The project for the new home of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm has gone through a long transformation process that reflects both the institution’s cultural ambition and the complexity of the city’s urban fabric and heritage. David Chipperfield was announced the winner of the Nobel Center competition in 2014, having drawn up a scheme with brass cladding, but the design sparked intense debate from the very start. In 2015, in response to concerns from the public, the project was scaled back, and in 2016 further changes were made.

Despite these adjustments, in 2018 Sweden’s Land and Environment Court definitively blocked construction of the project, claiming it would cause significant damage to the capital’s historic waterfront. In 2020 the Nobel Foundation decided on an altogether different site and again called in several architecture studios, including David Chipperfield Architects, to submit proposals.

Eight years later the Berlin office of David Chipperfield Architects, in collaboration with Sweco Architects, presented a design – an updating of the original scheme – for the new location in Slussen, a district being regenerated with a masterplan by Foster+Partners. The new Nobel Center will be made up of a series of red-brick volumes arranged in square forms and interlocking in response to the topography of the island of Södelmalm. Their rhythm and proportions draw from the scale of the 17th-century townhouses of the old quarter, while a structure built mainly with timber adapts to the conditions of the place.

The ground floor is conceived as an extension of the public realm, permeable and transparent, with entrances on the north and south sides, an open foyer, a shop, and a restaurant connected to an outdoor terrace. Intended as a permanent space for exhibitions, conferences, and public programs, the building gathers science, literature, and peace around the legacy of the Nobel Prize. Construction work is to begin in 2027, for the Nobel Center to open to the public in 2031.

Imágenes: Onirism