The International Highrise Award (IHA), organized by the city of Frankfurt and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), has selected Norra Tornen, the residential towers designed by OMA / Reinier de Graaf as the winner of its ninth edition. Granted every 2 years, to architects and developers for buildings of minimum 100 meters in height, completed in the last two years, Norra Tornen was selected from 31 projects from 14 countries.
Designed by OMA and led by Reinier de Graaf, with Alex de Jong, Michel van de Kar, and Roza Matveeva, with Oscar Properties as developers on board, Norra Tornen was awarded the International Highrise Award by an international jury consisting of architects, structural engineers, and real estate specialists. Criteria of evaluation included the overall narrative, the sculptural qualities, the structural concept, and the mix of uses, among others. The project that has received international attention is the “result of a land allocation competition held by the City of Stockholm in 2013, won by Oscar Properties”.
OMA’s first built project in Sweden, Norra Tornen is currently the highest residential building in Stockholm’s city center. On the accomplishment, Reinier de Graaf, OMA Partner in Charge of the project stated that “For me, the award came somewhat unexpectedly since I never thought of the Norra Tornen towers as high-rise buildings. They are different from the conventional idea of a skyscraper. They are not monumental but homely, their aesthetics are informal and they rely on repetition only to produce diversity”. Moreover, Peter Cahorla Schmal, Director of the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) added that “Norra Tornen is a refreshing entrance to the city, recalling structuralist models of brutalism from the 1960s such as the Habitat from Expo67 in Montreal, skillfully transforming them and enriching the city with a new urban dominant, with apartments for all.”
Norra Tornen
- Dates
- Competition: 2013
- Groundbreaking (Innovationen): December 2015
- Groundbreaking (Helix): December 2016
- Completion (Innovationen): December 2018
- Completion (Helix): December 2020
- Program
- Two residential towers: Helix and Innovationen
- 320 apartments 24,555 m²
- Retail 961 m² Services 895 m² Technical spaces 2,300m²
- Data
- Plot Area (Helix): 575 m²
- Plot Area (Innovationen): 660 m²
- Net floor area (Helix): 14,039 m²
- Net floor area (Innovationen): 17,787 m²
- Net floor area (total): 31,826 m²
- Gross floor area (Helix): 18,820 m²
- Gross floor area (Innovationen): 23,479 m²
- Gross floor area (total): 42,299 m²
- Height (Helix): 110 m (32 floors)
- Height (Innovationen): 125 m (36 floors)
- Materials
- Façade: Colored concrete ribbed façade, brushed with an exposed multi-colored aggregate pebble mix.
