Course Overview
The Sara Cultural Centre broadens the application of a full timber construction and proves that timber is a viable solution for virtually any building type. This project has become a showcase guiding others in our collective transition toward carbon neutrality. Located in Skellefteå, Sweden, just below the Artic Circle, Sara Culture Center is home to a regional theatre, a museum, an art gallery, a hotel, and a public library. Together the institutions benefit from each other and empower the local community. Since the opening last year, the development has helped attract green energy companies resulting in 3000 + new jobs in the region. Time Magazine named Skellefteå one of the world´s greatest places 2022.
The cultural center is constructed of over 13 000 m3 of locally sourced timber. The diverse areas of use employ a range of innovative solutions in mass timber and steel construction to handle spans, flexibility, acoustics, and overall statics. At 20 storeys tall, the hotel section was constructed with premanufactured 3D-modules in cross-laminated timber, stacked between two elevator cores entirely made of CLT in each corner. The low-rise portion of the project is built with columns and beams of GLT and cores and shear walls in CLT. The prefabricated elements of the building are produced in a local off-site factory and assembled and screwed together on site. The integrated structural design has eliminated the need for concrete entirely from the load bearing structure, speeding up construction and drastically reducing the carbon footprint. LCA shows that Sara Cultural centre is carbon negative over a period of 50 years.
Learning Objectives
Coming Soon
Course Video
Speaker Bio
Robert Schmitz
Partner
White Arkitekter, Sweden
Robert Schmitz is an architect and partner at White Arkitekter. He has a long history of experience in complex design projects with an emphasis on commercial office projects, cultural buildings, hotels, and urban planning. Robert is the Stockholm Office’s Director of Competitions and is part of the Office Management Team. Robert has won many prestigious architectural competitions including Täby City Hall, for which he received an IDEA gold medal award in Los Angeles 2017 and, most recently, the internationally acclaimed competition about Skellefteå Cultural Centre, which at 73m is one of the tallest timber high rises in the world. Robert Schmitz was the project architect, together with Oskar Norelius, for the Sara Kulturhus.