The new wooden building houses the town hall and railway station

The new wooden station building in Växjö, Sweden is energy efficient. The building was constructed in the northern district of Växjö, where the old railway station used to be and the town hall offices are upstairs.

In 1991, the small Swedish town of Växjö, which is surrounded by pine forests and lakes, set out to be the first town in the world to be completely fossil fuel-free by 2050 at the latest. Its CO2 emissions per inhabitant are already among the lowest in Europe. Växjö is unofficially considered "Europe's greenest city" and - similar to many other Scandinavian cities - is often referred to as a "wooden city". From this perspective, it seems obvious that a design using mainly solid wood was chosen for the new station and town hall building. Växjö's identity is reflected not only in the choice of design materials, but also in the sustainable technical solutions.

The building was built on a wooden skeleton. It has various elements of industrialized wood, gulam and beamsas well as CLT. Upstairs elements were used BSH. The roof has an impressive, curved shape and was made from 125 CLT elements. The construction of the building was divided into 3 phases and was built under a temporary tent-like construction, which was approximately 120 m long, 35 m wide and 35 m high. It used 3,100 m³ of CLT, 1,100 m³ of glulam and tristratified solid wood panels.

The building has a total area of approximately 16,400 m² and houses the new 13,770 m² town hall. The station is on the ground floor and is 1,850 m². It houses waiting rooms, shops and restaurants as well as a public space of about 780 m². It is the social centre inside the station, with pedestrian bridges and three main entrances, connecting the districts in the centre of Växjö. The building has an elegant, steeply pitched roof, with the exterior surfaces of the building predominantly dominated by glass, while the interiors are almost entirely of wood. To the north and east, the building looks like a two-storey building with a long, sloping roof, which reduces the building envelope and thus ensures lower energy consumption.

The wooden building with two sloping facades and spectacular glazed sections is the city's new meeting place and at the same time a landmark that has attracted a lot of attention since the construction phase. The industrialised timber elements were delivered, unloaded and erected under a weather-proof tent. This ensured that the high quality of the material was maintained and could be installed quickly without any loss of time due to weather influences. The tent provided not only protection from the wet, but also a good working environment for everyone working on the project.

A panoramic video with more details below. Click on the image and move left-right, up-down to see the details.