At White Arkitekter, 2019 has been an international year. Our London studio is thriving thanks to growing interest for sustainable architecture. In Stuttgart, Germany, our design for a new educational building at Feuerbach is moving ahead and we have prequalified for several competitions. In Canada, we were commissioned a pre-study of a future university campus plan. In East Africa, we have projects well underway, which include educational, healthcare and community buildings. The year ends with two of many important accolades, i.e. two wins at World Architectural Festival: the GoDown Art Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, and a new psychiatric clinic in Nuuk, Greenland.
In Sweden, the Swedish Healthcare Facilities Network “Forum Vårdbyggnad” nominated no less than three of our completed hospital designs for their prestigious awards this year: New Karolinska University Hospital in Solna, Carlanderska Hospital in Gothenburg, and Hälsostaden in Ängelholm. The latter was crowned the winner in the category large healthcare projects, but Carlanderska Hospital had also collected double honours earlier this year, as it won the “European Healthcare Design Award” and an ICONIC award.
We have also seen an increased interest in wood construction, projects like the Sara Cultural Centre in Skellefteå, Magasin X in Uppsala, the Lindeborgs Eco-retreat in Linköping are a few examples. They have set new standards in their aim to develop sustainable progress.
None of these projects would be brought to reality without our clients and partners, who are determined to create great places where people can thrive. I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for a year of fruitful collaborations in projects of all shapes and sizes.
A new decade is on the horizon and the voices of the future call upon us. On behalf of generations to come, the young climate activist Greta Thunberg urges us to unite behind science. The building industry in Europe accounts for 36 percent of our CO2 emissions. Today 20 projects – i.e. less than 1 percent of our production at White Arkitekter – are aiming to be CO2 neutral. In order to support the targets defined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, White – along with the rest of the building industry – must transform radically. That is why we have set our toughest goal ever. Before the end of the next decade all our architecture will be CO2 neutral. And our new year’s wish is to team up with all of you, brave and ambitious professionals, during this journey. Because building a sustainable society is, by any measure, a team effort in every step.
