Sustainability offers great opportunities
In 2022, we have noticed a significant increase, 39%, in projects with concrete climate goals and 30% of our building projects are designed with a solid timber frame. Projects with a focus on reuse and circularity, has also increased, both for interior design and buildings. There has also been a clear attitude change towards circularity, but scaling up requires new business models, services, and approaches. The office building Lumi in Uppsala is currently one of Sweden’s largest reuse projects.
Society has had a strong focus on energy efficiency, and our new service and process to drive the development of Positive Energy Districts, PEPP, has quickly gained significant traction.
Contributing to both socially sustainable and health-promoting environments is an important societal and public health issue, and we have it as a starting point in all our projects. An increasing problem is that children and young people need more physical activity. When designing the school Indigo in Gothenburg (Sweden) the goal was therefore to create an environment that stimulates movement.
A transformative year
2022 began with recovery after the pandemic, but in February, the market changed due to the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Inflation, rising construction prices, increased interest rates, and declining transaction values affected developers and property owners, especially in residential and commercial properties. As a result, the group’s results slightly decreased compared to 2021, to 767 million SEK (769 million SEK). However, the demand from public clients remained strong, and we, among other projects, gained continued trust in the renovation and expansion project of Central Hospital in Karlstad.
White continues to grow internationally, much due to our strong position within sustainable architecture. Winning the Swedish Government’s Export Award is recognition of our work and investments. Our studios in Germany and England have increased their turnover as a result of our strategic focus on healthcare. We have won contracts to design a healthcare and treatment building in Tübingen (Germany) and a cancer clinic in Velindre (Wales). The international orders now account for 16% of the total order intake.
Our practice-based research and development contributes to building knowledge. We have also increased the turnover within our Digital Matter unit, which has developed a digital reuse process called “ReMake” during the year. We are also developing methodologies for carbon calculation in early and late stages.
Throughout the year, we won many competitions, including the concept competition for Magasinstranden in central Helsinki (Finland). We were also successful in land allocations, including the climate-positive neighborhood Boostad in Malmö, which will offer economically attractive housing, and 250 new timber homes in Hamar (Norway), where nature plays a central role.
