Pionen – White mountain / Albert France-Lanord Architects

Nov 2008

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Offices ,Refurbishment ,Selected , Concrete, Glass, Steel, Sweden

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Architects: Albert France-Lanord Architects
Location:Stockholm, Sweden
Program: Datacenter
Collaborators: Frida Öster and Jonatan Blomgren
Geology Consultant: Geosigma AB
Construction: Albert France-Lanord Architects
Client: Bahnhof AB
Construction Area: 1,200 sqm
Project year: 2008
Photographs: Åke E:son Lindman

The project takes place in a former 1200 square meter anti-atomic shelter. An amazing location 30 meters down under the granite rocks of the Vita Berg Park in Stockholm. The client is an internet provider and the rock shelter hosts server halls and offices. The starting point of the project was to consider the rock as a living organism. The humans try to acclimate themselves to this foreign world and bring the ‘best’ elements from earth: light, plants, water and technology. We created strong contrasts between rooms where the rock dominates and where the human being is a stranger against rooms where the human being took over totally.

The choice of lightning has been very challenging. We tried to bring as much variation as possible. Otherwise it is very easy to loose the feeling of time in an enclosed space.

Our references come straight from science fiction films, mostly ‘Silent Running’ and a bunch of Bond films with Ken Adams set design.

One can describe the process in five different phases:

-planning
-destruction of the former office and blowing up the rock to create extra space.
-reinforce the cave. concrete work.
-technical installations. electrical.
-glass and steel work. paint and furnishing.

The client had a strong vision from the first brief and the result is only possible because of their persistence, the absence of compromise and great communication/ understanding between all parts under the process.

It has been very exciting to work with a space which at first didn’t offer one square angle: the rock. The main room is not a traditional space limited by surfaces but defined by the emptiness inside a mass.

: plans

: section 01

: section 02

: section 03

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "Pionen – White mountain / Albert France-Lanord Architects" 24 Nov 2008. ArchDaily. Accessed 08 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/9257>

Comments (20)
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Links to this entry (33)

scarpasez says:

This is pretty awesome. Even more awesome (for me) is that I get to be the first person here to say: “Welcome to my underground lair.”

# November 24, 2008 at 11:02

PitiSemiC says:

It looks like it was inspired in Batman´s cave!!! Pretty cool

# November 24, 2008 at 11:07

The Law says:

What function do the two large engines serve? Do they power the cooing system for the servers… or just the A/C?

# November 24, 2008 at 14:48

roadkill says:

Dr No would be proud! great touches

# November 24, 2008 at 15:16

Felicia says:

“the absence of compromise” — I wonder what that feels like?

# November 24, 2008 at 15:24

musser says:

I think we’ve found the perfect location for the next Bond movie.

# November 24, 2008 at 17:47

Sorry, roadkill… I noticed your comment too late. You’re right, of course.

# November 24, 2008 at 17:48

William Fong says:

I think I see agent 007 sneaking around somewhere…

# November 24, 2008 at 21:56

Nick says:

The engines power electric generators in case of electric outages — standard high-end data center fare.

Also interesting to notice that much of the Stockholm underground runs inside similar caves blasted out of the solid granite.

# November 24, 2008 at 23:09

Contemporary Art says:

As cool as this place is, I’m not sure how nice it would be to actually live there. It’s essentially a massive, all-consuming conversation piece. At a certain point, good homes recede to the background. I want to be able to bask in the beauty of my house when I feel like it, but also peacefully ignore its presence when I want to. Living in a house like that, one will always have the feeling of being an actor on a movie set. It’s cool for cocktail parties, for sure. But eventually I think one tires of the cinematic intensity here.

http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com

# November 25, 2008 at 00:09

camima says:

I am afraid you are very confused, this is NOT a house.

# January 10, 2011 at 17:41

Giuliano says:

me recuerda demasiado el refugio de Lex Luthor en las montañas, en una de las clásicas Superman pero no recuerdo exactamente cual de todas.

# November 25, 2008 at 12:15

Lavern says:

Wow, very interesting. Also have some cool caves in the Philippines, please check out my travel blog…

# November 26, 2008 at 04:43

Alfred says:

@contemporary Art…

Have you realised that you are not suppose to live there?

# November 26, 2008 at 04:46

keith says:

nice site makes nice design

# November 28, 2008 at 04:18

Bill says:

Cool, though not the first data center in a used nuclear bunker. (www.thebunker.net has been doing that for a decade.) Places like that can obviously provide good physical security, and usually have good redundant power grid connections, and may have good resources for cooling if there’s not too much equipment for the amount of floor space.

# December 8, 2008 at 20:46

Lulu de vou says:

where’s the originality, dear architect?

# March 12, 2009 at 15:08

Lucas Gray says:

This is sweet. I wish it was designed for the public though…perhaps a restaurant or bar or club or museum. Oh well.

# May 31, 2009 at 14:30

Paôlo Batis says:

Interessante! Mas parece com a Batcaversa e passa muita tranquilidade e segurança…

# September 22, 2010 at 07:53

Nuno Rebelo says:

Definition of irony: Wikileaks apparently knows almost everything, expect about a little thing called radon. Good luck to those workers in that huge cave full of granite and, therefore, granite… Take good care of your health. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon

So this is not a good project, at all. Would a project full of asbestos be a good project nowadays knowing its risks?

# December 10, 2010 at 15:37

8:56 AM Sep 15th

YILUN ZHANG

Reading: "Pionen – White mountain / Albert France-Lanord Architects | ArchDaily"( http://twitthis.com/xxbkrv )

8:23 AM Sep 22nd

Jose Jacas

La versión real de una base para malos de James Bond: http://bit.ly/ar8zG2 Ahi se guardan los servidores de Wikileaks. via @kritik4l

12:28 PM Oct 7th

1470.netちょっと気になるURL

http://bit.ly/b4peVa Pionen – White mountain / Albert France-Lanord Architects | ArchDaily Architects: Albert France-Lanord Architects L..

12:26 PM Nov 3rd