2022-11-11

Kronprinsen in Malmö has Facade of the Year!

The renovation of the Crown Prince's facade with its nearly two million ceramic tiles is awarded by Mur- och Putsföretagen. FOJAB received the construction industry's major Facade of the Year award.

Built in 1964, Kronprinsen is one of Malmö's most important landmarks. The 27-story facade consists of blue mosaic tiles in varying shades that lighten towards the top of the building. FOJAB was commissioned by the then-owners Akelius to investigate how the advanced but worn façade could be renovated, and then to design the rebuilding.

Together with collaborative contractor NCC and Fasadglas, which manufactured the facade elements, FOJAB developed a system to install a completely new facade, including windows, on top of the old one. 1.9 million new ceramic tiles were placed in a mosaic created using a specially written algorithm. This was developed within FOJAB CoDe, FOJAB's innovation platform for computational design.

The motivation for the Facade of the Year award in the renovation category was as follows:

The Facade of the Year jury is extremely pleased that the owner of the winning entry of the renovation award both chose to invest in a fantastic project and solved the financing for the effort. Now, this entry shines like never before, lifting itself and its surroundings into the future. The great end result has been made possible by a determined will, careful planning and execution along with smart, innovative solutions and successful collaboration throughout the project.

- It was a challenge to retain the unique character of the building, create an efficient process for the patterning and minimize the disruption to the tenants during the renovation. With Kronprinsen, we show that it is possible to extend the lifespan of buildings from this era and from the Million Program. We went straight to the most difficult task and we are pleased that the jury appreciates the result," says Andreas Jentsch, architect at FOJAB and the person who received the award at this year's Fasadforum.

Kronprinsen is part of a city block that is undergoing extensive renovation. Kronprinsen is now owned by Heimstaden.