Malmo and the Turning Torso
During a recent visit to Denmark and Sweden, I visited Malmo for the first time. One of the sights to be seen in Malmo is the building known as the ‘Turning Torso’ designed by the Spanish architect, engineer and artist, Santiago Calatrava. I also visited the Moderna Museet, a gallery showing modern and contemporary art.
The Turning Torso is located on the Swedish side of the Oresund Strait on Vastra Hamnen, an artificial island that was an industrial area until the end of the 20th century and that has now been developed as a residential and educational area with Malmo University and some of the most exclusive and expensive housing in the city located there.
The building is 190 metres/54 stories high with the bottom 10 stories containing offices and the remaining 44 stories containing 147 apartments as well as an observation deck, a private club, conference rooms and a restaurant. At the time of its completion, it was the tallest building in Scandinavia. The building was constructed for the Swedish cooperative housing association, HSB. In 1999, HSB’s then managing director saw a sculpture by Calatrava that was based on the form of a twisted human body and inspired by this, asked Calatrava to design a residential building based on the same idea.
The building consists of nine units of five-storey pentagons that twist relative to each other; the topmost unit is twisted 90 degrees clockwise in relation to the ground floor. Each floor consists of an irregular pentagonal shape rotating around the vertical core and the whole building is supported by an exterior steel frame. Entrance is via a bridge across a pool that surrounds the base of the building. The original intention was to sell the apartments but insufficient interest resulted in them being rented out. The construction cost was over twice the initial budget!
As noted above, Vastra Hamnen has experienced a complete makeover since the start of the 21st century and the City of Malmo’s vision for the area has put sustainability at its core and the neighbourhood includes Sweden’s largest energy efficient housing project, sustainable public transport and large areas of green, public spaces. Most of the housing in the area consists of fairly high-density low-rise apartments, 3, 4 or 5 stories high, separated by green spaces and waterways.
While the Turning Torso has become a landmark (it can be seen from a long distance away, erupting from the surrounding, low-rise housing) and tourist destination, it does not seem to fit comfortably within the City’s vision for the area and it is, in my opinion, rather ugly and quite inappropriate for its location. It was also very expensive to build (Its foundations on this artificial island must have made up a large percentage of its cost); its windows have no protection from the sun (and as many of the apartments and offices face East or West, they must suffer from substantial solar gains in the summer); it required the provision of five expensive lifts and any future maintenance requirements will be expensive and difficult to provide. The pentagonal footprint of the floors together with the sloping walls must also produce some very uncomfortable room shapes.
It is unfortunately what you tend to get when you ask an international ‘star’ architect to design what could have been an exemplary, sustainable housing development!
See the photo gallery for images of the building and the surrounding housing:
I would contrast the Turning Torso with another housing development that I came across when I was walking through another neighbourhood of the city on the way to visit Malmo’s Moderna Museet. Rundelsgatan is a paved, pedestrianised street probably constructed in the 1960s or 1970s, with 4 to 7 stories high apartment buildings on either side (many with large balconies) with shops, supermarkets and cafes at intervals below. The street varies in width forming larger open spaces in places with plenty of trees providing shade and lots of bike parking places. It is in many ways a typical Swedish city street; the ‘architecture’ is not outstanding but it provides a very pleasant neighbourhood for living, working or just hanging out. Given the choice between living in the Turning Torso or an apartment in Rundelsgatan, I know which one I would choose!
See the photo gallery for images of the street and the buildings:
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I eventually reached the Moderna Museet, which is really a gallery showing modern and contemporary art and a branch of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm but with an independent exhibition programme. It opened in 2009 but was previously an independent gallery which closed in 2006.
The main building was originally constructed in 1901 to house an electricity plant (some large pieces of equipment still remain in the building) and the conversion of 2009 retained the industrial shell and inserted new gallery and circulation spaces within it. A new brightly coloured (internally and externally) annex (designed by Tham and Videgard Arkitekter) facing the street was also constructed housing the entrance, reception, café and an upper gallery. The perforated orange-red metal screen on the street side of the annex connects the new structure visually to the original, brick building while light passes through the perforated surface of the screen into the ground floor (the screen can also be folded back to either side to open up the ground floor of the annex to the street). The conversion and the extension were apparently constructed using a very modest budget and given that it is now about 17 years old, the budget seems to have been well used and the conversion as a whole has aged very well. It is a colourful and very jolly addition to the city’s streetscape!
See the photo gallery for images of the museum:
Architecture in Developing Countries: A Resource
The design and construction of appropriate, low-cost buildings for education and health in rural areas of the developing world.
Nigel Wakeham worked as an architect for 23 years in Southern and West Africa and the SW Pacific working on education, health and other projects. He has since worked for over 20 years as a consultant for national governments and agencies such as the World Bank, DFID, ADB and AfDB on the implementation of the construction components of education and health projects in many countries in the developing world.
The objective of this website will be to provide the benefit of more than 45 years of experience of working in developing countries to architects and other construction professionals involved in the design and construction of appropriate, low-cost buildings for education and health. It will provide reference material from the projects that Nigel has worked on and technical information on the design, construction and maintenance of educational and health facilities and other relevant topics and these will be added to from time to time.
I am happy to be contacted by anyone requiring further information on any of the projects or resources referred to in this website or by anyone wishing to discuss work possibilities.
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