Meeting place by the river
Stenpiren Travel Centre
Stenpiren travel centre is located beside the river in central Gothenburg. The city’s inhabitants meet here and it is also a node for buses, trams and ferry services taking passengers into the city and out over the Göta river. When Sweco’s architects and landscape architects designed the building and the site, the watchwords were flows and people in motion and at rest.
Facts about the project
Client
Västtrafik, Trafikkontoret and Göteborgs stad
Assignment
Stenpiren
Place
Gothenburg, Sweden
Architect
Henrik Fogelklou|Pekka Leppänen
Photographer
Nils Olof Sjödén
Status
Completed in 2016
Size
Stenpiren Travel Center 900 sqm, Landscape around 1 HA
A sense of accessibility and security
Stenpiren travel centre is situated at Skeppsbron in Gothenburg. It is an area that was previously dark and unused but which is now seething with life in renovated blocks, streets, squares, and quayside promenades with jetties and piers.
Contact between the city and water
What the client wanted was to recreate and develop contact between the city and water, a connection which has been separated for a number of years by large traffic routes. The situation was complex. The site had to be transformed. Many different parties were involved and the clay soil and the potential threat of an increased water level were further challenges facing the architects. What turned out to be a decisive factor in the commission were clear and inclusive dialogues, from the outset to the final adjustments, between the architects, client and other administrative bodies in the city. This ultimately resulted in the highly rated and multiple prize-winning travel centre that is now in place.
Durable and sustainable materials
The architects created a sense of accessibility and security for the passengers through the terminal building’s open character and large glazed walls. The extended roof offers shelter for people waiting outside. A lot of care has been put into choice of materials throughout, with durable and sustainable materials with robust design an obvious choice in a tough environment. Well thought-out detailed solutions have been implemented, not least to make the site accessible, but also in order to offer an attractive whole. To ensure protection against rising water levels in the future, large parts of the area have been elevated by about one metre.
Sweco has also participated in the commission for the entire Skeppsbron area, with Sweco’s full range of expertise being utilised in the form of architects, landscape architects, project managers, environmental experts and specialists in infrastructure and installation engineering.
Awarded several prizes
Stenpiren travel centre has been awarded several prizes including Sweden’s most prestigious award within landscape architecture the 2017 Siena prize. The project has also received the 2015 Future Transport Award in the Public Transport category and the Swedish Public Works Association’s Urban Design Prize for 2018. It has also been nominated for the Swedish Lighting Award 2017, Swedish Transport Administration’s Architectural Prize 2017 as well as the Per and Alma Olsson Fund’s 2017 prize for the best building of the year in Gothenburg.
Read more about Sweco’s offer within transport architecture.
