Photo: Anna Gerdén, Sweden’s National Museum of Science and Technology
The vision of the National Museum of Science and Technology was to transform 1,325 square meters of the museum’s existing courtyard land in Djurgården, Stockholm, and create a centre of lifelong learning and civic engagement. And to do so in a way that would push the boundaries of what is possible to construct with wood.
Stora Enso, as the main partner and wood products supplier, worked closely with Blumer Lehmann to turn this vision into reality. The end result, Wisdome Stockholm, is spectacular. It is a wooden building design with a unique vaulted roof. Inside the building is a globe-shaped dome theatre of 22 meters in diameter hosting a 3D cinema with a spherical screen.
“Being a part of this project from the early stages, we were able to find an innovative way to use standard industrial products, such as CLT (cross-laminated timber) and LVL (laminated veneer lumber) elements from our Sylva by Stora Enso range, to achieve the asymmetrical structure of the building without sacrificing the fantastic design,” says Jessika Szyber, Business Development Manager at Stora Enso.
The free-form roof has very long spans of 26 by 48 meters to form the grid shell structure made up of five layers of LVL, totalling 20 km in 2,500 parts. It is joined together with 3,600 wooden dowels. The spherical dome comprises of 277 unique CLT triangles.
The wood used for both the LVL and CLT building elements for Wisdome Stockholm came from sustainably managed, certified forests in Sweden and Finland and stores in total 1,178 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
“Wisdome Stockholm is truly a landmark building that stretches the boundaries of wooden architecture. Wood as a building material is an important part of the solution to battle climate change, enabling storage of CO2 and a sustainable construction process. Wisdome showcases the unique design and sustainability benefits of building with renewable materials,” says Lars Völkel, Executive Vice President, Stora Enso’s Wood Products division.
Starting from 9 December 2023, Wisdome Stockholm opens to the public. You can experience wood first-hand in a completely new way in a building that brings a sense of forest, awe, and civic pride to the centre of Stockholm!
