This is Gothenburg and in case you didn’t know it’s Sweden’s
second city and pretty much the country’s industrial powerhouse.
The place means business – it’s the most advanced
logistics hub in the region and boasts Scandinavia's biggest port.
Listen I’m just a biochemist… I drive a Volvo
Well you'll feel right at home here Stanley Godspeed as Gothenburg
is home to two of Sweden’s most iconic companies: AstraZeneca and yes, Volvo.
Just in case the city’s industrial might wasn’t enough for you,
it’s also undergoing a huge multi-billion dollar transformation that’s set to make it
the hard-nosed logistic and commercial heart of northern Europe by 2035.
At the centre of it all is the Gothenburg Citygate tower,
the tallest office building in the Nordic region.
But also…
So what exactly is going on here and how has this Swedish city
really managed to match blockbuster development, with sustainable growth?
To really understand what’s happening in this city right now, you need to rewind a bit.
Around 40 years ago Gothenburg went through a big change. In the 1980s the shipbuilding
industry that had been vital to its economy since the 16th century was in terminal decline.
Now, those empty shipyards were soon converted into a science park, which helped the city become
a high-tech research and development hub that also doubled as a major trading port.
Then in 2014 the Gothenburg Development Strategy was announced – a comprehensive plan which would
pretty much shape the development of the city for the next two decades.
And it seems to be working. From 2016 to 2035 over USD $100BN is being invested into expanding
infrastructure like the city’s port and metro system as well as building some 55,000 new homes.
But Sweden has one of the best sustainability records in the world and Gothenburg is
no exception, so how do you maintain that reputation while doing so much construction work?
Developed by Skanska, Citygate is a great example of how Gothenburg is
managing to balance huge scale with low environmental impact.
Despite being the biggest office building in the Nordic region,
it’s expected to be awarded the highest LEED certification.
LEED was set up in the 1990s to recognise buildings constructed to
a high environmental standard. Reaching the coveted Platinum status is so tough
that only around a few thousand buildings in the whole world have ever been awarded it.
With Citygate those environmental credentials started right from the
design and construction stages. Recycled Aluminium was chosen to create the facade
and a high tech solution was used for one of the most polluting aspects of the build.
We started with the concrete. So in the groundworks
on the ground foundation, we have cast with this green concrete to reduce CO2
Now, concrete production accounts for about 8 percent of all global CO2 emissions.
But the concrete used at Citygate replaced cement with fly ash,
a by-product of the coal industry, which has very similar properties.
It’s not just the sustainability of this project which is distinctly Swedish.
In Sweden we want to build prefab. We don’t cast all the structure because it's
most fastest if we do prefab.
Sweden has long-pioneered prefabricated construction,
and up to 80 percent of its housing stock has been built in this way.
But it gets cooler than housing because apparently skyscrapers are no exception.
The concrete core was the only element of this
building to be cast on site – all the other floor slabs,
steel work and panelling were delivered ahd the building was put together like a giant LEGO set.
Ideal for a small site that’s a bit hemmed in by a stadium,
fire station and another site just next door.
It was also really fast.
We're building really fast. All all the structure has been in there for 14 months
Amazingly, the team at Skanska assembled the entire structure of Citygate
in almost the same amount of time that it took to construct
the skyscrapers foundations in Gothenburg’s tough clay soil.
Perhaps one of the most impressive feats is that the entire building will be powered by
a new solar park that it’s connected to just outside Gothenburg. That’s right,
the largest office building in Sweden will be 100 percent powered by renewable, solar energy.
Citygate also set a new nationwide standard for
using digital construction tools like Bluebeam Revu.
Project’s the size of this take some serious organising,
and with so many digital files and messages flying around it’s really important that
people can coordinate with their teams and be sure they’re looking at the right information.
I think we have a 3 to 4,000 drawings and everything is going to be
through this design review, when we have all this link together,
it's going to be much easier for all in the project to find what we are searching for.
Bluebeam Revu is a cloud-based collaboration tool that makes sharing and coordinating documents
easy. It puts the latest information in front of everyone who needs to
see it – whether they’re in the office, working remotely, on the move out on site,
or working at the very top of a super-sustainable Swedish skyscraper.
As well as speeding-up workflows, reducing stress and making sure things get built the right way
first time around, there’s also the fairly obvious sustainability benefit of doing away with paper.
And it saves a lot of trees that we need not cut down because we printed out all these drawings.
Now, as impressive as Citygate is, Gothenburg still has a pretty enviable reputation to keep
up, but as we’ve seen elsewhere, big money and major developments don’t
always turn out the best for the locals, so what is Gothenburg doing differently?
Well, right from the start the Gothenburg Development strategy sought to encourage
business growth while also specifically keeping livability at the very top of the agenda.
So what makes it so good in the first place?
I have heard it described by someone else. I really liked it as a as a
big but slow city. And even in rush hour, it's not that rushed.
You also have access to nature. it's equidistant for me to go swimming in a lake or go out for
dinner in a restaurant. You don't have to choose between living in the countryside or the city.
Rather than allowing growth into large suburbs with long commute times,
the city plan calls for key inner city areas to be developed and made denser.
At the moment about one in ten Gothenburgers live around the city
centre which is also where 90 percent of the jobs are.
One of the main entrances to the city will be transformed from an impassable motorway
into a pedestrian friendly boulevard, with green space and new public transport.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking, if Gothenburg’s so great, why don’t you just go and live there?
Well, you may be relieved to hear that there is in fact a catch to this nordic nirvana.
Housing in Sweden’s major cities has been a controversial subject for decades.
Renting is commonplace in Sweden and generous protections for tenants keep
rents low while helping to provide stable long term contracts.
Some have argued that these generous provisions
have actually disincentivised house builders to construct new homes.
The house builders are saying it's not possible to build affordable housing in the city centre
and. The Housing Association is saying that's not true. It's some it's entirely up for debate.
There is a strong need for new houses in the city and that demand has existed for decades
While housing is an issue, it’s nowhere near the chronic levels found elsewhere.
Gothenburg is facing pressures similar to many other cities around the world – but
it seems to be doing a good job at dealing with them before they get too out of hand.
This massive, holistic plan was partly triggered when Gothenburg city council
realised it was expecting a rise in population of 150,000 over a period of two decades.
Compare that to somewhere like Toronto which is expecting over two million people to come to the
city in the next 10 years but doesn’t really have a plan to house its existing citizens.
While this may not be a complete case of a city having its cake and eating it,
it's certainly setting a high bar for others to follow.
And it looks like it might remain at the top of those lists for some time to come.
This video was made possible by Bluebeam, you can learn more about that in the link below
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