Stadsberget took the brief for a multi-storey car park and transformed it into a hardworking building that became a major cultural attraction in Piteå. Wood, light and sculptural form set the scene for the city’s most unlikely, social meeting space.
Stadsberget is Swedish for ‘city mountain’. Designed by White Arkitekter in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects, Stadsberget has become a unique city centre meeting place and tourist attraction. The brief was for a central multi-storey car-park; the result was a multi-faceted building that set the scene for a new cultural stage, as well as slopes for outdoor wintertime activities.
Client: Piteå kommun
Location: Piteå, Sweden
Status: Completed 2015
Visuals: Åke E:son Lindman
There was an opportunity to make more than just a car-park; we could facilitate a new cultural scene and create an area that actively contributed to the city.
Stadsberget is a five-storey parking garage that accommodates 228 new parking spaces. However, it is the building’s additional functions that are the talk of the town. Located about 130km below the Arctic Circle, the top of Stadsberget offers expansive views over Piteå and beyond. During the summer, it serves as a popular meeting place, resplendent with planted greenery and flowers. Summer evenings sees its transformation into an amphitheatre, where live performance can be enjoyed in the evening sun. As the seasons change and the snow falls, Stadsberget is imbued with an alpine nature, delighting children and adults alike, who come with sledges in tow, or a cup of hot chocolate.
Instead of the decorated box solution typically used to conceal a parking garage, an urban mountain was created with a new cultural scene and slopes for wintertime activities.
Wood became the dominant material in Stadsberget in a nod to the region’s strong timber building and forestry heritage. The entire façade is clad in larch battens, mounted with high precision. Along with an extensive lighting program, the building is illuminated like a lantern in the evening, while exuding a natural warmth during the day. The bottom of the slope provides Piteå with a securely-lit small town square that connects the northern and southern districts of the city.
Lennart Sjögren
Architect
+46 706 50 25 05
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