As part of the the expansion of the university town of Uppsala, just north of Stockholm, the project by Karlsson Wachenfeldt Arkitekter for the Studenternas IP is a sports field with long traditions situated by the river Fyrisån. Located in the center of the town within the park, the design project is part of a major re-development of the south river area that includes housing, parks, sport facilities and infrastructure. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The location of the site is highly sensitive from a historical point of view, the scale and integrity of the surrounding park and river area must be preserved, also when introducing a large scale development. To the west the main Hospital of the region located, a large scale complex.
The project is a vision of a new kind of sports arena: a double-layered structure with a football/bandy stadium in the center and a commercial mixed-use block surrounding it. The structure generates possibilities for a non-dependent usage of the surrounding buildings, it offers a way of dealing with the different scales of the surrounding city and it creates exciting possibilities for synergies in the meeting of the two building structures.
Landscape and scale:
The structure of the building becomes part of a larger park area next to Fyrisån. As the stadium itself has fixed proportions, we use the surrounding buildings to reduce or boost the scale depending of the surrounding scale. The building rises from the park and creates open courtyards which acts as entries to the arena. South of the arena, the landscape continues with integrated outdoor sport areas, meeting points, public plazas and bicycle/promenade roads.
The stadium:
The Football stadium holds 15 000 spectators and are meant to work both during summer as a football stadium with grass and during the winter as an ice-covered bandy stadium. The stadium holds a basic program with changing rooms, entries, ticket facilities, spectator stands, kiosks etc. The arena is cladded with a semitransperent metal shell which gives a glimpse of the content of the arena.
Surrounding structure
The program of the surrounding structure is flexible: it includes areas for a school, hotels, offices, housing, training facilities and conference centers. In the meeting between the stadium and the surrounding buildings the hospitality zones for the arena is located, suitable for use on a daily basis. This is also a way to make sure the buildings are provided with sufficient lighting with light from both directions. By lifting parts of the buildings from the ground we’re creating a closer relationship between the park and the building.
Architect: Karlsson Wachenfeldt Arkitekter Location: Uppsala, Sweden Architectural Design Team: Mattias Karlsson, Maria Lundahl, Therese Wallström, Johan Rickardt Owner: Municipality of Uppsala Gross Area: Approx. 30,000m2 Status: Proposal
