continue the work to develop and strengthen FOJAB's position among the country's leading architectural firms.

- With his leadership skills, Daniel will make an excellent CEO," says Anders Alvemo, Chairman of the Board of FOJAB.

- It is a great privilege and challenge to have the opportunity to lead FOJAB. My ambition is to further develop the company together with our talented employees. I feel strongly about the company's core values with good architecture, customer focus and responsibility on humanistic grounds as guiding stars, says Daniel Nord, incoming CEO of FOJAB and continues:

- We will strengthen our core competence and complement it with related areas of knowledge. This means, among other things, that we will grow both organically and through acquisitions.

Daniel Nord succeeds Björn Wigelius who earlier this year announced to the board that he intends to step down and retire. He has been CEO since 1981 and under his leadership FOJAB has developed into one of southern Sweden's leading architectural firms.

As of November 1, the group's management team will consist of:
Daniel Nord CEO FOJAB (parent company) and FOJAB coordinator, Ulf Kadefors CEO FOJAB arkitekter, Sune Nilsson CEO FOJAB design, Cecilia Pering Deputy CEO FOJAB arkitekter and Mattias Hedberg-Ek Deputy CEO FOJAB coordinator.

"We are designing Malmö's new main entrance - in the middle of the city!" This is how Pontus Tebäck at FOJAB arkitekter describes the project at the City Tunnel's Triangle Station that he and his colleagues are tackling. The office has been commissioned to design the 58,000 square meter building in the Kaninen block.

What will greet the traveler above ground in 2013 is a new site with outdoor seating in front of a 12,000 square meter shopping center, 6,000 square meters of office space, 160 homes and 400 underground parking spaces.

Per Aage Nilsson, who is responsible for the design, said:
- It is a large project with a high degree of complexity. Excavation will now begin after the holidays, followed by an intensive period of finalizing the design work in parallel with construction. The retail elements build on the natural movement through the block, linking the new station site in the south with the Triangle and the pedestrian zone in the north.

The centrally located Kaninen neighborhood has been the subject of debate and varying plans over the years. Everything from the 70's plans for Musikens hus and later Stadsbibliotek to what was actually built in the 80's - the hotel skyscraper and the Triangle shopping center. With NCC as developer and FOJAB as architect, the block is now completed as a strategic new hub in Malmö. Presentation pictures and in-depth information will be released in October.

Lunds Nation is buying the Landsarkivet in Lund to build new student housing. The project consists of both renovation and new construction and includes about 100 homes. When the Landsarkivet moves out in 2012, the premises will be converted into apartments, while a new building will be constructed in the courtyard.

- The change from archives to student housing symbolizes the knowledge society of our time: more and more people choose to study and the flow of information is so great that the archives cannot fit in their old premises, says Kjell Adamsson from FOJAB arkitekter.

Since 2002, FOJAB arkitekter has worked together with Lund Nation to build more student housing. About ten sites have been examined, some of which are still under consideration. University President Per Eriksson and City Planning Director Inga Hallén are both positive about the project.

Occupancy is expected in 2014.

Malmö Entré received an honorable mention in the Glass Prize 2010.

From the jury's statement:

"A new shopping mall at the entrance to Malmö has been designed in a simple but innovative way. Standing u-profile glass in lengths up to 3.9 meters and with articulated point attachments contrasts with transparent glass surfaces and dense sections. The building's expression refers to Dutch glass architecture and has been inspired by Malmö's ambitious urban lighting program. The building's different layers of glass, combined with changing lighting, addresses passing road users and elegantly enriches a barren traffic route."

Winning proposal in parallel contract for AB Kristianstadsbyggen.

Link to Kristianstadsbladet

Marco Pusterla of FOJAB architects in collaboration with Jesús Mateo (Zero architects) has won first prize in the Europan competition in Lerum.

(Europan is an international competition for architects under 40).

http://www.europan.se
http://lerum-europan.blogspot.com

New address: Hallenborgs Gata 1A, 211 19 Malmö.
New switchboard number: +46 (0)40 - 27 98 00.

On November 19, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for what will be an 8200 square meter full-service facility for Ferrari, Maserati and Land Rover owners, and for all car lovers.

Now the groundbreaking has been completed and work on the multi-purpose hall in Bara can begin!

