The model is the Building of the Year category Housing

A seemingly impossible project, according to the jury for Årets Bygge, which has named the block Modellen 4 in Vasastan as the winner in the Housing category.
- We had no choice but to design something extraordinary," says Cage Copher, architect at FOJAB.

A courtyard building with 20 new rental apartments has been added to the Modellen 4 block in Vasastan, Stockholm. The building is designed to fit in with the surrounding 1920s architecture, and enthusiastic neighbors say it looks like it has always been there. But beneath the surface, it stands out from the rest of the stone city with its CLT walls and beams.

- The main reason for the developer Wallfast to choose wood was to reduce the carbon footprint, but building with a wooden frame has more advantages, says Cage Copher, architect in charge at FOJAB, who did the system documentation and building permit. "The construction time is shorter, cleaner and quieter, which is usually appreciated not least by the neighbors.

The logistics were unusually complicated. The only way into the courtyard was through a narrow portico in the street. Lifting all the building materials over the roofs was out of the question because the city required minimal disruption. Instead, electric tracked carts were used to bring the material through the portico.

- The fun part of this project was that the house filled a gap between two existing houses and the shape was so irregular. This made the floor plans more dynamic and unexpected. Most new apartments today look pretty much the same, but here we had no choice but to design something out of the ordinary," says Cage Copher.

Motivation of the jury: With a little ingenuity, a seemingly impossible project managed to find one of the keys to the construction of the future: to bring home the logistics in tight situations - and without compromising the working environment. Despite the tricky conditions, they managed to produce a final product that even the most critical neighbors could be proud of when the construction dust settled. Kvarteret Modellen wins the Residential category in Building of the Year 2025.