Timber Composite Project in Skellefteå Completes

08 October 2021 | Skellefteå, Sweden

Sara Kulturhus, a timber composite building, completes in Skellefteå. Image credit: Spisen, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Sara Kulturhus, a timber composite building in Sweden, just completed. Designed by the architecture firm, White Arkitekter, the building is located in the city of Skellefteå, just south of the Arctic Circle. With 19 floors, this project is about 75 meters tall (246 feet tall). The building will serve as a cultural center and hotel while also featuring a theater, gallery, and library.

Surpassing the architect’s overall goal that, by 2030, all the buildings they design would be carbon neutral, this project is predicted to be carbon negative according to a 50-year lifecycle analysis. The building's lifespan was assumed to be at least 100 years.The calculations that went into predicting this consider the carbon that was emitted during construction and the carbon that will be emitted as the building operates over time. This value is then compared to the amount of carbon stored in the project’s timber and the amount of carbon sequestered by new trees that will be planted to replace the timber the project used.

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To reduce the carbon emissions from the project's construction, locally sourced timber was harvested and then manufactured at a nearby sawmill. A geothermal heat pump and a large array of solar panels, in addition to sourcing energy from other renewable sources, are used to reduce the carbon emissions as the building operates.

For more on this story, go to Dezeen.