Peab's CEO Mats Paulsson and Chairman of the Municipal Board Gunilla Nordgren (M) put the shovels in the ground this morning.

By bridging the highway and the barrier it represents, conditions are created to heal the eastern parts of the city with central Lund. It is less than 2 km from the E22 to the center and therefore a very attractive location for both housing and offices.

The overpass will free up approximately 250,000 m2 of developable land. This is a significant contribution when Lund, according to the new master plan, is to grow with 16,000 new homes in the central city without taking up valuable farmland.

The southern half of the area in question is suitable for housing, thus linking existing residential areas. The northern half creates conditions for Ideon to expand and meet Brunnshög's business area. Sölvegatan, which today dives under the highway, can be densified and cross the buried highway without differences in level. This also simplifies for the rail traffic planned on the Lundalink.

The 2009 signage prize is awarded to the overall concept for the Entré Malmö mall's signage. The award, which is organized by the City of Malmö, was presented at Stadsbyggandets dag, which this year was held at Malmö Konsthall.

The justification notes, among other things, that "The sign has been given a simple but modern expression in writing style and has also been given a clear location, a sign in each direction and has at the same time become an integral part of the building. It is also satisfying that the client has been so consistent in its communication strategy not to supplement the entrance sign with other advertising" and that "The signage concept for the mall is tasteful, simple, modern, clear and fits well into a modern mall".

The signs were produced by Accus Ljusreklam.

The parallel assignments for Dragörkajen are complete. The assessment team recommends that FOJAB be engaged to further develop its proposal in cooperation with the City of Malmö and the developers.

BERGS architects and FOJAB architects are one of the winners of the European Steel Construction Award for Swedbank Stadium.

Every two years, the Swedish Steel Construction Institute (SBI) awards the Steel Construction Prize to a building where steel has been used in the load-bearing structure in an innovative and architecturally appealing way. The jury has decided to award Swedbank Stadium in Malmö the Steel Building Prize 2009.

Developer: Arenabolaget Nya Malmö Stadion
Architect: Berg Arkitektkontor / FOJAB architects
Structural steel engineer: Sweco Structures / Ruukki Construction
Steel contractor: Ruukki Construction

In the jury's motivation, the characteristic steel structure and how expressive and dynamic the building appears in its surroundings are highlighted. The prize was awarded in connection with the Steel Construction Institute's Theme Seminar on May 7.

Swedbank Stadium

The SolEl program's award for the solar plant of the year, designed by FOJAB Arkitekter, was awarded to Akademiska Hus for the plant at Ekologihuset in Lund.

It was recognized for its thoughtful design and for showing that solar cells can be used in many different ways. The award was presented by Tomas Kåberger, Director General of the Swedish Energy Agency, at Energitinget in Stockholm on Wednesday, March 11, 2009.

FOJAB is participating in the transformation of Pottholmen and the World Trade Center in Karlskrona.

The municipality and the construction company Kärnhem have invited three architectural offices to sketch the future design of Pottholmen, of which FOJAB arkitekter is one.

The assignment includes planning for a new station area with a travel center, about 200 new homes and 20,000 square meters of retail and commercial space.

Construction is scheduled to start in 2010-11.

FOJAB arkitekter through Greger Dahlström has been awarded the Vellinge municipality's cityscape prize 2008 for Brf Opus 2 in Ljunghusen.

Motivation of the jury:
"The buildings as a whole create a harmonious connection between nature and the sea in the north and the built environment in and around the area. The buildings, in turn, through their finely designed volumes and deliberate directions, have been meritoriously integrated into the landscape. The foundation on plinths, which makes the buildings seem to "float" over the damp wetlands, further reinforces the proximity to the sea.

The choice of materials and colors is based on a Nordic wooden building tradition. There are wooden panels in different directions and dimensions and well-studied details that provide contrasts in design and materials.

The layout of the apartments is simple and rational, while at the same time providing a wonderful spatial experience with windows in several directions. The interior design details are elegantly executed."

Participants: Greger Dahlström, Lena Ekenberg, Kerstin Hedvall, Lennart Johnsson.

Winning proposal in parallel commission. 40 apartments in central Hörby.

Work on the Malmö football stadium is ongoing and the opening is planned for autumn 2009.